Swope Park Rangers head coach Marc Dos Santos
On the game:
“It was a game that we managed the 90 minutes knowing of the tiredness. You know there’s a lot of accumulation – guys were a little bit tired – so the only way we would win this game was digging very deep and making sure we would go and get a lot of energy. We scored the first goal and that allowed us to manage a little bit more of the game and of course the red card then allowed us even more just to manage the 90 minutes without pushing too much. Then we started to take out guys we felt have more minutes accumulated, but to win a game in the way we did and being able to manage the game, that’s important.”
On travel prior to the game:
“I think it wasn’t a spectacular game from our part, but when you play Sunday in Oklahoma and you get in a bus and you play in Tulsa, in a bus again, coming here for two days after playing another game I think what the guys have done in this week, getting the nine points and guaranteeing the quarterfinal here at home, it’s all credit to them and what an excellent job they did as a group.”
On Amer Didic’s first professional goal:
“He deserves it, for sure he deserves it. The way he celebrated was like, ‘finally’. He created so many opportunities in other games and corner kicks and attacking some set plays. There’s a goal that was disallowed, I don’t remember against who, but a home game that he scored and when we watched the video again he wasn’t offside and the ref called it offside. The kid deserved it, so we’re happy for him and for him to finally get a goal in his rookie year, it’s special for him for sure.”
On opening the playoffs at home:
“It’s special, because when you think that the objective of the team in the beginning first was to give opportunities to a group and to showcase for the first team, being a team that you allowed the first team players to rotate if they need in and out, having played a little bit of minutes from guys from the Academy. Our second objective was to make the playoffs, then you’re able to make the playoffs in a way that you guarantee the home field advantage finishing in the top four. An expansion team to finish the season four points only away from the first place, this is one tie and a loss and it’s so close to the first place. It’s incredible what these guys have done in 30 games. Now this is playoffs, playoffs is one game. You could be fantastic in that night or bad and unfortunately you win or you don’t. It’s one game that’s going to decide, but I’ll never judge the team. I’ll judge the team in the 30 games, and now playoffs it’s another season and we’ll take it game-by-game.”
Swope Park Rangers defender Amer Didic
On scoring his first professional goal:
“In my opinion, it’s 30 games too late but it’s always nice getting a goal in the game. It helped put us in fourth place and get that home game next week. There have been many games where I have been in the box, on corners and set pieces and haven’t been able to put it in the back of the net but today, I finally did it. It’s some pressure off my shoulders.”
On opening the playoffs at home:
“Right now it’s very important, especially with how the travel works. We would have to play LA, I believe, fly all the way there and play the next day. So definitely getting home field advantage helps us a lot. We get to sleep in our own beds, eat our own meals, all of that stuff. We have been talking about this for a couple weeks now, how important these three games are – feels good to get this home game.”
On finishing in fourth in the club’s inaugural season:
“That’s something we aim to do was to make the playoffs. We made the top eight and once we realized that, it was like: “Hey, we can go up more.” We can aim for that home field advantage which is very crucial. So to make the playoffs in the inaugural season and hosting the first one, it’s a very successful season for the Swope Park Rangers.”
On the growth of the team:
“Starting from preseason, knowing each other with a bunch of guys coming in, we’ve been talking about this in our pregame talks for the past months and it feels pretty good. Confidence is very high. Hopefully, we can keep this going on Friday.”
