Swope Park Rangers head coach Nikola Popovic
Comments on the match...
It's a good game again from us. I think this team is developing. It was a little bit of suffering from our part and something that wasn't needed. We created so many chances that I think we need to start putting those chances inside of the goal. More than 15 shots, I think this is enough to win a game. The team is growing. The team shows health. There are still a lot of steps until we accomplish what we want but we are on a good path.
On the team's shot selection...
It is normal. When you create the opportunity, the players have the instruction to shoot at goal. Our play is based on possession and trying to find the space where we can overload the side of the opponent and try to score a goal. It happened a lot of times in the first half but we weren't able to score and they counter attack and we concede a goal. Fortunately, the team never gave up. It's our culture. We believe until the end.
On the team's mental toughness...
I really think that we have a very big belief. This is our culture. We believe that until the end it's possible. When you have this will, when you have this want, when you believe you can go beyond what everybody thinks is possible. That's how you create great teams. It's not only how you play. The heart is very important too.
Swope Park Rangers captain Christian Duke
On his goal...
I just continued my run. The ball popped out and I just put a foot to it and it went in. It was a good build up. I think we did a good job of killing the game off. That was one of the big things that we talked about around the game.
Thoughts on the match...
We talked about keeping the ball. I felt like we did an okay job of that in the first half. We had little mistakes here and there. And we talked about them going on the counter. That was the only way they were going to score. I think we fell asleep a little bit but at halftime we felt like we were going to comeback and win this game. We got chances in the first half, we just weren't able to put one away. That's something that we've got to build upon to kill games off earlier.
On the short rest...
I don't think it was a fatigue issue because we did a good job of keeping the ball against Phoenix so we didn't have to run much. I thought guys were fresh going into this game. It's always tough playing two games in three or four days. The mentality that we came out with in the first half was pretty good. We just fell asleep for about two minutes there and they got us.
On the team's mentality...
We just have a never die mentality. It's pretty evident once we do put ourselves in a situation like that. We don't rush anything. We keep playing our game. We let the game come to us a little bit. We're always going to create chances, especially when we have the ball. We just have to find the back of the net more often.
Swope Park Rangers defender Liam Doyle
On his goal...
We'd been playing a short corner the whole game, which sometimes I'm involved in. But this one, I think they'd figured it out by then. I just went in the box and the man didn't follow me. I seen it coming and I thought, 'I've got to score' and it went in. It all happened quick. You just hope you connect well and hope it goes in.
On the team's possession...
We've controlled every game that we've been in. I think sometimes tonight we lost control because we were a bit tired from Sunday. We dominate maybe for 80 minutes. We have these little periods we just need to fix in patches and we'll be very hard to beat.
On the team's development...
It's been good. It's been challenging. We've been in six months now since preseason. We work on similar stuff every week. We know the model and we know what's expected of us. I think it's starting to show week by week.
Colorado Springs Switchbacks FC head coach Steve Trittschuh
Thoughts on the match...
I thought we lost focus on a couple of plays and they capitalized on it. But to be fair, I just looked at the second goal and it should have been a foul before they scored. But we brought it upon ourselves. We lost focus and end up giving up a goal off a restart and giving up another one late. That's not the way we've been playing. We've got to take our chances in the first half, I thought we had a few, and then we're in a better position. It's a loss.
On the team's goal...
It wasn't against the run of play. We had some good play there. We had a couple of other chances there. The first half, I thought, was decent. We counter attacked on them. We stayed compact. If they have a lot of possession and if they're not doing anything with it, that's fine with us. We had a couple of chances that we should have scored and it would have been a different game.
Colorado Springs Switchbacks FC midfielder Eddy Prugh
On his goal...
Kevaughn made a great run up the left and then found a sliding pass for me. If you miss one like that, you think about it for a long time. It's my first goal of the season. It felt good.
On the team's first trip to KC...
It's tough to move here. I don't know if it's always this humid. I felt like I was playing with a backpack on or something. Anyways, KC is an organized club so I wouldn't expect them to bring anything less than they did.
