Phoenix Rising Head Coach Pa Modou-Kah:
On his thoughts on the match…
“I think in the first half we were very good. We were finding the spaces and we were utilizing the spaces. Second half, I think there was a little bit of disconnect, and we were a little bit deep, we stopped playing, which is not us. I hope we could have kept a clean sheet, but again, when this time of the season, you take it.”
On the impact of JuanDavid…
“JuanDavid is a very intelligent player. He understands how to play in spaces, and I think that is very crucial for us because we want to come on the ball, and then we need people to understand him. Obviously, he’s been here for two weeks, but he integrates well with the boys, he talks with the boys, and he’s going to continue to have an effect like today, a fantastic cross. We’re very happy with him, and we just have to continue to make him and his teammates understand each other.”
On Gunnar’s responsibility to produce…
“It’s very important because that’s one of his qualities, it’s also his growth. In professional football, in a professional environment, you gradually help him. You can see that he is tenacious, hard-working, but also he will need a little bit of time, so we’re working on him, but we know that he can be dangerous at training, on the stretch, and he showed it a couple of times for us. So we’re very happy that he got the goal. It was a great strike from him. So we’re very happy with his development.”
Phoenix Rising Forward Gunnar Studenhofft:
Overall thoughts on tonights match…
“I think the team played really well. We were able to keep possession for most of the game. Second half, we were kind of sitting back, but you know, we kept the pressure on and tried to allow as few mistakes as we could so to get the win was really special.”
On the message from Pa during his substitution…
“Go in and be strong, cause problems like I do when I come on, and the chance will come, just take it. That’s what happened.”
“It was a team effort. I mean, we won it off the press. We were able to win it in their half and I guess capitalize on the loose ball and drive forward, and strong finish on the goal and my shot.”
On his mentality in front of goal…
“For my profile as a player, my job is to just cause the defender problems, be strong, be fast. I think I’ve been doing that for the whole season. The goals are coming. Being here in my first real season as a professional, I think everything is going in the right direction to help my team and do my best as a player to get back.”
