St. Louis 0, LAFC 0
BRADLEY CARNELL: This was a cagey affair. I think Steve said it earlier this week that it's going to be a tight game and yeah, I think when good teams get together on a perfect stadium and a perfect evening, yeah, critical moments, yeah, if you give away critical moment, you lose the game. I think both teams displayed a role tight, cagey game, giving nothing away to each other, right.
I think that's what, down the line, down the stretch, what a tight playoff game could look like and as long as we keep a clean sheet and keep things in our favor and in our hands, I think we can work from here. So pretty happy about the clean sheet. It's been awhile since we've had one of those. Yeah, I think it's a good team, two heavyweights what they have proved throughout the season and it was fun.
Q. You alluded to it, as much as you wanted it to win tonight, was it a big thing not to lose?
BRADLEY CARNELL: Sure. And I think the guys came off the bench and made valuable contributions again. Just doing what everything, what a good teammate needed, right. We had Tomáš Ostrák playing in the six when Indy ran out of steam. We made some key adjustments throughout the game.
I thought the second half was excellent. I really thought we put it in our terms. We put them in a tough game and limited their options. You can see the quality they have when the ball turns over. We didn't have to hold our breath too many times which was a credit to my boys and credit to the system and credit to what we have been doing.
Q. The first, was there any part of your brain thinking, we could see them in the playoffs, maybe hold back some of your tactics?
BRADLEY CARNELL: Oh, no. We are thinking in the moment now, how we can win the game and how we can put them under pressure and what's needed. Not for one thought was I thinking about what's happening on Saturday or the next ten minutes. I was thinking how can we now go play-by-play, get continuously stronger and I think we did that tonight.
Q. I think there were a couple, at least from our perspectives, some lapses in concentration and some balls just a bit wayward. Do you attribute that to mental fatigue or physical fatigue?
BRADLEY CARNELL: We know LAFC is fourth in the League for PPDA, which means they put you under pressure, and we had 52 percent possession.
So I think it might be one of our highest possessions where we play 11 against 11. I thought we controlled a lot of what we did. I thought from the 30th to the 45th, we were slightly sloppy, slightly lazy. You know, on restarts they caught us out, quick restarts. So we have to just brushen up and tighten up a few things there.
Again, 15 minutes out of a 90-game stretch plus all the injury time what-have-you, I thought it was a lot in our favor tonight.
Q. How can you describe the defensive performance from the team tonight?
BRADLEY CARNELL: Excellent, when you keep a clean sheet, I think it's always a good sign. I think when you limit the opponent to I don't know what it was, two shots on target, I think it's a good sign, too. We defended set pieces really well. Again if you keep a clean sheet it's always a good sign but we have been training in the right way for many weeks now.
Q. How valuable is it to play such a good team this close to playoff time?
BRADLEY CARNELL: Yeah, I think it's valuable. I think every team we have been playing recently and every team we are coming up against has a real chance at something. That we get some reps like this, we have been treating it like that internally as if it were playoff game, you know, and again puts us to the test.
We heard LAFC players talking about how it's a final for them, this game, and I think if you look at that, for the new kids on the block, we take that as a big compliment to us, what we've done this season.
We just continue now. We join the 50 club with 50 points. We are proud of that and we want to keep on moving. For sure we want to win games but for sure we'll start with this tonight.
Q. A lot of players going up the left instead of the middle, was that something they forced you into?
BRADLEY CARNELL: With a diamond, we try to rotate out to certain areas. Edu is a good player when he's on the ball. So we give him a bit of flexibility and freedom.
Anthony reads the game really well. When Edu is outside, he's inside and have a good relationship.
I just spoke about PPDA, how they jump you. Their front four are the highest turnovers in the League in our build-up phase. This is something to be wary of; something we pride ourselves by, too. So we knew that we are playing against ourselves in many moments tonight, and we had to get around that.
Q. You mentioned the combo -- on the left side, can you talk about how much that opened up the game in the first half?
BRADLEY CARNELL: Sure.
Q. Talk about that catch, the left side.
BRADLEY CARNELL: When we are able to break a line, whether it's with a pass or a dribble then we create an overload; and when we create an overload, we create gap, and there's a trickle-down effect.
So we were able to get early crosses off, and especially playing with two strikers we are able to put the back line under pressure. Massive respect for the back line of them. You know, they do an excellent job.
It's a joy to watch Chiellini after all these years and finally get to see him in person now twice, it's been a good experience. It's been a learning moment for us as players to see how professional this guy does his job and it's a joy to watch.
We put teams in a tough game and with two strikers, we thought it was a good battle.
Q. Did you get water dumped on you?
BRADLEY CARNELL: No. It started raining during my Apple interview.
Q. It looked like at times either Klauss or Sam, in the box, and waiting for another pass, and after the play, why didn't I get the ball.
BRADLEY CARNELL: Sure. Sure.
Q. Was it one of those occasions where passes could have been made?
BRADLEY CARNELL: Yeah, maybe. We'll have to look at the video and see and reflect.
But yeah, we are playing with two strikers, which means you always have two strikers minimally on the box, plus then an arriving ten or a weak side eight arriving in the box.
So I thought we got ahead of the game really well when we had the ball and you know created a lot of nearly moments, which is okay. I just spoke about their back line and how good they can be but yeah.
Q. We talk about Burki, but when he comes up big -- there's also a pass he makes in the second half we hits Gioacchini in stride. How big is he in key games and key moments?
BRADLEY CARNELL: Yeah, we have seen it. We think every game is a big game and a big moment, right, in our first season. But I don't think we can take games off. So we take every game equally important and try and get the points.
He knows when the rhythm of the game is. A few times we are caught with building up, and then we decide to kick it along. He knows to feel the rhythm of the game. He know when is to accelerate the game and he knows when to slow the game down and he knows exactly what to do. It's a joy to have him with his distribution on our side to get Gioa the run for sure. He showed that many times. We have always said it from day one, we know what we have with Roman.
Q. You talked about Sam and Klauss getting more comfortable together, and Klauss dropping back in more of a support role to connect everything. Did you see a big jump in their progression and more and more development tonight?
BRADLEY CARNELL: Yeah, I think the system gives the players the right positioning and the right momentum. When AZ came off, we are like, yeah, get all three on, and let's see how that goes because Klauss has the ability to drop deeper. We saw that in L.A.
We let Gioacchini roam around in the ten, and then we got him up at strike tore run the line a little bit. And then Klauss, flexible, goes underneath in the ten. We tried that as well.
It's hard, only one or two strikers can play at any time. Yeah, my heart broke a little bit for Gioa tonight that he doesn't get in the starting lineup. He's our leading goal scorer; and he knows that and he's training well.
But we just thought with the matchups this week, what we are looking at tonight, we thought two big strikers against their two big centre-backs was the right thing.
Q. It looked like he will I don't see is creating a lot of Dane questioner with the 1v1 opportunities. Was that something that just happened throughout the game or was that something that you expected and you were willing to sacrifice to not give him so much possession?
BRADLEY CARNELL: I've seen them do that for many years now and I've seen them for every game this season be dangerous? 1v1. I think it's just a normal style of play of theirs that they rely on. They are big play makers, right and I thought we did it really well. For sure they are going to get a lot of half-moments but yeah, we got around the ball really well. I can't fault anything with my players there. It's just a standard game from LAFC with difference-makers who are great players.
Q. Is that the first time you've had Klauss, Sam and Nico on the field at the same time? I can't recall another time that all three would have been out there.
BRADLEY CARNELL: Maybe. Not sure.
Q. How is Blom? Did he come through okay?
BRADLEY CARNELL: He's been trying to treat something on his foot for the last couple of days. He's been taking some medication and his stomach didn't react well to the medication. So he felt a little bit dizzy and fatigue and spells that come and go. But once he got settled at halftime and then to try to get going again after halftime was a bit of a struggle and that's when we started and had to be a little bit creative.
Q. You had to get Nilsson to go 90 today --
BRADLEY CARNELL: Yeah, Nilsson's fine. I mean, he's all right. We have enough centre-backs on the bench if needed be, but he was perfect. He felt it through the couple of days now. He recovered really well. We limited his training load. We gave him two days of regen and one day of rest. Yeah, he game through really well.
Q. Are you going to watch games tonight?
BRADLEY CARNELL: Yes. I'm interested in results.
FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports