Quote Sheet: MB 4-1 LDN
Cardinale Stadium; Seaside, California
Saturday, June 3, 2023
Sporting Director & Head Coach Frank Yallop
On his takeaways from the win:
“I thought it was a great performance. We were a little unlucky not to score at least two in the first half. But yeah I’m really happy with the guys. Great effort, some good goals, an exciting game again. Wednesday was a little disappointing, I think we should have got three points that night as well. It would’ve been a great week, but it wasn’t to be. But tonight I was really happy with the guys. We changed the system a little bit, we played two up front with Ugo [Okoli] and Christian [Volesky] and I think it worked. We dominated a lot of the play and created some great chances.”
On Ugo Okoli’s first start:
“I am pleased with him. He’s gotten steadily better in training. He’s been out for a little while, away from the game for a little while. But he’s a great kid, he works hard, and just now we’re sort of seeing the real Ugo. He feels a lot fitter and sharper and looked good tonight, I thought his hold-up play was good. He did well the other night on Wednesday when he came on as a sub as well. It was nice to get his first start and for him to play well for us.”
On finishing off a two-match week:
“We had a break before this week so Wednesday night was the first game for ten days after coming back from Charleston, which was a long trip where we didn’t win. I was hoping for two wins at home this week, but I wanted to make sure we got at least four points and we got them. Now we have a couple of away games in a row, which I’m looking forward to now. I think we’ve proven that we’re a dangerous team to play against and now that everyone’s sort of getting back healthy, I feel good about the future and what we can do in the next couple of games and right through the season.”
Forward Ugo Okoli
On his first start and assist:
“I was excited today, I’ve been putting in a lot of work in training. It was a good few months in training once I got in, a good few weeks. I was happy to get to start tonight, but more importantly, I’m happy to get the win. I think on the assist to Boone the ball dropped in the middle of the park. I just picked it up and tried to commit the defender. I saw him on the wing and he took over after that. It was a good goal, an important goal for us at the time and I’m glad we got the win tonight.”
On the importance of tonight’s result:
“Tonight was very important. It was a tough month. I thought we played some good football at times, but we weren’t able to get the results. So to start this month with three points, I think it’s a good boost for us. Now we have to continue in this way.”
On a busy week:
“Wednesday was a disappointing result for us, we thought we should have won at home. It was good that we had a quick turnaround to try and clear our minds and get three points tonight. The most important thing is that we did that. After we take a couple of days to get our legs back, we have another important game on Saturday. We’re looking forward to it.”
