St. Louis City SC 2, San Jose 0
JOHN HACKWORTH: It's been a tough week. There's no doubt about that. Players, staff, the club, when you make a change to the head coach, it's never easy.
So in a very short amount of time, I think you saw the resilience of this group, a group that has been successful in the past, didn't happen for us so far this year, but really proud of them in this moment to come out, come together in a tough moment and get a result, and that's a really tricky game, both clubs are in almost the exact same position, both clubs with interim head coaches and both teams with quality in their first 11.
So for us, while it's very satisfying, it's not a game that we are going to go crazy about and celebrate and say we've turned our season around. We haven't. It's the first step in trying to get us back in the right direction.
Q. What did you sense in the players out there tonight?
JOHN HACKWORTH: I think tonight, look, that's a -- this group of men, they have great character. They also have great quality as professional athletes. But they dealt with a loss this week in terms of losing their head coach and they responded by coming together, and that's what I was proud of them for. You saw that they had to dig deep there. Excellent first half performance.
Second half, we allowed them to have the ball in a little bit too much time and space but we dug deep. Really happy that we got a shutout in addition to the win. I think those are things we can build on going forward.
Q. The first goal which surprised everybody, but the importance of getting that, considering the chances and the situation.
JOHN HACKWORTH: Yeah, we were knocking on the door, right. We had a lot of momentum. I just kept on yelling, it's coming, it's coming, it's coming.
So you know, and look, I don't care what goalkeeper you are. If you have to safe an Edu shot, and that thing is knuckling and it's dipping and diving and it bounces off the turf in a weird way. That's a skill and that's something that probably a little fortune, good fortune, but at the same time it's a skill by Edu to put it on frame and put it with as much pace and dip that he had on it.
Q. What was the thought process in starting Durkin at center back and how do you think he did this week?
JOHN HACKWORTH: I thought he was fantastic. He has not played center back in a little while. He played there for some brief minutes in Vancouver but when he played for me a while ago at the Under 17 level, he was the starting center back at the quarterfinal of World Cup at the Under 17 level in 2017.
So I had total confidence that he could go in and do the job for us and clearly with him and Tim, that partnership worked very well tonight.
Q. Just for you personally, easier, more difficult that you're thrust into this role, and it's a short week. You really don't have time to breath. You're right into game week the minute this gets announced.
JOHN HACKWORTH: Yeah, it has to the been easy. All of us in this club have to deal with this change. So to do it on a two-day turnaround, effectively, really the credit should go to the guys in that locker room, not me.
I have good relationships with those guys, and I think that's really helpful. I've been around them. I've coached them the last two years, several of them. So I think that helps tremendously.
It's not like we were trying to play a different style or things like that. We have built a foundation here of success and Bradley deserves a lot of credit for that.
So this has been a tough, short week. And I'm not going to lie. It has not been without it's ups and downs and stress and pressure, but that's why we all do this, too. We love this. We like to be in these situations, and to see a group of men thriving in that moment, again, got to give them a ton of credit.
Q. You mentioned a lot about resiliency earlier, and in this match, you had contributions from Indy, Hosei Kijima, guys on the opposite end of the leadership spectrum. Was it important that you got contributions from everyone for that resiliency?
JOHN HACKWORTH: Yeah, look this wasn't going to happen unless everybody came together and unless everybody, you know, not guys that were on the field necessarily but guys that were on the bench. Everybody said, Hey, we know we are a much better team than our results and our performances have shown.
There's no better way to take a step in the right direction than to play in front of our fans in this beautiful stadium and have a good performance and have a good result. That's again just the start of it.
But you know, it's not me, but every guy in that locker room, every guy in our team contributed to tonight, and you know, it's impressive that they did. Because in moments like this, you can see teams, they kind of make a choice: Do they continue to kind of divide? Are there little clicks and groups that head off in different directions, or do you come together?
And this group certainly in the last two days came together and tonight put on a good performance, a great performance in the second half and managed the second half it get a result.
Q. Being with this team all the way back to that first City II season, does it help that you have inside knowledge of the incident and outs of the group?
JOHN HACKWORTH: Absolutely. Previous to, this Bradley and I worked very closely the last two years. Again so the message is, whether it was about certain principles or how we were going to prepare or press in a certain situation, none of those changed, and that's the foundation. When I got here in '21, it was very clear: This is our philosophy; this is how we are going to play; this is our club; everybody get on board; that's how we are going to do it. It's definitely helpful.
Q. You said obviously nothing changed with the style of play but were there anything tactically in the past couple of days you were able to impart on the group that might have been different or you encouraged them to change compared to what they had been doing?
JOHN HACKWORTH: Not really. We look at the opponent in San Jose, and we have to come up with a game plan. Of course there's decisions on how we are going to press, how we are going to press high up the field. When we drop back, our sheet changed a little bit.
Those kind of little nuances, yeah, we wanted to make sure the players understand it but I tried to keep it very simple. I tried to empower those guys in the locker room to believe in themselves, believe in everything we've done previous to tonight and go out there and perform, and I think they did that.
Q. And how do you look to keep this performance going? The club has had a penchant this year of scoring buckets of goals and then they go goal-less. What are you looking to do every the next few days to ensure that that doesn't happen?
JOHN HACKWORTH: It's another short turnaround. Third game in a week. Go play at altitude. Go play a really good Colorado team. It doesn't get very easy.
What I have to say, though, is that you have to start somewhere. We took a really good step tonight. Now we've got to recover, maximize every possibility to get our athletes healthy, regen and see if we can put a good game plan together, go into a difficult environment and still have a good performance.
I'm a huge believer that performance dictates results and if you can get the performance, you can get the guys collectively playing together, good things are going to happen for us.
Q. Can you speak about Edu and Indy, the way they played particularly in the first half, seemed like their passes were crisp and they found a lot of boots and were right in front of the net to get goals. How about the way they played and provided the impetus for your team?
JOHN HACKWORTH: Look, I've been coaching Indy since I was 14 years old. That kid, he always brings it. You know, he told me tonight, "There's there's no question, I'm going to bring it." He had a tough time dealing with the coaching change. He and Bradley had a good relationship, and he is a person and a player that expresses his emotions.
So I give him massive credit for just having the ability to deal with that loss of somebody that was important to him in his life and still coming out and performing the way that he did tonight, and certainly getting two assists and having Edu be the other guy. I mean, Edu, if you guys haven't figured out what a wonderful human being that guy is, I don't know what we're all doing. He just -- he brings it.
So really proud of him. And when we as a team are going to be in a good way, we have to go through Edu. Like as an example, I said, Blom, you run around like crazy, you win the ball, give it to Edu. Let Edu make the game for us. It's not that simple. Blom had a fantastic game tonight. Left it all out there and fulfilled that role.
But Indy, Edu, wonderful performances tonight, and I'm just so proud of them because they are excellent players but they are excellent human beings, as well.
Q. You talked about how stressful the last couple days have been, and is there a sense, I don't know if relief is the right word.
JOHN HACKWORTH: Yeah, there is. It's undeniable. We need to learn how to win games again. We need to learn how to manage a game. You get up 2-0 -- they were up 2-0 in Vancouver. I wouldn't be sitting here if they managed it on Saturday night.
So all of these little steps are really important. But we shouldn't pretend like we fixed it in one night. You know, there's so much more work to do. And that's all we can do.
We can take this for what it was. We needed a win. We really needed a win in front of our fans. Give them something to be excited about. We needed good performances. We got those two key players and now we go on to the next match and see if we can, again, grind out another really good performance that puts us in a position to win a soccer game.
Q. Is it safe to say that everybody is at least pulling in the same direction? Is it safe to say everybody is rowing in the same direction now?
JOHN HACKWORTH: For tonight we did, and that's a great step. We've got to keep that going. I'm a big believer in identifying roles and responsibilities very clearly and then it's up to the players to go live up to those responsibilities, play their role, do half of their brother's job. We talk about that a lot. Pick each other up when we needed to and that was nice to see. Hopefully we can build on that.
Q. Appreciate the fact that you agreed the second half of the games have always been the problem. It's the same thing, Vancouver, Colorado, Dallas. What are you doing to address this issue?
JOHN HACKWORTH: I'm working on it but I've only had two days to start working on it.
The best thing that you can look at is that we got a shutout. We got the win. It wasn't as effective in the second half as it was in the first but we didn't give anything up. We didn't give a goal up. And once you do that, you start learning how to win again. You start learning how to manage the game. You start believing a little more and certainly, you know, huge credit to everybody on the field tonight.
We asked several guys to come in. We are still kind of wounded, and so you saw Akil Watts come on and play effectively like a right midfielder. You saw Anthony Markanich come out and play a left midfielder. Those are big thing. You've got Sam back who puts in a big shift for us tonight.
You know, the only thing I'm mad about is that Akil should have made that 3-0, and then I wouldn't have stressed or yelled at the fourth official as much in the last five minutes.
But besides that, I'm satisfied with taking that very small step forward.
Q. One of the big changes in the line, Klein in the middle and Hosei out on the right, can you break down your thought process going into the game and how that played out?
JOHN HACKWORTH: Yeah, let me start by giving Kevin Kalish the SLU head coach, a lot of credit. He played Johnny as a false nine, as a play maker in the middle.
When I first got to St. Louis in '21, I went to watch every St. Louis University game I could. Deep history there. Roots. And I think Kevin is a fantastic coach. We've known each other for a long time. And you know, I'm not a genius but I like to steal good ideas and that was a great idea.
At the same time, you know, I've known Hosei for a long time. He came from IMG Academy where he played with my younger son who plays on City II. I got to see him. I have always thought of him as better in wide spaces sometimes unless he's playing the six. He's proved that he's versatile and can play anywhere. His performance against Miami showed everybody that.
But little idea that I had in my head from seeing Johnny perform so well in the middle of the field, knowing that Hosei could do an excellent job. We were looking to get good service in behind their back line, and Hosei has got excellent service off his right foot, where Johnny is more of a dynamic play maker.
That was the reason for the switch, and thank God they made me look good tonight.
Q. How scripted was that second goal, the Edu fake?
JOHN HACKWORTH: That's an Alex Langer set special.
So when you get those kind of things, full credit to Alex. He does a wonderful job as our set piece coach, in addition to he has to figure out how to get Roman Bürki to be a good goalkeeper, which is a really tough job -- he just walked into the back of the job.
But Alex deserves all of the credit and then you have to have execution. It was one of the last things we talked about the locker room tonight was execution on restarts. It can be the difference for us, and certainly it's much easier to see a game out when you're two goals up rather than one.
Q. So the attackers were part of it, too?
JOHN HACKWORTH: Absolutely. That's as well-executed of a set piece as you can get. So celebrations all around.
FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports