Orlando City Head Coach James O’Connor
On fixing the mistakes in the back
“I think when you look at the way we started the game, the first 20 or 30 seconds, you cannot start games like that. If you are going to start the game like that you need to have a stronger mentality. The big thing I just spoke about there [in the locker room] is our mentality needs to be way stronger. I think to play for this football club you need to have a really strong mentality. That’s something that is really evident. When we start a game like that and defend honestly the way we did, you make it practically impossible to give yourself a chance to go on and win the game. You can’t defend like that and expect to get something out of the game. I’d just like to, before I get questions about it, I’d like to just say we really do apologize to Montreal with the ball with Cristian [Higuita] where it gets played through. That’s not a good representation of this football club, that’s not what we want to be seen for. Again I’d like to put on record an apology to Montreal, that shouldn’t happen.”
On the complexity of the game shifting after the two goals
“You’re 2-nil down, so you’re not always trying to get back into the game. It looked like we weren’t playing quick enough, but then the frustration thing starts to come when you look at the chances that we’ve had in the game. We’ve had some really good chances within the game. Dom [Dwyer] obviously had the one that’s gone over the bar, then the header, then the one-on-one in the second half, so we’ve had chances and we haven’t played well. Our biggest frustration is if we can actually give a representation of ourselves the way that we have previously, then we will be able to go and win a game. You can’t defend and give goals away like we give away, the three goals are so poor. It’s really poor defending.”
Orlando City Midfielder Sacha Kljestan
On moving forward from the loss
“That remains to be seen but I expect us to come back stronger, I expect that we’ll come back and have a good week of training because I know we have a big game against Red Bull next week. We’ve got to react in a positive way. Bad performance tonight but hopefully we learn our lesson and do better next time.”
On if this performance was unexpected
“Yeah, I felt very positive going into the game. I felt very confident and then we started the game in the worst possible way. Nearly off the kickoff, we almost gifted them a goal. Off our possession, just passing it right to their forward almost. So that kind of set the tone for the rest of the day and we never really got better from that point and we weren’t really good enough in the attacking third.”
Orlando City Forward Santiago Patino
On getting his first MLS assist
“I can’t really remember who won the ball in the middle, they played it off Chris [Mueller]. I saw Chris in the middle and made a run, Chris played a great ball, I took a touch and saw Dom [Dwyer] making a run and just gave it to him.”
On disappointment of his debut being a loss
“Sometimes it ends like that. I got my debut, that’s what I wanted, unfortunately we didn’t get the result. We’re going to learn from this, keep moving forward and this is going to help us to continue the season.”
Montreal Impact Forward Orji Okwonkwo
On getting a goal in the win
“I feel good. I’m very happy to score my first goal for Montreal and in this league. I’m very happy and excited.”
On the intensity of the match
“For me, I think the most important thing is that we won the game. We were trying to manage the first half and second half was a bit difficult but we tried our best.”
On his chances in the game
“Yeah, I had like three chances or so but the most important thing is that I scored. One was in. So that’s the most important thing.”
Montreal Impact Defender Bacary Sagna
On the game
“I think we played quite well and we reacted well from the last game we played in Houston. It was really important for the team because we’re not going to play for two weeks. But we had a good reaction and we had good team spirit and we had good behavior on the pitch because we wanted to play well as a team. To stay to compact and score goals and we managed to do it. So we need to keep going that way and working hard.”
