Sporting Kansas City II head coach Paulo Nagamura
Thoughts on the team's performance…
Pleased with the performance of the team, pleased with the way that we played with the ball. I would not say that we had control of the game, but we break them a lot of times, we put ourselves in good scoring opportunities. Maybe we lacked a little bit in the first half in the final third, whether it's the final pass or a shot, but I was pleased with the way the team carried themselves for the entire game. Didn't give too many open opportunities for Atlanta and I was pleased with the way that we managed the game as well after we scored. We were much smarter. After that defeat in Louisville, I think that's a very good lesson to take from this game.
On being disciplined defensively after conceding late in the previous game in Louisville...
I think we knew the outcome of the last game could've been different in Louisville, and that was definitely because we didn't do our best job of managing the game after we got ahead, but today I think the guys were locked in. They managed well, they made smarter decisions on the ball, but also they played when they had to play. I think in the second half we create enough opportunities and we put ourselves in good positions in the final third where we could score the second or the third, but we didn't, but again I'll take the positive of this game being a clean sheet against a very good young side that Atlanta is. To finish our home season with a win like that, I was pleased with it.
On what he's looking to get out of the team in the final two road matches...
We talked about, in these past few days and weeks, we have to try and be the best version of ourselves the last two games. To be honest, in the last five, six games, it was a lot of improvement from the beginning of the year. I think we're always competitive, we always play head-to-head against teams that are now going to reach the playoffs and going to fight for bigger things, so it's not going to be different in Birmingham or Oakland, we're going to try and be the best version of ourselves, give our best shot to win the game. That's who we're going to try to be the last few weeks.
Sporting Kansas City II midfielder Ozzie Cisneros
Thoughts on the match…
It was a very intense game, it was a great battle. Everybody played their hearts out today. With it being the last home game, I thought we did really well.
On how it felt to score the game-winner...
It felt amazing. The crowd, when I scored, I just heard a big roar and I just felt amazing. Felt good to finally get one.
