What was said: Orlando 3, Atlanta United 2

What was said after Atlanta United’s 3-2 loss at Orlando on Friday in an MLS game:

Atlanta United Interim Head Coach Rob Valentino:

On his main takeaways from the match tonight: “The learning experience for myself in terms of how we manage the game, that was definitely something we talked about. We knew we would get a little bit open, that there would be transitions. But I don’t think I have in me to sit back and not try and take it and go and get a win. I just have a lot of disappointment right now. I’m disappointed we lost the game. Takeaways are difficult to find right now.”

On what the difference was in the second half: “Yeah probably. We knew there would be stretches of the game where they would have the ball. So, we were talking about how do we manage those. When do we step up our line, when do we go to press. We talked about pressing triggers, and triggers to defend higher up. But as you said, the lines got stretched and we got open. They are a really good team, as much as that pains me to say. They are a really well coached. We knew they had certain aspects that could cause us a lot of problems. I knew they would try to find holes in areas in the midfield. I also thought about how to we defend those if they break into those lines. That was an emphasis in our talks. Whether those were the moments that hurt us, or we were a little naïve thinking we could go and press more. I think players went a little out of their lines at times, but we are still trying to figure out exactly how to defend in this system I believe.”

On keeping the progress moving forward: “Win games. Win games is a very simple one. They can be encouraged that two attacking players scored really nice goals, but ultimately it’s winning games. We can talk as much as we want, but it comes down to winning games.”

On any injury update on Brooks Lennon: “I don’t have an update yet. I’m sure I’ll get one here soon. I just spoke to the team real quick, but didn’t want to keep you guys waiting, so I came in right away to speak to you guys.”

On playing Ronald Hernandez and Brooks Lennon together on right side: “Yeah, I thought it was going to cause a big problem for them. I wanted to get more balance in the team and bring in Mikey Ambrose as a left-footed left back. Ronald has done really well on both sides, but I thought it could be an area that we could explore and get into space. When we were on the ball in spells in the beginning, Brooks took up the right spots that we told him to. I wished we would have been able to get on it a little more. We could have done more with it. Not by any fault of theirs, I thought they picked the right times to go and they had good interchange and good combination play. I thought having Brooks, who is a natural attacker, and a natural defender in Ronald would work well with each other. I thought they had a good first half, a good game overall. They gave everything they had.”

On playing Mikey Ambrose and Erik Lopez on left side and if that was a gamble: “Like I said, I wanted to have balance with a left footer on the left side. I knew they would have a threat if Ruan played. I also thought at times can we manage the moments and Mikey defend 1-v-1 a little bit deeper as an actual left back. When we were on the ball, Erik could bring himself a little more inside, which I thought would be a good thing especially in transition. At times we knew that Erik would have to track back with Ruan, and I thought we managed moment. But it caused us some problems as well, so we had to make that change at halftime.”

Atlanta United goalkeeper Alec Kann:

On not getting results despite playing well lately: “This is a results based business. We haven’t been getting the results the club expects. We are out of excuses. It’s on the players to get this right and we’ve got to look ourselves in the mirror and make it happen on Wednesday.”

On what the team needs to improve on: “There were a lot of positives from the first two games after Rob (Valentino) took over and there was a lot of talk all week to do what it takes to win games. I don’t think we had that extra five percent that I thought we needed to come here and win. At the end of the day, I thought that Orlando wanted to win just a little bit more than us. When you are in the spot that we are in, a difficult spot, if you don’t have that edge you will get beat.”

On the attack coming to life tonight: “Yeah, it was nice to see Josef get on the scoresheet. Marcelino’s goal was unreal. It’s good to have us scoring goals. The last couple games, we couldn’t score despite creating chances. Tonight, we score goals, but we leak goals in the back. We have to right the ship on both sides of the ball.”

On the defensive side tonight: “I think the goals that we gave up, they brought on subs that changed the game. I believe they combined for the second goal, and then it was the sub who served the ball to Nani on the third goal. The guys they brought on made a difference. We need to do a better job of closing guys down in crossing situations, which is something we talked about all week. Then box marking is something that I don’t think was good enough tonight with three headed goals.”

On the team still adapting to this defensive system: “I don’t know. Again, like I said we are out of excuses. We need to find a way to win games. It’s not going to be pretty. We might not play the most beautiful brand of soccer, but we need to find a way to get results and we haven’t been doing that. Whether its box defending, taking our chances, making smart fouls, not conceding set pieces, those are the things you need to do to win games and we didn’t do that tonight.”

Atlanta United defender Ronald Hernández

On if the team ran out of energy in the second half: “Yes, we knew the game was going to be very difficult. Josef’s goal gave us energy from the start but unfortunately we weren’t able to maintain the result.”

On all three of Orlando’s goals coming from headers: “Unfortunately, it’s not a secret that we’re suffering on set pieces and aerial play in our own box. I think we have to be responsible, starting with me, and to be more concentrated in the next match because in the last games we’ve suffered various goals from set pieces and need to be more focused in the future.”

On the goals tonight and if the team’s attack is finding itself: “I think the two goals tonight give us confidence to be more precise in attack because in the last games we know that we’ve created many chances and unfortunately weren’t able to finish and that’s a positive moving forward.”

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Atlanta United’s 2021 MLS schedule

April 17 Atlanta United 0, Orlando 0

April 24 Atlanta United 3, Chicago 1

May 1 New England 2, Atlanta United 1

May 9 Atlanta United 1, Inter Miami 1,

May 15 Atlanta United 1, Montreal 0

May 23 Atlanta United 1, Seattle 1