
Cardinale Stadium; Seaside, California
Saturday, September 17, 2022
Sporting Director & Head Coach Frank Yallop
On the match:
It was one of those nights that from the opening 10 or so minutes, they were playing really well, but we adjusted really well tonight in response. They played a bit of a diamond in the midfield which we didn’t expect, so that caught us a little bit off guard. But the first goal made a huge difference in the game. And then to get the second one before halftime was important. But what a performance from the guys. From our defending as a group to our attacking as a group and our dynamic play around the ball and our interchanging of passes and our willingness to take risks in the final third was great. It’s really difficult to score five goals at any level, but especially at this level where our league is a tough league. It was a really good night, we played well.”
On having a week and a half off following last weekend’s postponement:
“Our guys were fresh and ready. We had not played for 10 days but we had a really good week of practice and I felt good going into this game. Collectively, we are doing fantastic. The system we are playing right now suits our players and they are enjoying it. The movement and the free-flowing football is great not just to watch, but to play in. It’s also great to coach it. I know the guys are really enjoying what they are doing right now.”
On the playoff race in the Western Conference in the club’s inaugural season:
“I think the next 10 days will sort of say it all. We have a home game on Wednesday against Phoenix, then we go to Miami to play them on Saturday and then we have Vegas away on Tuesday before coming home to play Tampa so I think in the next 10 days, our season will be defined. I feel good about it. It’s in our hands. We have games in hand on most of the teams if not all, so that’s always a good thing as long as you get those points. If you told me at the start when we got beat 6-0 at San Antonio that we’d be sitting here, it’s good. I mean it takes a while to get used to the players, we’ve had a few injuries as well. I’m not making excuses, but I am a realist. We’ve worked hard and never lost our spirit in the camp and you are seeing that now. The guys have been fantastic and fully deserved their performance tonight.”
Midfielder James Murphy
On scoring his first professional goal on his birthday:
“It’s a funny one, I’m not much of a birthday person, but I’ll take this one today. It’s actually my first goal in the USL Championship and first goal for the club, so for it to come tonight and with the result that we got, I’m buzzing and so are all the boys. I’m really happy about it. My phone is blowing up already, people are shocked that I scored because I don’t normally get those.”
On the club’s most complete game of the season:
“Yeah I think it’s probably fair to say that it was our most complete game of the season, I think everyone would agree. We’ve had a lot of great performances where we think we could have gotten a result like this but maybe the goals didn’t fall for us, but tonight it was an all-around performance. Attacking wise we got the five goals, we finished our chances. And then honestly, we’re just as happy about the clean sheet on the other end as we are our five goals. Keeping clean sheets, you’re never going to lose games. So if we keep holding teams to zeroes back there, then three, four, five, even one goal games are going to be wins and that’s all what we’re looking to do.”
On Sam Gleadle and Chase Boone:
“Sam himself has been on fire recently. Chase had struggled with an injury for a few weeks, he’s come back into the team for the last couple, and for him to get two goals tonight, we’re all really happy for him. He deserves it for the way he’s worked. Gleadle deserves it too for the way he’s been training. Those are two guys that if they get hot these last five games for us, good things will happen.”
On the playoff race:
“Look, I think we’re supremely confident right now. We’re playing well and we’re getting results. We have wins in the last three, clean sheets in two of the last three, so I think we’re pretty confident. We’re confident going up against any team in the league right now, which I think three or four months ago we probably wouldn’t have said that. Now we are extremely confident, especially with teams coming here to Cardinale Stadium. We think we can beat anyone on our home field and right now we think we can go anywhere and give teams a real test.”
Forward Christian Volesky
On the result:
“We were just having fun today. We haven’t had a coming out party yet, for lack of a better term. We are firing on all cylinders and scoring five goals proves that. We set a tone and we’re ready for the next one.”
On the match:
“I would say this is the most complete game for the team, besides the first 15 minutes of the game. We were a little bit leggy with the week and a half off, but after that we put it on them a little bit. It was a lot of fun to play in. It was probably the most fun I’ve had in a game as a professional.”
On his 50th professional goal:
“Feels like a little bit of a weight off my shoulders. I am from Las Vegas, and I had a lot of family and friends come out, I figured I would get it in that game. But in front of these fans, it was incredible. Now we go for 100.”