Swope Park Rangers Head Coach Paulo Nagamura
On the team’s performance:
"It was a great performance by the guys. We came ready to play. We knew that we were playing against a team that was fighting to get into the playoffs, so we had to match their intensity, and their work and I think in the beginning we did that. Right off the bat Wilson Harris scores a great goal. Overall it was a very good performance. I’m disappointed with the set piece goal that we conceded just because we had something organized for that, that we didn’t do. Our guy lost his guy and they ended up scoring, but I think it was a solid performance defensively and offensively from the guys."
On not giving up dangerous opportunities:
"I think they had maybe one or two chances in the first half. We knew they’re a team that likes to play with Johnson and Asiedu, so we tried to manage that part of the game and I think our guys did pretty well. Again, they were very disciplined with what we asked them to do. That paid off in a good result in the end. Of course, we were playing up 3-1 and they had 10 men, so I think a good part of that was the team managing the game really well. They were not forcing too much and making sure they were moving the ball and the other team came and chased us a little bit. I think the management at the end of the game was very good."
On the maturity of the young players:
"It was great to see. They read the game really well at that moment and they, of course I was screaming on the sideline as well, but they read the game very well. They managed the last 20 minutes very well. To be honest we could’ve stuck one or two more there with the chances we had. Overall, I’m very pleased with the performance."
On Wilson Harris’ recent play:
"Wilson is a worker and it's part of it, of course his confidence. Another part of it is he’s getting a rhythm of games. He’s been playing well so he’s getting rhythm, he’s getting match fitter, he’s getting sharper and we all know he has a quality around the box. We know that if he has the chance, he’s going to bury it. Again, he’s full of confidence now and hopefully his injury is not too bad and we can keep him with the groups for the last four or five games we have.
Swope Park Rangers midfielder Felipe Hernandez
On the team’s recent performances:
“I guess we just got good chemistry here at the end, we’re starting to build momentum so it’s good to end on a good note.”
On the performance against Birmingham:
“Overall it was good. We scored, we could’ve scored plenty more, but we got goals – more than them, we got a win – that’s all that matters.”
On the maturity level of a young team to close out the game:
“Over the course of the season, we’ve made some mistakes – giving up goals toward the end of the game. I guess we’ve kind of learned, that’s part of it, we’ve learned to keep the ball, not have silly mistakes in the back and end up losing points at the end.”
On the game plan against Birmingham:
“They gave us lots of space, so when we recovered the ball and were going forward, they were lacking in transition getting back. Whenever we were able to get the ball going forward, we had plenty of space.”
Swope Park Rangers defender Graham Smith
On the performance:
“It was disappointing to give up the one, but we put three in the back of their net so pretty excited about that.”
On the goal the team conceded:
“Just miscommunication on marks, at the end of the day you’ve just got to stick with your guy, but we’ll move on.”
On managing the game at the end:
“It makes it easier when we just keep the ball, you just keep possession and make them do all the work. When they’re down a man and down goals, it just makes it easy to kill off the game.”
On the maturity shown to close out the game:
“It did show maturity, but it also shows a buy-in to the values of the club. That’s the system that we want to play from the first team down, and I think it was on good display tonight and especially in the closing moments of the game.”
