Quotes from Atlanta United manager Gerardo Martino and players following a 1-1 draw with New England Wednesday:
Atlanta United manager Gerardo Martino
On the match: “I want to say that in the first half, I don’t think we deserved to be up a goal. The way we were playing, we didn’t take advantage of that whole half. Then in the second half, I thought we played well. We created a lot of chances that our guys usually convert and I thought at that point we did deserve to win.”
On what dissatisfied him about the match: “That if the penalty they called against us was very close, and the penalty not called on Mikey [Ambrose] was very close, but just not as close.”
Atlanta United defender Michael Parkhurst
On the penalty awarded to New England: “I don’t know. I didn’t see it well. There were a lot of guys in the box. I thought it was a bit soft, but I’d have to see it on replay to know for sure.”
On if he was surprised the officials didn’t use video review on the penalty: “I’m not surprised by anything anymore.”
On if he was disappointed the officials didn’t use video review on the penalty: “It’s up to his [the official’s] discretion. If he thinks it’s a clear penalty – I hope when I look at it I agree. I hope it’s a clear penalty. If it’s a clear penalty, then he shouldn’t look at it. That’s all I have to say about it.”
On the team experiencing bad luck in close-call situations: “Yeah, a little bit. You make your own luck, too, though. I mean, it should have never been at
that point of the game. We shouldn’t have put ourselves in that position, and we did, and we paid the price. We just weren’t clinical enough tonight. We gave them one chance. I thought defensively we played really well. We really limited their chances. Offensively, we created some great chances and their keeper made some great saves. Credit to him for keeping them in the game.”
Atlanta United Midfielder Jeff Larentowicz
On if the penalty kick was the correct call: “I’m not really sure. I think both players seemed to be falling down at that moment. What are you going to say, there’s two refs, there’s one looking out on the field, there’s one up in the box. So, it is what it is, we’ll move on.”
On if he was surprised they didn’t look at a replay on the penalty: “Well, I mean that’s the job of the [Video Assistant Referee] – to look at it and to say whether they should both look at it. So, someone’s looking at the replay. They called it, you know, we don’t need another week of that.”
On if the game should have been that close: “We create the chances, I think that we become dangerous in the second half. When they make offensive subs, the goalkeeper stands on his head, he makes a lot of good saves. One bounces off the cross bar, off the line, stays out of the goal. It’s kind of how the cookie crumbles sometimes, but we’ve got to push on. I mean, if you’re not creating chances then it’s frustrating and if you tie the game and then you think okay, maybe we didn’t deserve that, but we were creating chances, we were putting them under pressure. I thought we defended well as a team, penalty aside. I thought as a team we did well and it’s a draw, but like I said, it’s another game in three days.”
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