Las Vegas Lights FC Head Coach Dennis Sanchez
A huge three points on the road to move the team into second place with two matches left to play. Overall thoughts on the match?
We knew it was going to be a tough game coming in. Having to travel four hours by plane and play two games in quick succession is never easy, coupled with [facing] a team that’s fighting for a playoff spot right now.
I thought we came in and established our rhythm and control pretty early in the game. We were fortunate to score a goal when we had momentum in the match. So, I thought the first half was very good.
But, in the second half, there was definitely a spell of fifteen minutes or so where we suffered. But, the guys were fantastic in that moment, and I thought that we defended really well tonight. As they started to push more numbers higher up the field, it started opening up some things in transition, and that’s where you have to be a killer. Luckily, Coleman [Gannon] and Christian [Pinzón] did that.
Proud of the guys. They’re hungry for more, and we’re going to keep going.
Some rotation in the lineup tonight as the regular season winds down. How happy are you with the depth and strength of the squad?
I know one statistic is that everybody in the squad has started at least one match throughout the season. We preach collective process all the time. You can see not only the guys that started and took their opportunity, but also the guys that came off the bench to bring energy and finish the game out.
Everybody’s on the same page, and everyone’s unified together. We’re going to continue to rely on everybody on the team to help us be successful.
With Raiko Arozarena gone with Cuba, what did you think of George Marks’ first start for the club and clean sheet tonight?
I’ve known George for years, and he’s always been a great person and high quality goalkeeper. I think he stepped in tonight and obviously kept a shutout, but he also made a couple really big saves.
So, credit to him. It’s not easy, especially for a goalkeeper, to not be in a rhythm of games and have to step in, but I thought he handled himself very well tonight.
Talk through the three goals tonight. Gyau, Gannon, and Pinzón all took their chances well after some great team build-up.
I think the first one, especially, was an area that we wanted to try to exploit tonight, in terms of having our wide dynamics. So, I forget the exact sequence, but I know we arrived behind. We wanted our fullbacks to be aggressive in the right moments, and with Shawn [Smart] and Vaughn [Covil] and J.C. [Ngando], I thought we had a lot of good moments in the first half.
Again, we were preaching on making the extra pass in a lot of situations throughout this season. I think that you saw that we found the open guy tonight, which created a higher probability goal scoring opportunity for us tonight, and the guys took it.
Now, attention shifts to the final home match of the season against Oakland. Any message for the fans as Fan Appreciation Night is up next?
We love them every time they’re out there. This team’s hungry, and we want more, and we want to be able to host as many games as possible when it comes to the postseason. So, the more [fans] that we have out there, the better.
We’re excited to come home and finish out the regular season home match schedule strong.
