	products recent interviews FastScripts archive about ASAP Sports

Our Clients:

Browse by Sport

Find us on

Subscribe to RSS

Click to go to
Asaptext.com

View our
e-Brochure

TORONTO FC MEDIA CONFERENCE

March 6, 2016

Greg Vanney

Harrison, New Jersey

New York - 0, Toronto FC - 2

GREG VANNEY: Gritty, um, I think we dug deep. Not everything was perfect nor is it on day one, but the guys competed. They competed for 90 minutes. They covered each other. They scrapped things out and made plays when they needed to make plays defensively. We've started eight games on the road and we talked about give ourselves a chance to win games. And a lot of that for today was good, strong, hard defensive work, and we did that.

In the end we gave ourselves a chance to win, and we did. I'm very proud of them. It's a first game of the season, so building blocks are in place, but it's about a culture of winning. For us, we came on the road and won in a very difficult place. First time we've ever won in New York. So in terms of developing confidence for this group, and we have seven more on the road, so one at a time. However we get results, we get results, that's all that matters.

Q. You've (Indiscernible) at the same time there's every chance for the summer (Indiscernible).
GREG VANNEY: We try to build depth into our roster. That's the only thing we can do. Create over this preseason and early season and develop a system where we can kind of plug guys in and it makes sense for the vast majority of our guys. When we miss guys, we plug young guys in or other guys who are hungry and looking for minutes and looking for making a case for themselves and a career.

We all do the same thing in this league because we don't have the largest of rosters, and when you have international guys on your team in this league, unfortunately you pay the price by losing them for some games. So it was just an opportunity for other guys to step up and make a case for themselves when they get opportunities.

Q. (Indiscernible). Any emphasis on defensive reinforcement this off-season. How rewarding is it to keep a clean sheet, and how did you think some of those new guys did today?
GREG VANNEY: First, very rewarding to get a clean sheet because even through the preseason we kept making one mistake, the silly play or whatever that was costing us a goal. Today there wasn't any of that, or if there was a slight error, they make due for the guy that makes mistakes. In terms of the guys we added, I thought they were great. I thought they were excellent. I thought Drew was great. I thought Steven was great, I thought Will's work in midfield was great. So I think they were resilient. Again, it's not a group that's played a lot of minutes together.

This is Steven Beitashour's first 90 minutes really through the preseason and he grinded it out and made big plays. Having Clint behind us is a stabilizer because he's a very even keel guy through all circumstances. He's a good communicator, and he was there to make a couple plays when he needed to.

So very pleased with the effort of the overall group and the new guys are a great addition. We knew what we were getting when we went inside the league to try to add pieces this year, and we saw that on day one.

Q. (Indiscernible)?
GREG VANNEY: Yeah, first for Marky, he's relentless in terms of his work rate and his engine and ability to get up and down the field. And the game was one where we needed defensive work and we needed to be able to get out of defensive shape into getting support to Sebastian. I mean, a lot of the game he was on his own, and we needed to get some guys out there who could really get back up the field and help him as plays transitioned and we tried to play forward, and obviously Marky did that.

To be fair, Marky is just a guy who missed the last part of preseason or we probably would have seen him out there at the beginning of the game. But that's what it is. He had a great year last year and he's ready to help us this year. I was more than excited for him to pick up the goal there in the end, because I think I know he tallies his goals over the course of the year, so at least he has one to start with now at the beginning of the year.

Q. Last year talk about how difficult (Indiscernible) to press them a little more?
GREG VANNEY: Yeah, that was an objective. I thought we were better at it early in the game. I thought we had a stretch there in the latter part of the first half where we weren't getting our assignments right and they were able to find a lot of possession in midfield and we were scrambling a little bit. As a result, we were winning balls deep in our half of the field and defending with so many numbers deep that Sebastian as a release player is not always the greatest, because while he's great when you confine him to his feet, it's difficult when you're having to play balls over distance.

So a big part of that was we weren't able to organize to Marky quickly enough to win the ball or oppose them higher up the field or win balls higher so we'd have people closer to sub out. So I thought we did a better job of that in the second half through stretches, and we were able to keep them at bay. They're a team that's difficult to play through, no question. So sometimes you just have to relieve pressure and flip the script a little bit and try to turn them over in deep areas for them and try to get goals there.

But we got them in transitions. We knew that was going to be a big part of the game.

Q. (Indiscernible). Tough assignments (Indiscernible)?
GREG VANNEY: I thought he was great. I thought so Baahs has an enormous engine, and he'll work, and he'll run, and he'll track, and he's got a good education for the game in terms of his decision making and his tactical understanding of where to be and when. I thought he was solid in that way and he has a nice ability to wiggle out of pressure or some many compose your to help the team play out of some things that helped relieve some of the pressure that we were under at times.

So for him, this is his starting point is his first game, I was pleased with what he did. Again, part of that engine was his ability to get up the field in that transition when Sebastian hit the cross where he gets taken down from the PK. That's just the amount of ground he covers in the game is impressive, and we knew that was going to be one of these games, because you've got to go from defending to getting out quickly. And he did a great job on that.

Q. (Indiscernible)?
GREG VANNEY: I can't say I'm surprised with the results. I think we had a plan and a mission when we came in. I think the big part of being able to go to a city like New York or club like New York and winning is belief and confidence in what you're doing. Because a lot of times come into the big cities and big clubs with big reputations and maybe the group at the sign of some difficulty kind of folds a little bit, and I thought our group didn't. There were definitely sometimes when we were having difficulty in terms of getting pressure, and the game wasn't in our favor. But the group didn't fold. We stayed together and stuck with the plan and the intent and we did that for the long haul and we did what we said we'd do is give ourselves a chance by defending well and give ourselves a chance throughout the course of the game to get the chance to win the game, whether through transition or whatever the case may be. We did that, and I thought we did that with great resiliency.

I think it's a product of we have some real veterans across the back line and in the midfield and coming into New York was something they've done many times in the past and to be able to get a result is telling of sort of the grittiness of this group and it's a building block as we move through these next eight games as I've said.

FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports

ASAP Sports, Inc. | T: 1.212 385 0297