After our 1-0 win over New York City FC II that saw CFC earn its third-straight road win and extend the unbeaten streak to six matches, Head Coach Chris Nugent answered questions from media.
Nugent was asked about the overall performance, the importance of keeping a clean sheet in this last stretch, and more.
Here's everything he had to say:
on his overall takeaways from Sunday night's performance at New York City FC II:
"Excellent second-half performance, we really showed how resilient we can be. First-half, we didn’t really stick to the game plan. We did well, I think mostly our defending around the box was good, we limited the quality of the shots. I think they got some good shots on target, which Eldin [Jakupović] did a fantastic job with. In the second-half, we transitioned a lot better. I think we made better decisions in the attacking area, and then, of course, defending towards the end when they were throwing everything at us was excellent."
on goalkeeper Eldin Jakupović's performance:
"Yeah, it was big saves again. I mean, there were difficult shots, he was under pressure for long periods. There were a lot of crowded bodies around us, so shots were coming through bodies and he’s finding a way of either catching it or punching it to safety. So again, it was a huge, huge performance from him."
on the mental importance of winning and keeping a clean sheet heading into a big week as CFC looks to secure home playoffs:
"That’s six unbeaten now, with multiple clean sheets inside of that. We know that we’re getting to the real high-performance time of the year where we need, not just resiliency, but we need to shut teams out and shut teams down and then find key goals at key moments. That’s what I spoke to the guys about before. We have to now get past the learning stage and get the execution stage down and I think we did a good job of that tonight."
on what adjustments were made to lower New York's scoring chances in the second half:
"We weren’t compact enough in the first half, and that was part of the issue. So that was a big thing we discussed at halftime, just the positioning and the width of our midfielders when we were pressing. I think Gavin [Turner] did a fantastic job, when he came in, of helping to press their backline but also dropped back into midfield. I think that’s a huge factor of them not getting a chance, the second half was just more compact. Like I said, in the first half, we didn't quite stick to what we were trying to do, and that opened us up, and Eldin came up big there."
