Swope Park Rangers Head Coach Paulo Nagamura
On his overall thoughts of the matchā¦
We were not good with the ball offensively, but credit to Tampa. Theyāre an experienced, solid group of players that came here and pressed, and we struggled with that. We were not sharp with the ball, and there were maybe a couple of mistakes that led to the goals we gave away. At the end of the day, we were not sharp enough and didnāt have enough control of the game.
On the keys to improvingā¦
Weāve got to go back to training, assess what we did wrong over the next few days and try to correct those mistakes. Again, itās about us and what weāre doing with the ball. If we donāt come ready to play sharp and play the way we want to play, weāre going to struggle. From the beginning, we were never very confident and we werenāt winning balls. That causes a lot of problems when you play against a quality team like Tampa. Itās a disappointing result but weāll bounce back.
On defender Kaveh Radās exit early in the second halfā¦
He was just feeling dizzy. I donāt think itās anything seriousājust related to the hot weather. Hopefully itās nothing too bad.
On Jake Davis entering as a center back in place of Radā¦
We donāt have too many options as a team at center back, and Jake has played there in the Sporting KC Academy with the U-17 and U-19s. He was the best fit at the time, and besides one giveaway I think he did well. It was great to see that he could perform at that position as well.
Swope Park Rangers forward Ethan Vanacore-Decker
On his overall thoughts of the matchā¦
It was obviously a tough game with it being very hot out there. Tampa is the best team in the league, so itās tough to deal with that as it is. We probably had a few self-inflicted wounds, but we could have come back in the second half. I had a chance to score at one point, then they came down and scored at the other end. Theyāre a good team, so thatās the way it is.
On his goal in the second halfā¦
Thankfully the penalty bounced straight back to me. It wasnāt my best penaltyāI tried to go down the middle and went to the left a little bit. It hit the goalkeeperās stomach I think, so I had to put the second one away.
On scoring for the second time in as many gamesā¦
Iām feeling more fit and Iām starting to feel more like myself, like I was a couple of years ago. I hope this continues so that I can help the team and keep improving.
On the improved form of the teamā¦
Everyone is playing well and training well. We had the ball for a lot of the game today, which is always a good thing, but they had a couple of chances and they scored. Itās just the way the game goes sometimes.