Swope Park Rangers head coach Marc Dos Santos
On struggling to score the first goal:
“I looked at my assistant and said when we don’t score on so many opportunities it becomes dangerous. But I think that, one of the things we spoke about at halftime is to stay patient, make sure we don’t get out of our place. Stay patient, stay patient, and they stayed patient. The goal came in a moment that we deserved because we were the best team on the field. The 2-0 came also in a counter attack – very good play situation. I think we didn’t need to suffer like that to win again because we created enough to win sooner, but when there’s a first game there’s a lot of anxiety. We expect a lot being in this building and this stadium so it brings anxiety and excitement and at the end of the day what I think is that players have to be just ready to deal with these things. I think they did a good job and at the end of the day we deserved the 3 points.”
On forward Dane Kelly:
“Dane understands that there’s a lot of things about him having to score and he has to score because he’s a forward in the USL with goals. If Dane plays like that all the time and the team wins and he contributes the way he did without scoring he’s still going to be a very special player in this league because I always tell the players the individual is not more important than the collective and Dane showed that today by display. He did his job well and allowed other guys to show and participate. He did a great job there.”
On conceding late in the game:
“Very disappointed, because it comes from nothing and after they get a last ball that is a throw-in imagine if they tie, you say how do you tie a game like that that you dominate so much, it brings some comfort and sometimes it’s good that it happens because you go back to the board this week and you’re hard on a couple of points, but I think overall the back four, all the team collectively defending did a very good job.”
On if tonight’s result was a relief:
“I’m very much in my zone, I’m a calm guy, I get agitated on the field, but you know you have to stay calm in situations like that and stay strong.”
On the team’s offensive play:
“If you’re one of the people that followed the team pretty much from the first day, we’ve always built sessions and worked with the guys to get them to understand the way we want to play. When you do that all the time in training you create habits and when you create those habits they go faster and faster. That’s what we want to do, we are very concerned on the way we play and our model of play and I think overall the guys are understanding that very well, and then you have a team that is confident and comes out very strong.”
Swope Park Rangers forward Daniel Salloi
On scoring his first goal for the club:
“I got my first touch of the game. I played it into the space and I made my run into the box, and I was hoping I would get a good ball. I got a very good ball from Mark (Anthony Gonzalez) – thanks for him – and then it was an easy finish but I’m happy I that could score.”
On his nerves heading into the game:
“It was a great atmosphere in the stadium. Thanks for the fans for coming out and hopefully I keep scoring and then keep playing.”
On the process of signing as a Homegrown player:
I think it is a great way. I can show a path to the other kids in the Academy there is a way up and I am scoring for the Swope Park Rangers and then hopefully next week I’m scoring for Sporting. That is the plan.
