Lights FC Head Coach Dennis Sanchez
On the message to the team following the victory …
I’m proud of them. I felt like they deserved it. They put a good shift in. We talked all week about how we can maximize the energy out of the group and outwork our opponent. They did that.
On the team’s defensive performance and securing the first clean sheet of the season…
Collectively we were great. We worked hard, we got behind the ball we needed to. We managed the game well as the game went on. But everybody put in a really good shift and really worked hard, collectively suffered at the right times. We found a way to get a win.
On what he saw on the goal…
I have to look back at it. I saw Fabien [Garcia] on the end of it. I think that shows you a lot about just his mentality in general where he’s very aggressive, ball oriented. Anytime that you can score off really a second phase, set piece with a center back, we’ll take it. Goals will come for us. We talked about being disciplined, again, not giving up anything. We found the early goal and kept the win.
On taking momentum into the upcoming road contest at Oakland…
We just have to keep going. We have to continue to improve in all phases. We know that this group can score goals, so we have to make sure that we’re in games and making sure that we have the right mentality off the ball … so we’re going to keep working and keep progressing forward.
Lights FC Defender Fabien Garcia
On what he saw on the set piece goal in which he directed his header on frame…
I was focused on the ball, just to make sure if something happened on the second ball, I was ready to try to read the play. I knew JC [Ngando] was going to start with the right foot … try to find the space …try to be active to find the back of the net. That’s amazing. For my first game, I’m just happy.
On securing the clean sheet…
I think, yeah, we were focused on the clean sheet. But at the same time, you know, we want to keep keep the identity to play. But to be smarter. You know, we don’t want to be naive and concede early. I think today we did a great job on on taking the good decision. And so far, that was a good game. I think we can still do better. But that’s a great beginning for us.
On the message from head coach Dennis Sanchez on building on the performance ahead of the team’s road match at Oakland…
Keep working. The past week was a great week [of] training, keep doing the same. We’re going to Oakland to take some points over there and, and you know, so it’s a long season. It’s a long season, but at least you take three points tonight and that’s amazing for us…
Lights FC Midfielder JC Ngando
On getting the first win of the season and what it meant to this group…
[Previously] we were just lacking of chemistry, because like for me, I’ve been with the team for like two weeks. Fabien, like one week, but two weeks, it was hard to really, like, understand the way we were …obviously, the coach has really good ideas, but for us all been the same mind and the same spot and play the same game was really hard. So, today was probably our best performance because we got the win. But the first two games weren’t terrible.
On the message from head coach Dennis Sanchez on building on the performance ahead of the team’s road match at Oakland…
The goal is always to be the protagonist of the game. So even away, the way we play has never changed. I think that’s what we are. We’re gonna go and play the way we are. We are Las Vegas and we’re going to show the game we want to play.
