Toronto FC Media Conference

Jonathan Osorio

Media Conference

Wednesday, October 2, 2024

Toronto, Ontario, Canada


New York 4, Toronto 1

Q. Jonathan, obviously disappointing evening. The team didn't meet the challenge. What went wrong tonight? And also, can you explain what happened after the game? Saw you talking to the fans. What was going on?

JONATHAN OSORIO: In the game, I think the key for me was the way we started. Was just not good enough. I wasn't with the right mentality and intensity of a team fighting for playoffs, fighting at home. Tactically we could not adjust quickly.

And saying that, I think first 18, 20 minutes we were kind of weathering a storm, and we thought if we could weather the storm and get on the other side of it the game could flip in our favor.

But, you know, then get a penalty. We started the second half slow again. That's been the story of the season. We let in a goal. Get ourselves back in the game and then another penalty.

Story of the season, killing ourselves. We killed ourselves the whole season. Did it again today. Just not good enough to be honest.

And it's not a case of effort. There is guys in there giving everything on the pitch. This is not the case this year.

It's more so a little bit of naiveness on our team. I think not enough players that have been in big moments or situations of pressure situations. I think there is too many players that this is new to them, to us as a whole, and that cost us today.

And at the end, after a result like that, I felt like I had the responsibility to face the fans. They stay there after the game. Those fans are there every game supporting us through the highs and lows and through the very low.

I wanted them vent towards me. That's all it was. They were voicing their dissatisfaction with our team. That's it.

Q. Couldn't have been easy for you. You wear your heart on your sleeve for this club.

JONATHAN OSORIO: No, it's not easy, but as the captain, you know, in these hard times, I accepted that responsibility to show my face first when these things happen.

It's part of it. It's part of the responsibility. So I felt I needed to do that.

Q. You talked about -- and John Herdman -- just at times lacking intensity. In terms of such an important game, how can you explain that? Such an important game, so much on the line. As you said the effort was there, but maybe not the intensity?

JONATHAN OSORIO: To be honest I'll take that back. Maybe not lack of intensity. I would say the lack of urgency, which is a little bit different.

I think games are not going to go as perfect as you plan. Never. We kind of get rattled when the game presents a different picture than when we trained for or expected.

Yeah, as a group we need to be better in how we resolve those situations on the field, as players and as the staff on the outside.

Q. Could one of those moments, it looked like (indiscernible.) Was that one of the moments where it was not going your way?

JONATHAN OSORIO: Well, that's not lack of intensity or solving a tactical problem. That's adversity. That's mentality. Yeah, something doesn't go our way, and instead of using that as momentum and gaining momentum, we kind of let it rattle us and we're not really able to keep that pressure on other team.

I think this happened a few time this season, that we weren't really able to keep the pressure and the momentum after maybe a call doesn't go our way.

Q. You're not out of it yet. The road is more difficult now. Obviously need a win Saturday, which is another test of character. Can this team turn it around?

JONATHAN OSORIO: Well, yeah, there is not really a choice. We have to win on Saturday, and then at this point we have to hope now results -- we count on other results now unfortunately. It's not all in our hands.

But we have to control what we can control, and that's our performance on Saturday. That's to get a win on Saturday. There is really nothing else that -- without a win we won't be in. With a win we give ourselves at least a chance. But now it's not completely in our hands.

FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports
148955-1-1041 2024-10-03 02:32:00 GMT

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