LAFC 2, St. Louis City 0
BRADLEY CARNELL: Obviously not the way we envisioned the night to proceed. LAFC come here and get exactly what they want and it's a transition moment and they score the goal. And they get a compact to play against, and yeah, we can't create any sort of actions that we've been so accustomed to lately. So credit to them. Them came here with the smash-and-grab and off they go again. That's it.
Q. A frustrating night, I miss a PK, a goal out on a VAR review, get a guy red carded on something. Was it a frustrating night? The loss is bad enough but there were chances there.
BRADLEY CARNELL: Yeah, can't fault the guys for desire, for effort, for willingness to try can and for willingness to come back and create something and do something even when the chips are down. I felt there was a staggered rhythm in the game and a few things we can't control. So we try to control the things we can control and unfortunately the night gets away from us.
Q. When you have a chance for a PK and you miss it, does that drag on the team?
BRADLEY CARNELL: No, we scored after that.
Q. Do you feel the momentum maybe flipped after the overturned goal by VAR?
BRADLEY CARNELL: Listen, it's just a staggered rhythm to the game, right. Unfortunately you feel a little bit of weight of what's going your way on the night and what's not going your way on the night and that breaks your rhythm. We hold in our hands first and we move on.
Yeah, not the way we wanted it to end but it is what it is. We don't have much time to sit and dwell and dip our heads too much. We have to be now brave, positive to head to Cincy with our chests and our heads held up high and that's what we'll do.
Q. I don't know if you had a chance to look at the second yellow card but what are your thoughts on that?
BRADLEY CARNELL: I'm not sure. I thought Anthony gets a shot at the back, falls over and gives it the other way, and I'm not sure for what then the yellow card comes for, I'm not sure about that but for us it was a clear foul the other way in my opinion.
Q. How do you handle frustration with some of the calls, things you can't control? How do you handle it as a coaching staff or with your players? Because there's going to be emotion for sure.
BRADLEY CARNELL: There is and we play on that emotion. We like that emotion. We like the edge. We like it and again we just have to stick to the rhythm of the game that we can create and unfortunately over the course of the game we didn't create enough of that rhythm that we've been accustomed to. So we have to obviously have a look at it, yeah.
And we know that LAFC give them one chance and I thought for most of the night, the defense played really, really well. I thought, you know, we mitigated much of what they were trying to do, I thought there was good effort. I thought there was good compactness and edginess to turn over the ball in transition. But yes, we couldn't get those final movements with our movement off the ball, with our box entries, with our box sort of starting spots, ending spots, yeah, and unfortunately creating enough shots, I would say.
Q. Do you think officiating was a factor?
BRADLEY CARNELL: I'm just saying there's a certain rhythm of the game, and credit to my boys for showing grit and a desire, gutsy and unfortunately things didn't go their way, our way and we move on.
Q. We've seen in matches past that teams will come into CITY PARK specifically and maybe play the non-soccer tactics, maybe take a little bit of time off, etc., etc. How do you guys respond to that? Is that a conversation you guys had?
BRADLEY CARNELL: I couldn't fault LAFC for too much time-wasting. Maybe two goals kicks or what-have-you, but I don't think that was a big thing on the night. I think there were potentially other factors that played a role but that wasn't it.
Q. They were flipping Long a lot, started on the typical left side. Were there any active changes you guys were making as they were flipping him side-to-side?
BRADLEY CARNELL: They do that every game. Again, it's just part of their game.
Q. Is Nilsson okay? He looked shaken up a few times in the first half?
BRADLEY CARNELL: No, I thought he did well, and these were important minutes for Joakim to get him going into cycle. The last game he had was against City II scrimmage on the bye weekend and only got 40 minutes that game. To put him out there and get him extended minutes under real game scenarios like this is massive, especially when we are getting guys hopefully coming back in in contention for minutes, like Josh Yaro, and how do we manage now over the next couple of days to get a solid, fit lineup up for Cincinnati. This was the plan.
Q. 45 was the plan?
BRADLEY CARNELL: Yeah.
Q. You mentioned trying to play your own game and not having chances in the box. Do you credit LAFC and their defensive structure for that, or just your guys were not able to execute the game plan?
BRADLEY CARNELL: I think in the first half we created many waves and moments, a lot of corners, earned corner set pieces and we know they give up 50 percent of their goals from set pieces and we score a goal on set piece, and everything is going according to plan at that stage, and at that stage it could have been 2-0. Sometimes I don't think this game is a reflection, or the score line is a reflection of where we were in the game for much of that game.
Q. Can you speak to Blom and his performance, is this a jumping off point going forward?
BRADLEY CARNELL: Good, creating rhythm, creating the real game repetitions, things are happening quicker. It's not just training and it's not just we are trying to get these guys progressed, competitive, to get a little bit of an edge back. So yeah, I thought he did a good job when he came in.
Q. His flexibility and being able to drop back in the back line, does that at times offer him a different dimension than Chris Durkin in that role?
BRADLEY CARNELL: No, Jabs is more on the left-hand side when he came in as the left six. But when we get the red card we just start posting with him and drop Durkin at three, then you have to start playing catch up and start trying to salvage something. Yeah, jobs offers good flexibility, good fluidity whether was a right back or as a holding six, yeah.
FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports