Quote Sheet: MBFC 1-3 OAK
Cardinale Stadium; Seaside, California
Saturday, July 15, 2023
Sporting Director & Head Coach Frank Yallop
On the tactics from both sides:
“We changed our formation halfway through the first half, to go to four at the back. They were getting control in the middle of the field, I wasn’t sure the system they were going to play. They’ve played a back four and a back three, they’ve played inverted with two wide guys. So you never know what you are going to get because they’ve not had a great run of form either before this match so I was expecting changes. It worked out that they played three in the back, a similar system to us. I just think we weren’t on our game at all to start with for whatever reason. Maybe it was nerves, maybe it was the occasion, I don’t know. We at least got ourselves into the game and played decently. I don’t think the system was the issue, we had enough good play and enough chances to get something out of the game. Again it’s won in both boxes. If you can’t defend well, they are going to score, and if you don’t take your chances then we don’t score. And that’s the game right there.”
On what aspects of the game didn’t go to plan:
“I thought we didn’t start the game well at all, Oakland were on the front foot and we weren’t and we kinda weathered that storm a little bit. They obviously went ahead. I just look at the whole game, I thought in the second half we came out with way more vigor and got at them a little bit. I’m not going to blame Alex [Dixon] for missing that chance but it kind of all hinged on that chance where it was probably harder to miss than to score. And then obviously momentum would have swung and we maybe would have gone on top of them – I don’t think we would lose the game then. But when you’re chasing the game late and a third goal goes in, it’s obviously very disappointing to lose. I was talking to Ramiro [Corrales] on the bench and said that we didn’t give up, we kept going. We played against a side that played well tonight, but I think we had our chances. We had more chances than we’ve had lately in games, we just didn’t finish them off like I felt we should have.”
Midfielder Simon Dawkins
On his perspective of the match:
“The effort was there, I think we had a few chances where we could have scored. Sometimes it goes against you and you’ve got to try to hang in there, and today just wasn’t our day. A bit disappointed obviously, but hopefully we can turn it around next week.”
On the plan going in and the execution:
“The plan was obviously to win, that was our main objective. It just didn’t turn out that way. The first five or ten minutes were very back and forth, no one really kept possession of the ball. We should have slowed it down a bit. We are at home obviously so we dictate the tempo of the game and we gave away three sloppy goals. It’s disappointing for us, but we have to dust ourselves off and go again.”
On the push for playoffs:
“It’s very difficult when you lose a couple, then a draw last week and now we lose again, it’s very disappointing after the run that we went on in the previous weeks. So what it’s about now is regrouping and getting ourselves back together. Going back to basics maybe sometimes and try not to get too down, because you can get in a slump and the whole season can just disappear from you. It is important that we stick together and get back on the training ground and enjoy things.”
