LIGHTS FC HEAD COACH DENNIS SANCHEZ
On his overall assessment of the team’s performance:
First off, I’m really proud of the effort. San Antonio is not an easy place to come and get a result. I think they are 14 games unbeaten right now at home, one of the better clubs in USL over the last few years and we beat them not too long ago, so we knew that they were going to come out and have some fire as well. But, overall we came in and executed the game plan that we wanted. Even before the red card, we were in good control of the game. Arriving into the final third, I think we can still be more clinical when we get there and still we have to maintain discipline as we move up the field, keep improving our decision making processes on the ball just to limit opportunities – and we will continue to improve those areas. But, overall, it was a good effort. We’ll take a point. I like that our boys are disappointed right now that they didn’t get more. I think that’s a good feeling to have, but for sure there’s momentum that can be built off from this match.
On how the team managed the game after San Antonio’s red card:
There’s two sides when you’re playing up a man – there’s a feeling that you’re going to have the ball more, which obviously happens, but it’s not always a guarantee and you’re still somewhat susceptible in transition moments that can lend opportunities for the opposition. What we did really well was keeping the tempo high, putting more numbers higher up the field while still being in control behind the ball. I thought that we did a really good job of controlling transition moments and killing any type of attack that they tried to generate and we really made them suffer for a good portion of the game. We were really, really unlucky not to find that second goal. But again, I think all in all, there were some positive takeaways.
On the individual performances that stood out:
I think Charlie Adams was really good for us in terms of just controlling the tempo, we’re really trying to play through him more frequently. You can tell that he’s really back to his full fitness. We tried to rest him a little bit on Wednesday just so he could be fresh for this game and it worked out. I think Val [Noël] continues to put himself in good positions. Defensively, we were really sound and I thought Fabien Garcia was particularly good tonight against his former team.
On how the team can build on this performance:
We will continue to take a process-oriented approach. I believe that half the battle is arriving into those areas and now we need to just add that final piece. We talk all the time about how goals change games. It’s the same thing with forwards when they’re in a little bit of a goalless streak. They just have to find that first one and then the flood gates are going to open. I keep telling our guys, we’re very close to really turning things around from a results standpoint, but we got to keep doing the little things right and keep pushing.
