💬 Orlando City coach Oscar Pareja: 'We have to keep pushing' to earn results at home after loss to D.C. United

ORLANDO, Fla. -- Hear from Orlando City coach Oscar Pareja, midfielder Martín Ojeda and forward Gastón González following Saturday's 3-1 loss to D.C. United at Exploria Stadium:

Orlando City head coach Oscar Pareja

Opening statement 

“It is a very disappointing night and not getting results at home. It's just getting the consistency here and not getting our points at home that creates that disappointment. Apart from that, the development of the game, I thought it was very hard in the game and it did not flow and [we] couldn't find that rhythm. That's probably what worried us most during the game. We knew that the game was going to be decided with a couple of things like that. Set plays, counters in a model that is rigid and hard and does not have a lot space. We couldn't find a way to hurt them. They did it in those key moments and there's no excuse. They took advantage of it and that is why they get the points tonight.”

On what needs to change moving forward 

“Yes, the answer is obvious: to win games you must score goals, at the very least score more goals than the opponent. When we go through periods where we have no consistency, where we win difficult games on the road, but at home in front of our fans we lose, that is tough to deal with. When we play at home, we are looking for solutions to win, what I invite the coaches and our players to do is to take a minute, breathe, and try to fix the situation. But once again I am ultimately responsible, I am the head coach, I get paid to do this. This is a very hard-working group, very noble, and with a lot of energy. This group is trying to do the job right, we are missing some continuity, but we cannot get desperate. I have always respectfully told our fans that we know how important it is to win at home, not only because we must win, but because we are playing in front of them, and their support tonight was great. That is why this loss hurts, but we are going to keep our heads up and move forward.” 

On trying to get positive results at home 

“Surely, we need to find a reason and be clear on that. At this point, it is difficult to be very precise because the boys have been training well and the courage, the style and the formation work on these games where we had to go out and battle at different stadiums. Then we come here at home and we don't we don't get the opportunities or we don't get the job done in front of our fans. For sure it is disappointing, but we have to keep pushing and we have to find those answers, of course.”

Orlando City midfielder Martín Ojeda

On what D.C. United was doing to deny Orlando City attacking opportunities 

“I thought we got into that final part of the field more than a few times, but we needed to be more pointed in our finishing and taking those opportunities at the end. We had some good chances, Gastón [González] had that header, we had a couple of opportunities where we came through, obviously we had the goal, but it's just got to be more pointed and we've got to finish when we get into the box and into the final portion. It just has to be better.” 

On the frustrations of not being able to win at home recently 

“It's complicated, right? We just came off having three points away, where those points count a little bit more and they're a little bit more difficult to come by and then we come back home and we weren't able to get it done. I think everyone on the team has their things that they have to improve on, myself included. We will have to do that self-critiquing and analysis and it's just got to be better. So we take each day, we continue to improve and hopefully we're able to touch that limit of perfection and bring it home in the future.” 

On what he saw on the play that led to Duncan McGuire’s goal 

“We executed a perfect press the way that we'd like to do the majority of the time and the way that we like to press. Antonio [Carlos] was able to recover really quickly and I saw Duncan using his face well and so I just tried to hit him on the counterattack to put it in one-on-one with the keeper. With luck it happened and he was able to score the goal, but we weren't able to get the victory but we're showing improvement in those areas that we need to.”

Orlando City forward Gastón González

On what worked with a three back in Minnesota that didn’t work tonight

“I'd say it was a totally different game tonight, between the two, for the details. We weren't able to get the three points. I think there's a lot of positives that we're able to take but there's obviously a lot that we still need to fix and adjust going forward so we can look to the next game and hopefully take that victory.”

On playing with three in the back the last two games

“I'm always preparing and always prepared for whatever the technical staff has set out and laid the plan out for that game. I've got the complete confidence of my teammates and the technical staff so I take that into each game knowing that. I'll repeat that I think it was just the details again. We need to fix those and button those up so we can advance and continue getting that victory and fight for that next time.”

On if the lack of results at home starts to build pressure on the team

“I'd say we're all calm right now. We know that there's things that we need to fix to be able to take these results at home. We're faulting on the details here at home that's costing us some of these points, but to the opposite of that, we've done really well on the road where those points are difficult to get. We know that we have to adjust to try and bring those results a little bit closer, especially at home. But I think right now we're calm, we’re focused.”