💬 Duncan McGuire: Lions 'can do a little more to take the three points at home' after draw with Philadelphia

Orlando City Head Coach Oscar Pareja

Overall thoughts on the game  

“The effort of the players today after what we had to go through this week has been phenomenal. It was obvious that during the game we were losing energy, but the boys had the personality to move, stay calm, and try to match a good team [Philadelphia Union] and even position the game the way we had it. The frustration that I have and that everybody has with the [final] decision is incredible. I'd rather control my words and get to work on bettering the things that we need to control and concentrate on those key moments that are haunting us. It’s painful, but we keep going. We had a quick turnaround against Seattle. The boys need to recover and the boys that are coming from national team [duty] will join us too but, for the players, nothing but my respect for that effort tonight.”

On the quick turnaround for Saturday  

“Tomorrow morning we are flying to Seattle. It is a long trip, but this is our job. We are going to get better and tomorrow we have to be prepared in the next game. Once again, the effort today just keeps us optimistic to keep going. The frustration that we all have at this point of the night with the decisions that the referees made is incredible, but we have to let it go.”  

On Mason Stajduhar’s performance   

“There have been a lot of positive things that have happened during the week. Mason [Stajduhar] had a terrific performance tonight and we're very proud of him. Tonight he came out with this performance and then we will just keep going. We are adding a lot of [time on the field] for players who are providing us [with moments] that make us feel that we can [face] other challenges to play in terms of position. Mason [Stajduhar] is a great example.”  

On what he saw on the field tonight  

“Through[out] the game, we were losing energy, which is expected from this proximity of the game. We came back from New England and we didn't want to talk about [the quick turnaround] because we are professionals. We saw that in the 75th minute, we started losing territory in the middle and they were throwing bodies to the front. They [Philadelphia] were risking it and we knew that protecting those spaces would create opportunities for us to counter with players that are fresh and that's what happened. What happened as well was the interference of the call, but it's 15 minutes in the last [half] where we were defending and we were losing energy.”

Orlando City Midfielder Martín Ojeda 

On who he thought scored the second goal  

“I’m not sure who will be credited with the goal, but if it’s me it’s me, and if it’s Duncan [McGuire] it’s Duncan, but I’ll say that Duncan apologized to me afterwards. I saw Ivan [Angulo] bringing the ball up into that space and really attacking the space that he was given. During the week we really worked on trying to utilize that space between them and we were just able to finish it off the way we had been inn training.” 
 
On the third goal being taken away  

“I think we’re irritated and frustrated because you think you've played a great game. We played a great game, especially in the first half. We did really well in the second half, and we came out strong again. We were playing well and then we get a third and it gets called back. I don't know too much about the rest but there's always going to be errors made when people are involved. Maybe it was, maybe it wasn't, but I think we just have to continue to work throughout the week and just try and get better." 
 
On the quick turnaround to Seattle  

“In football there's always those times where you've got to immediately turn and flip the page to the next match. We'll go in, train, and recover tomorrow and immediately start preparing for the game against Seattle. We'll travel and then we'll just continue preparing in the best way that we possibly can for the game against Seattle to try and fix the errors that we had tonight.”

Orlando City Forward Duncan McGuire

On what he saw during his goal 

“Great ball from Ojeda. I took a poor touch, but then I saw the defender coming across really hard so I thought if I could slide in then maybe he would fall over. Worked out perfectly I guess, so I will take it.” 
 
On the feeling of getting one point on the night 

“It is definitely a little bit hard. At the end of the day, we have to do what we can to get three points and tonight wasn’t our night. An unbelievable goal from Philadelphia and not much you could do about that. I think as a whole group we can do a little more to take the three points at home.” 
 
On the goal that was disallowed 

“I thought it was unfair. I thought it should have been given, but at the end of the day you have to play the game and after that, it is still game on. You have to finish the game out. [We] can’t do anything about it now.”