St. Louis City 2, Colorado 0
BRADLEY CARNELL: Very happy with tonight's performance, not just with the clean sheet. We had one scary moment in the first minute of the game, and I thought from then on we mitigated any chance.
So you know, a clean sheet is just a reward for the hard work. I thought they challenged us; we countered that; they challenged us again; we countered it again.
I thought it was a good, complete team effort from players and staff just to make sure we kept on top of things on our end, and an early start for the game. That's what we wanted. We wanted a rapid start. We wanted to put them in a quick game. We knew they were going to slow it down at times. We knew they were going to give us the ball at times. So the quicker we could get at them and reward ourselves, and we said it's a race to the first goal.
Happy with that, and we know we have two-match away streak now, and this just sets up that we can travel to those games with good spirits and happy vibes.
Q. Wanted to ask about Akil Watts, second consecutive game he has a start. What have you seen from him in the last couple of games?
BRADLEY CARNELL: Tonight was very deliberate. We knew we play with a back four with Kyle Hiebert, we don't expect Kyle Hiebert to bump forwards and get in the final third too often. He did his bit, but we knew then Akil Watts, he's a very attacking outside back and from that point of view we saw exactly that. Brave, two forward defense, transitions.
Both outside backs were outstanding tonight. Kyle steps in to win the ball on the goal, and Akil is very dangerous in the final third with dangerous crosses low, and hard we earned a bunch of corners that way. Credit to Akil.
It was just precautionary to get him out of the game; the load, cumulative fatigue over two games now and mitigating minutes. Just hope to keep these guys going along through the stretch here.
Q. AZ and Sam seem to be seizing their chances getting into the lineup. Talk about their play and Sam's play on the assist on the second goal which was an exceptional effort.
BRADLEY CARNELL: Yeah, you saw one or two bursts of what Sam can provide. He's not just a hold-up guy. He can also challenge the back line with his speed and pace and power. So that was pretty fun to watch.
Gioacchini, always have to keep on eye on him. Just the balance that we found in the midfield with AZ, we have the creative artist underneath just between the line and setting up two striker, powerful runners who can hold up the play as well.
I felt, yeah, it was a good performance from the front three tonight and every addition we brought into the game as well, I thought they played their first part in the game as well and secured the victory for us.
Q. How is Njabulo?
BRADLEY CARNELL: Yesterday he was -- I don't think any South African has felt the humidity and heat as we felt over the last two days. He just struggled with the heat a little bit, fatigue, so he had a couple of dizzy spells going into the game and yeah, we were just monitoring that.
We had a backup plan if he couldn't go, but yeah, just credit to him for purchasing through and keeping things simple and still doing his job.
Q. Can you still be surprised by Roman's saves? Just every game, he comes up with something else.
BRADLEY CARNELL: Yeah, so I can't be surprised because it's never the same save. So it's always new saves that always surprise us.
No, he doesn't surprise us as all. We see it in training four days, five days a week. So we enjoy being around greatness and we enjoy seeing Roman getting rewarded with the All-Star call-up.
He's our captain and leader for a reason. He's displaying and being a leader from the front, right. He's not just a voice in the locker room but also a leader, leads by doing, so yeah credit to him.
Q. And it picks the guys up?
BRADLEY CARNELL: Sure. It's an energy booster. I think Roman is chasing -- I said tonight, we are playing against ourselves. It's us against us because we want to challenge ourselves, and playing against a team who has not had a great run of form lately, that's when they are at their most dangerous because at some time that trend stops, right.
So we took it personal, not on our watch that that trend is not going to stop here at CITY PARK. Credit to the fans as well. They were immensely loud from the very get=go and happy about that, too.
Q. You talked early in the week about how long passes and diagonal plays were what they got to in Colorado, very first play of the game, diagonal play and couple good long balls. You talk about mitigating their chances. How did you go about mitigating their chances in those specific opportunities.
BRADLEY CARNELL: Just with different confrontational lines throughout the game. Sometimes you feel you're in it and you can stay in it and defend forwards and sometimes you feel you get a little bit stretched.
Now, it's great intentions just to now release and play the pressing game, but at some point you need to be strategic and get numbers across and delay slightly before you can find the next trigger. I thought our pickup points were slightly different tonight and you could see a lot of the times, they got the ball and looked, they saw it was blocked, covered, they looked, so we nullified quite a lot of that. Credit to the boys for the game plan.
Q. Seemed to be a shift in the midfield due to the injury so Löwen. Guys are getting outside and crashing back in defense. How are you shifting the defense, or the midfield, I should say.?
BRADLEY CARNELL: It's partly formation and partly personnel. We know Indy and Jared have great engines, right. So to get out there, and to do the dirty work, so they have to connect to Blom on the weak side as a double six and then they release out and also in transition they need to do their bit, too.
I thought we should have finished the game off in the first 25 minutes, should have been 4-0, 5-0 at that point. That's one thing if we can take away from this game is to be a little more ruthless. Because they managed the end of the game towards the first half very well, and then they started the second half very good and challenged us. I would have liked the game to have been put to bed a little bit earlier.
Q. Jackson had another fantastic performance tonight, as well. When you acquired him in the off-season, were you expecting him to be this good, so soon?
BRADLEY CARNELL: Then we wouldn't have signed him, right. If we look at talents and we look at players throughout the league, Lutz has a good network, and we feel we have a good system and platform to promote youth and develop players.
Sometimes it's not easy as well. AZ gets signed, start in Minnesota 2, didn't really get the looks he would have liked. And I've told him before, he's going to have all of the experiences with us he's going to play for City 2; he's going to be on the bench with the first team; and he's not going to be on the roster sometimes; and he's going to start games. I've been true to all of those things that I told AZ.
And credit to him, trusting the pathway and sometimes it's frustrating as a player when you feel you're in a good run of form and the team is doing well and I'm not getting minutes, and my heart goes out to like Isak Jensen on the bench, ready to go, and all of a sudden, I don't get my number called tonight.
And that's part of it because we see top, talented guys training and it's just the patience and the trust now in the coaching staff to know what is best for them at their moment in their careers.
Q. Before the changes, the guys who played at San Jose, Watts, Adeniran -- Sam and AZ, and obviously you said competition starts again on Tuesday, so do those guys -- off the boost they got from last Saturday, do they come into practice this week with even more energy?
BRADLEY CARNELL: No, I don't think so. I mean, the minute we -- yes, more energy for sure, more energy from everybody else, and again, it's the internal competition now over these months where we know League's Cup is coming up, and we know there's a bunch of games back-to-back and we know we have midweek games. There's minutes there for everybody.
And I'm happy to have got Jake Nerwinski again and did a great job at the wingback. There's going to be minutes, and all I ask for is patience from the players.
And sometimes it's personnel. Sometimes it's the opposition that gives us an indication of who we can play and go against their weakness to our strengths and vice versa.
So that's part of the game planning and part of having the roster that we have that it's almost like a hybrid system. It's a plug-and-play and we can put guys in and do just about anything. So credit to the guys for being flexible, open, and you know, smart, tactically smart to know what to do in the moment, so credit to these guys.
Q. A lot of center backs out there, Hiebert, Parker --
BRADLEY CARNELL: Yeah, Hiebert has been used for a couple of weeks now in a different role, but still if you look at his winning percentages, he's one of the best in the League in 1v1 duels and he's a weapon out there, too. He can play center back just as easy. Right now he's doing the job for the team at outside back.
Q. You said it was a race for the early goal. Explain how important that early goal is to you guys.
BRADLEY CARNELL: Yeah, I think I don't need to explain it. I think we just need to look at the stats, right. I'm not sure of them but you know, when we score first, I think --
THE MODERATOR: 9-0-2.
BRADLEY CARNELL: There we go. He's got it.
So if you look at that, it's very important for our style of play, right, just to make sure we get out, there guns blazing without being naïve and vulnerable, of which, like again, if there's anything to take away tonight, is the first minute of the game, right.
So whether that's first half of the last two games -- I mean, the start of the second half of the last two games or now the start of this game.
So it's something that we have to mitigate, something we have to spark, and I don't know, something in the locker room before we go out, and just to make sure that we don't want to give these chance as way too early on, and we want to make sure that we put enough pressure on the opponent to fold, to bend, to break, and then score goals.
Q. The 70th minute, up 2-0, and haven't put it way the way you wanted it to, you shift the back line and go to a five-man, three-man back. How do you get the confidence in your team to make that shift so late, not only with a player like Yaro on the back line, but shifting the formation you're in?
BRADLEY CARNELL: Yeah, it's just belief in what we are doing. So we have trained this throughout the season and played it in Seattle and we have done it a few times. I feel we have done pretty well at times with a back five. The thing you have to do is stick to your principles and we have to be brave. I believe if I portray bravery.
As a coach it should ignite the players to be brave in that moment to defend towards and to stay true to their principles and still to connect and still to push up the back line. Credit to the boys to be flex and I believe tactical at the same time but always committing to their principles and with that, I believe we can play any formation.
FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports