(Photo by Victor Tan / New Day Review)

June 1, 2017 at Seminole Soccer Complex

Availability: HC Anthony Pulis, MF Paul Clowes

HC Anthony Pulis

Despite a 3-1 loss to the Charlotte Independence, Pulis saw positives on both sides of the ball.

Well I think that we’ve kinda reviewed and debriefed the Charlotte game, and there were lots of positives. I thought our attacking play, at times, first half, was as good as it’s been. So, more on the same of that. And, for the most part, as strange as it sounds, conceding three goals, we actually defended pretty well, and it was just kind of individual lapses for a couple of moments, and it really cost us dearly. So, trying to kind of reinforce basic defensive principles, especially from crossing scenarios ‘cus we conceded two goals from crosses, which was disappointing. So, we went through that yesterday, we’ve done some attacking work today, and we’ll kind of put it all together tomorrow and come up with a game plan and hopefully go to Pittsburgh and get a good performance.

OCB forward Michael Cox has made appearances off the bench in the past two games. Pulis sees him as a physical presence that helps OCB in the final third.

I think Cox’s done fine when he’s comes off the bench. You look at him, he’s obviously—he’s big, he’s powerful, he’s strong, and you hope that he’s the type of player that can have an impact in forward areas. And I felt like he did that the other night. He was close a couple times to scoring, so we’re looking for more of the same from him.

Pulis noted that the first 40 minutes were some of the best minutes he’s seen his side play taking over as head coach.

Yeah, well I think it’s an old cliché, and it’s so true: Goals change games. You’ve seen that we played some fantastic football for 40 minutes, but we’re only 1-0 up. And that was kinda what we said to the guys at halftime that when you’re that much on top, and you have that much possession, that much play, you have to score more goals because it only takes a second to score a goal. They had two attacks, two shots, scored two goals. That was the difference. We come out second half, they score within four, five minutes, again from a cross—really poor defending. And 51 minutes, you stood there, and you’re 3-1 down, thinking, “How are we 3-1 down?” because we’ve played so well. We kinda had that 10-minute spell where guys were a little bit down, feeling sorry for themselves, and then I think that for the last 30 minutes there was only one team in it again. So, just hopefully eliminating those lapses in concentration and more of the same attacking play with a little bit more penetration.

During halftime of the Charlotte match, Pulis and his staff wanted to emotionally revive his team.

Definitely. That was something that we have spoke about a couple of times this week and after the game as well because—and I understand that the players played so well for the majority of the half. You concede two goals. Naturally they’re gonna be down and a little bit low on confidence, and that was the message at halftime was to try and bring some more positivity to the locker room and get them upbeat and tell them how well they’ve played and what they’re capable of. But there’s only so much you can do, and hopefully we go into this game on Saturday with a real good mindset.

Pulis sees the turf surface in Pittsburgh as a challenge for the players.

Yeah, they’ve got some dangerous forward players. They’ve got [Corey] Hertzog, Kevin Kerr, [Romeo] Parkes—they’ve got some really dangerous players. And they’re pretty well organized, so we know that, going there, it’s always a difficult game when you go to Pittsburgh. It’s a difficult, lively turf surface. So we understand that they are a dangerous team, and they make it difficult for you to play there, so we have to make sure we’re ready for that.

For Pulis, long-distance traveling is the norm for American soccer. The coaching staff are focusing on quality over quantity in training over this busy stretch of games.

I think it’s just the norm. I think we’re used to that here in the United States with the amount of travel. The game schedule’s not easy, but that’s down to us as a coaching staff to manage the training load and manage the schedule. When we had the two weeks off, we were able to get some good, quality training into them, work them hard. Now we have so many games coming up, we obviously—it’s not Einstein. You just decrease the training load and make sure that you’re working more on quality not quantity so that they’re fresh for the games.

Pittsburgh has only allowed one goal in its past five games.

Well I think we do a good job of getting the ball into the final third, and then it’s making sure that that final cross is of good quality and our runs in the box are good quality, and that when we’re shooting, we’re hitting the target, and we’re making goalkeeper work. It’s not rocket science, but it’s something that—and listen, football—scoring goals in football is the most difficult thing to do, and it comes from hard work on the training ground.

MF Paul Clowes

Orlando City B is preparing to play three games in 11 days.

It’s difficult having so many games in such a small period of time, but we have a terrific squad, and it’s not just 11 guys on the field. It’s the 18, the 20, 22 guys that we have playing, and, you know, we’re fortunate we have a first team we can bring guys loaned down for us, so, we always stay fresh and always gotta manage the heat a little bit being in Orlando. So, yeah, we take the training down, but we have a squad, and it’s a squad that wins games and wins championships. It’s not just the 11 on the field.

For Clowes, the focus after a loss against Charlotte is on the process, not the outcome.

Yeah, of course. I mean, we do film. We do film after every game, so you know positives and negatives, and it’s still a lot of positives from that game, and, obviously, the result wasn’t what we wanted, but, you know, if we just focus on the outcome and not the process and how to get better every day, then, you know, there’s a lot of wasted days there. So, we—yeah, we go through the film, and I think that conceding goals before halftime wasn’t ideal, but we know that we can tighten up in those certain areas and be a bit sharper defensively. We’re always gonna score goals so—and so definitely we can—you learn a lot more from losing than winning, so we’ll be looking to bounce back this weekend anyway.

For Clowes, the addition of Major League Soccer players has been a “seamless transition.”

Yeah, well, obviously those guys are—they bring a lot of experience, and, you know, even the younger guys like Hadji [Barry] and Richie [Laryea] that come down, you know, they’ve been around, and they know the game well, and I think they integrate with the team really well. We have our own culture, and obviously the club as a whole has a culture that we all buy into and believe in, so it’s kind of a seamless transition, and Earl [Edwards Jr.] is a great example. He’s been fantastic… He’s been playing and—yeah, he’s one that’s just not afraid to, you know, hold you to high standards. That’s something that I think every team needs and particularly a well-respected guy like Earl. To come down and do that is fantastic.

Clowes sees the loss to Charlotte as a wake-up call but doesn’t worry too much about it.

No, no it’s certainly—like I said, you learn more from a loss, and it’s easy to sweep things under the rug when you’re winning every game. But, actually, a loss every now and again kind of makes you realize what, you know, a few things we need to work on. So, it does give you a bit of a wakeup call, but Ant just said about 10 minutes ago to us that it’s a bump in the road. It’s not—that’s not what defines us. It’s not something that, you know, we—let’s not start a negative run. We know we’ve been playing well and getting good results that count. Just—it’s a bump in the road. Learn from it and move on, and it’s a long season, so one loss will never define us.

Clowes sees Pittsburgh’s turf field as less than ideal for a team that trains and plays at home on a natural surface.