Swope Park Rangers Manager Nikola Popovic
Thoughts on the game…
It’s a very difficult game first of all because the heat is a very important piece of the game. Not only for us, but for them too. I think when you play under such conditions it's difficult to be able to perform at a high level. But I think the team has this culture and this will to win until the end. They keep strong and keep together until the end of the match. It was a very good performance. Perhaps not as good as against San Antonio, but this is what is strange. You play good and lose; and not so good and win. But we are much more closer to what we want these players to do. The heat had a very important part today.
Thoughts on bouncing back after giving up goal…
I speak about the culture of this club and the core values: the team comes first, the mentality, work ethic and intelligence. I think the team showed these beliefs. That is very important, but this is a result of the core values of the club and what we want is to fight until the end. I think this team proved that it’s capable of doing these kinds of things. This is not something that happens only once but we are a team that fights until the end
Thoughts on rallying after conceding the equalizer....
I think we have to talk about the whole group. Not just the 14 who played, but the whole 18 and give them congrats because they played until the last moment of the game.
Swope Park Rangers forward Mark Anthony Gonzalez
On his return from injury…
It was a lot of fun, especially after not playing at all since Sacramento. I suffered a hamstring injury and it’s good to be back on the field and scoring goals
On scoring twice late...
It always feels good to win, especially at home in front of the fans. It meant a lot to come back and contribute to the team's success.
Thoughts on the heat…
We kind of struggled. It wasn’t really our game. The heat had a big factor. We weren’t moving as fast or pressing as fast. I don’t know how those other players played 90 minutes. I came in for 25 and was dead by the end, but that’s coming back from injury so I'll get there.
On relinquishing the lead...
At first, everyone was kind of down but we kept pushing and creating opportunities. Belmar had a good one on one that created a pk. We put that away and we kept pushing. We didn’t want to sit back and let them tie it again. I was able to finish it out and put the game away.
Swope Park Rangers forward Cameron Iwasa
Thoughts on his goal…
Parker made a great run on the side. I went at them with pace and the back line dropped off so I just came underneath a little bit, took a touch and just hit it. It found the net and that feels good. It’s been a long season for me so far, so to see one find the net feels good.
Thoughts on his recovery…
Coming into preseason I was feeling pretty good but then I had a set back and it has just been a long road back. I just haven’t been sharp in the games that I’ve played. Finally, the last couple of games I've got my feet under me and felt like I was playing good but just needed to get on the score sheet so to finally get that was a big relief.
Thoughts on how the goal affected the team…
I think it was huge. The conditions were tough. It was super hot so to be able to come in and bring a spark to get us going was huge. We gave up a tough goal but showed a lot of resiliency from the boys to keep fighting and eventually get those goals.
Tulsa Roughnecks FC Manager David Vaudreuil
Thoughts on the match…
I thought it was a great game. In the first fifteen minutes, we didn’t want to stretch ourselves out and put us all over the field but when the ball came to us we wanted to press it. The ball got away from us way too easily but after that I thought we played very well. These are two good teams. Usually Swope has a lot of possession and we tried to come and have a lot of possession. I don’t know what the numbers are but I know we did a good job of trying to play our game. In the heat, I was all over them trying to get them to play faster and raise the intensity. That was my one complaint: when we got the ball with a little bit of freedom or in their end, we rushed and gave it away too quickly. We had five or six at the end line. We had three or four shots in the six-yard box. On the road, in 85-plus degree heat, I thought we played very bravely. We gave up a pk in the 90th minute but Swope is a good team. I thought the whole game we played well. The biggest thing is when we win the ball, we're a big counter attack team. But we have got to be smart and not rush. If you rush and give it away in the first or second pass, you’re going to defend. And in this heat, we don’t want to defend. At times, we really rushed. As the second half went along, I thought we played really well. We responded well and scored a goal. We tried to balance between not leaving ourselves open and going to score the second goal. I think we had enough numbers back, we just didn’t get anyone out to double with George on the sideline and a guy made a good move and caught him with tired legs. I thought we were very unlucky to give up a pk in the 90th minute but two very good teams playing a tough game in the conditions and I can’t complain. We gave a lot of effort and tried to play the whole time.
On preparing for the U.S. Open Cup…
Unfortunately, the game was tough for us and we had to keep guys out there. I would have liked to make subs earlier but this game was very important to us. Down 1-0 then tied 1-1, we tried not giving up the second goal and play for a tie. So we’ll have to rotate maybe two or three guys. It's a quick turnaround and Dallas had a really tough game last night in Portland and they’ve got some guys on international duty and some guys that are hurt and they’ll have to rotate some guys as well. .We hope that the match-up works and we'll get a chance to go out there and play and try to win the game.
Tulsa Roughnecks FC forward Joey Calistri
Thoughts on the match…
These are always tough games in the heat and I thought we fought really hard for 89 minutes. We played really well and then the last goal was unfortunate but we played really well and showed a lot of character to come back. We've got a big game on Wednesday so were looking forward to that now.
On bouncing back for the U.S. Open Cup...
If you can’t get up for these kinds of games, then you shouldn’t be playing the game. We’re playing FC Dallas and it's single elimination. Anything can happen. We're going to be fired up and we're going to be ready to go.
