T2 head coach Andrew Gregor
On winning the game…
“It feels good. It takes a little bit of the weight off, but I’d say the most important thing from it is the confidence that it will give the boys moving forward. Now they know that they can work during the week and develop and get better and learn. The result, you know, it’s not the greatest game we’ve ever played, but it’s still something that they’ll be able to build on and move forward, especially going into our road trip that is coming up.”
On the team’s defensive effort…
“Well, I thought that the defense did well against a team that is very, very experienced. Their attack has players, especially in the second half when the bring on two MLS guys, that are guys that play in the MLS. Tommy Thompson started for San Jose on Wednesday, so he’s a quality player. I thought that even though we were under some pressure, I thought we did a good job and that’s part of the learning process too. We scored the first goal and then maybe got away a little bit from playing because there’s still a lot of time in the game. But, that’s something that we can learn from.
On the team’s improvement from the previous match…
“I think there was a little bit more confidence about the group. It wasn’t easy to play against them today so we had bits and pieces of okay play. But, I think the confidence and the belief to win their individual battles and kind of grind the game out was important. You know, good teams find ways to win and we found a way to grind it out so it’s a positive feeling for us even though we may have not played at the caliber that we wanted to play. But, we’ll take the three points and move forward and learn from it.”
T2 forward Kharlton Belmar
On the team picking up their first win...
“We trained really hard all week and put extra emphasis on our mistakes. We just wanted to come out here and put together a full performance to get our first win and get off the mark because we have a long and tough road trip coming up ahead.”
On the effect of the team’s first win moving forward...
“It’s motivation. It gives us more drive to continue pushing because we know that we can put the work in. Now, we can put in a full performance and we know what a win feels like, so we can continue to push forward and put it all together.”
T2 goalkeeper Wade Hamilton
Overall thoughts on winning the game…
“It was a huge result. After going through some losses, to come out with a shutout and a win is big time to lift the spirits of the team. It’s huge for us.”
On the team’s defensive effort…
“It was an outstanding effort from the entire team. The ball is getting cleared off the line, keeping their shots down to a minimum. You have to hand it to the boys in front that did a great job and kept us in the game.”
On recording the team’s first win in 2016 at Merlo Field…
“It feels very good. I’m excited. I’m glad that we were able to show the fans what we can do and how we can work with each other and get a result.”
T2 defender Taylor Peay
On the result…
“It was good. It was big to just get us off going in the right direction. Now hopefully we can follow up that performance with another win on this road trip.”
On continuing to build the chemistry…
“It was great. It isn’t easy when you’re losing and being tested, but when you can get a win – especially a big win against a team like that – it always helps the morale and everyone’s happy.”
On the defensive communication…
“It was a whole team effort. If one of us is out, someone has to cover and vice versa. It was huge today in keeping the clean sheet and we’ll look to continue that this week.”
