On the result against St. Louis
Another clean sheet, two in a row. I think that’s probably what I am most happy about from this game. We are continuing to grow as a defensive team. We have proven before that we can score goals, but it is nice now to prove that we are defending the box very well. Now that the second half of the season has started, it is important for us to keep defending this way, moving in and climbing the standings.
On the high-press style of play that Chris Armas implements
This is one of the types of things that makes us the team we are. You look at the best teams in the world, some goals come directly off pressing and then going straight to goal. The coach harps on this all the time and if you can put a price tag on counter-pressing and pressing, how many goals that leads to--we love those valuable players, but as you can see that game after game the press is getting more and more cohesive. We press, we counter press. We win the ball and we try to go forward as quick as possible to the goal.
On Sebastian Anderson's performance, assisting his first goal
I think this was a similar type of game like in Houston. I can say he's the best player in the field because he threw that ball to me. He had a tough task today. To come into this type of place, St. Louis is a very difficult place to play and they have some of the best supporters in my opinion in the Western Conference and given all these circumstances, to get your second start and to play like this is impressive. And not only him but but you can go across the whole lineup and the guys that came on who everybody did their jobs, everybody did what the coaches asked. So now this is very complete performance from us.
On the result against St. Louis
Tonight is a good example of the boys getting rewarded for a lot of stuff that they have put in, some good performances over the last month. It’s not easy to take a hard look at yourselves, we did that over the break and two shutouts now in a row, also victories there. I am really proud of the team, they way from the opening whistle went after the game. We came here for a win and we attacked, we played against a pretty good team tonight in this building and I am really proud of the group. Important victory.
On Mihailovic's ability to play the high-press style
We're a team that attacks with the ball and we want to be the team that attacks when we don't and we're still a work in progress with this. But you can see how dynamic Djordje is, he's quick, not just speed of foot but speed of thought, and he's committing more of himself to the team. These moments we talk a lot about, that playmaker that can get us 10, 15 goals a year. As a coach you can then just point to these examples to get the buy-in in these moments because it's thankless sometimes, because it's a lot of running and dirty work. Djordje's in a really good place guys. He's a father now, he's got this renewed energy and you can see that the performances keep getting better and better. It's a nice all-around performance for him tonight. We're gonna need it from everyone, especially him.
On the roster-selection process during busy weeks
I would think that we'll take a hard look and think about fresh legs and then tactically what makes the most sense but I have a lot of confidence in our roster. I have a lot of confidence in the depth, confidence in players' abilities to suffer and increase the comfort zones to suffer and to endure a little bit more physically. It's a difficult part of any coach's job. The thing that we have is the minutes for the players and only 11 guys can start and you only use a finite amount to divvy out. We'll take a close look. Again, I have a lot of confidence. Starting Oliver Larraz tonight, he didn't start the last few games so we brought him back and I thought he was really good. Seb Anderson, Keegan that can play on both sides. Lalas has stayed in it all along, guys off the bench tonight, like Calvin comes in, Yapi comes in, they all want goals. They helped seal the victory. They brought energy, they helped us still be aggressive in some pressing moments. Jasper Löffelsend and Connor Ronan, you can see our energetic guys. This is important in a team. So I control the minutes with the staff and I like that it's real internal competition. Really strong internal competition that's driving the team forward and then I can take the tough decisions, but that's that's my job.
