Lights FC Head Coach Dennis Sanchez
On his overall impressions of the match…
We knew coming in that it was going to be a battle. San Antonio is a very good team, they’ve been consistently good over the last four or five years, really physically dominant and aggressive off the ball. We knew that we were going to have to match that but still play to our identity and the way that we want to play with the ball.
We’re still finding a lot out about our group, and it was a different test for us tonight. In the first half, we went away [from our identity] at times, but ultimately we came in at halftime, made a few adjustments in spaces we wanted to occupy and that’s how we ended up scoring the goal. I’m proud of the guys. Another shift of hard work and you can see the collective spirit coming together.
On three straight wins and clean sheets…
The collectiveness has been fantastic. It was a theme earlier in the season and it continues to be the case that we really want to control space between our lines, press in the right moments, and you saw tonight that San Antonio does a really good job of having numbers around the ball, but still has the ability to be vertical at the right times. Overall, our back line was very good tonight, the way that they handled duels and overloads.
On Raiko Arozarena’s performance in goal…
He’s been fantastic for us. He has a great presence on the field, can manage the game well, his ability to cope on aerial duels. San Antonio is very good on set pieces, and we did a good job of controlling that. He’s a big part of that.
On Shawn Smart’s first professional goal…
Shawn’s a great person, first of all. He’s come in and he’s rolled up his sleeves and worked hard every single day. He’s very receptive to information. You sometimes forget that it’s his first year as a pro with how quickly he’s adapted. What I love is that he’s grown every single week, he’s super competitive. He takes a lot of pride in his duels. One of the adjustments that we made at halftime was trying to bring our fullback more inside on the weak side, and he found a good spot, trusted himself and had a great goal.
On the injury status of Edison Azcona…
We’re going to monitor and see how he feels tomorrow. Right now, I’d say it’s day-to-day, but hopefully just a minor ankle sprain.
On carrying momentum into next week’s match at Monterey Bay…
We just need to keep moving forward. There’s been a common theme that we want to remain even-keeled, we don’t want to get too high, we don’t want to get too low. What I love about this group is that we’re finding ways to win, but we can still be a lot better. That’s a great thing to know that we can continue to progress. We just have to keep working, keep improving and keep having this collective spirit and belief and good things will happen.
