September 22, 2018 USL Toronto FC II--Bethlehem Steel FC vs Toronto FC II game review (from bethlehemsteelfc.com)
Quote Sheet: Bethlehem Steel FC vs. Toronto FC II By Bethlehem Steel FC Communications, 09/22/18, 5:30PM EDT Bethlehem Steel FC Head Coach Brendan Burke Opening statement “Pleased to keep a clean sheet, that’s what we talked about all week. We wanted to make sure that we shut down a team that’s been one of the hottest in the league in terms of producing goals and I think we accomplished that. We could have limited their chances a little bit more but that would be nitpicking. We started the youngest team that we’ve ever started in a league match and we won 4-0 against a team that drew at New York 3-3, 4-3 at Cincinnati; they are no pushover. Really happy with the effort, the energy and the concentration level of the performance today.” How promising the result is given the youth “The one thing you always expect to get from youth is energy and they certainly brought that today but they also brought creativity and intent going forward. I think on a different there could have been seven or eight goals in that game.” On the importance of the early goal and the changes at half “We said to the team at halftime that it should have been two or three at halftime, it wasn’t but we said let’s give ourselves the next 10-15 minutes because they could be the most crucial point in our season. If we get this right, we can win this game and we got it right, right out of the half.” On the club going gold and raising nearly $3000 for PCFLV “It’s fantastic, certainly cancer is something that touches everyone one way or another and certainly has for a bunch of us [on the team]. It’s an important day for us and just to see the look on the kid’s face when you take a photo before the game starts, that’s important to all of us and I’m glad we were able to help in a small way.” Bethlehem Steel FC midfielder Michee Ngalina On the club’s energy “In the first half, it was a little hard for us to push because they are hard and good. In the second half Coach [Burke] told us to try and push and that’s when we started scoring.” On the importance of starting out strong personally “I just put my head up so that I can fight for every single game. I like to try and push hard to score.” Bethlehem Steel FC midfielder James Chambers On the result ”I think we came out with energy and started the game right and that’s what I try and tell the boys about. This league about starting the game right and not giving teams an inch to get back into the game and I think we did that. I think we dropped off a little when we didn’t score similar to the Penn FC game but we went back at it again and got rewarded.” On the importance of getting a win and not overlooking an opponent ”We don’t overlook anybody because we aren’t good enough to overlook anybody regardless where they are on the table. Anybody can beat anybody on any given day in this league and these guys have been in terrific form. They have gotten goals and didn’t get the result they deserved. You don’t go to Cincinnati and get three goals for nothing so we knew it was going to be a really hard game.” On if the early goal helped ease the pressure of having to win ”We started well, you don’t start terrific in the first minute but Faris put in a great goal and maybe it calmed some nerves for some of the younger guys who knew it was a big game for us and knew we needed the three points. We kicked on from there but it’s all about starting, if we didn’t get the goal, I think we were in the right frame of mind and started with the right energy that a goal would have come eventually.” On playing in the Go Gold match for PCFLV ”It’s great that we surpassed last year’s amount so we’re pretty happy with that. It was the same last year when we had the day, it’s a terrific day and puts everything into perspective but it’s also a day where you want to win the game because you want to spend a day with the kids. We’re all buzzing now and we get to spend the evening with these guys which is even better.” Bethlehem Steel FC defender Ben Ofeimu On the result ”It was good to get a win and get a clean sheet which is important. Just to get a win, it pushes us higher up the table and gets us comfortable for the playoffs and puts pressure on other teams.”
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