Orlando City Feature -- www.orlandocitysoccer.com
Friday, September 9, 2011
By ADAM SOUCIE
Earlier this week, I sat down with Head Coach Adrian Heath and Player/Coach Ian Fuller to get their thoughts on winning the USL PRO Championship, as well as take a peek at their decisions during the match and why they made them (ie: the penalty kick order).
Q: Talk about the game a bit…
Heath - What can we say that hasn’t already been said? It was an emotional roller coaster. In the 33 years I’ve been playing and coaching, it’s far and away the most bizarre game I’ve been a part of, especially with Miguel being sent off and scoring so late. It’s incredible we got ourselves out of jail, playing with 10 men - and by the way, playing so well with 10 men – then to concede a goal in the 95th minute was unbelievable.
We worked hard trying to get the guys going for extra time, but the first 10 minutes of extra time were hard work. I thought we were feeling sorry for ourselves a little bit. If they had scored when they hit the post, I don’t think we would have come back from that. They showed great resilience.
I thought we should have and a penalty there on Devorn, and then we did get one with Chinny, and the kid getting sent off. Lew showed a lot of bottle taking the penalty, scoring so late.
The penalties, what can you say about them? To go 2-0 up, and think we have this easy and then it turns out it wasn’t! As much as you don’t want to go through that type of emotional ringer, it made for the game. When you win you think it’s great, but it would have been an absolute nightmare if we lost under those circumstances. With the crowd that we had, the way the game unfolded was a fitting end to the first season.
Q: Ian, you won a championship with Charleston last year, and scored the game-winning goal. How does last year’s final compare to this one?
Fuller - Before that, I thought it couldn’t get more interesting than last year. We also went a man down after going up 1-0, then I scored to make it 2-0. They scored on late to make it game. We were hanging on by the skin of teeth and it was an exciting match the whole time, but this year there were twists and turns every other minute.
As a player, when Miguel got sent off, you immediately think “I can’t believe we’re going to possibly lose this game.” You have to give them credit as well, because we beat them 3-1 and 4-0, so for them to give us a difficult game like that they did an impressive job. We didn’t play that fantastically, and then Jamie has that chance and you think we’ve finally broken through but it doesn’t go in. But then Lawrence scores.
I was on the bench, as a coach, by that point. I’m thinking we’ve done it, and I’m hugging Marcos [Machado, goalkeepers coach] and [Adrian] turns around and says “what are you doing?” Literally, they scored 10 seconds after that.
The gaff did an incredible job getting the guys going. They were broken. The guys were cramping, let alone emotionally. He did a great job.
Q: When Miguel was sent off, how much of a difference did it make having Ian on the field? It always seems like the players retain their composure better when Ian is on the field. Are you playing or coaching at points like that?
Fuller - I think it’s a bit of both. You’re in more of a captain’s role there as a player, and you have to try and compose the guys because there’s a lot of emotion there. Rob was upset because there was bad communication that led to the situation. You have to get the guys focused. I’ve always tried to be a leader on the field.
Heath – The pleasing aspect of the night for me was that we didn’t just go chasing after a goal, that we played our brand of football. That’s been as pleasing as anything for me this season, watching the team grow and develop the way that we play has been an absolute delight to watch, and we continued to do it with 10 men. People that had just come in the stadium would have thought that we had the extra man. We were dominating possession that much. That gave me an awful lot of pleasure.
To score the goal so late, I thought that was justified. Then to go down, and go down again, I thought it showed terrific resilience from the players. We’ve talked about it before with the crowd. It’s all the collective things. The crowd didn’t let the players get down either. It was a memorable evening, it really was.
Q: Talk about Sean Kelley coming in, and the performance he had…
Heath - First thing he did was made an incredible save! From seconds of coming on, he made an unbelievable save, and then his timing to come out on two through balls was top-drawer, so obviously he was focused. That doesn’t surprise us thought, because we know we’ve got a really, really good goalkeeper there.
The great thing for Sean was that it was a little bit of a reward for him. Coming in every day, being on the bench every game, watching Miguel get goalkeeper of year. The reason Miguel has played so well this year is because he knows that if Sean gets in, he’s going to take an awful of shift from him. I’ve said it before; we’ve got two of the better goalkeepers in the league.
A couple of the saves I thought were magnificent. They get lost a little bit because of the two penalty saves. We might not have got to penalties without a couple of his saves early on. I was really pleased because he’s a great kid as well. Comes in every day and works so hard. I thought it was fitting for him.
Q: Who decides who your five shooters are for the penalties? Do any of the players step up and say they want to take one?
Heath - We do. You have an idea of who will probably take one. Lawrence Olum would have taken one, but he wasn’t on the field by that point. Obviously Lew was going to take one. We changed the order a little bit. Originally we had Bods [Luke Boden] going last, but I thought Devorn would be better going last. It turned out being right.
I was so pleased for Devorn as well. He’s had to sit by watching. I said when the season began that I thought he’d score a lot of goals, but it hasn’t really worked out for him. He’s had to watch Max become the goal scorer, and then Chinny came on and became the substitute, the impact player. Only us, who have been in the group and with him every day, know what Devorn’s been like this season. He’s been a great mentor to Kevin Molino – he’s been like his father this season. Never complained, came in every day and was a top drawer professional. It was nice for him to get a bit of glory after a frustrating season for him.
Fuller - He changed the game when he came on too. They had just hit the post, and it looked like they were going to go get a third goal. He came on and he could have had a penalty, and he held the ball well. He was really big for us.
When you’re looking at the substitutions, does knowing you might go into penalty kicks come into account? For example, you mentioned Lawrence Olum would have taken a penalty had he still been on.
Heath – I think we might have, but we were running on empty. Kevin Molino had to come off because he was cramping, and Lawrence hadn’t played an awful lot of football lately. Ian probably would have taken one. There wasn’t an awful lot of options out there for us.
We needed a goal. We knew would have to put another forward on at some stage, but didn’t want to go too early because if it goes to 3-1 the game’s dead. As Ian said, Devorn had an impact when he came on. I thought we got them right – the substitutions, the timing of them – we got it right. Of course it looks that way too because we got the result.