By Steven Agen
Sam Garza opened the scoring on the stroke of halftime, and Pablo Rossi snuck one into the upper corner late on as S2 ran out 2-0 winners over T2 on Monday night at Merlo Field. The win was the fourth consecutive for S2 over their neighbors to the south. Here are selected exclusive quotes from after the match:
T2 Head Coach Jay Vidovich
Opening thoughts:
“Certainly we’re disappointed with the loss. Gave away the goals when we did and how we did, but I think overall, as I look at it as a developmental team, I’m pretty excited about a couple things. I’m excited about a Blake Bodily, a 16 year old out there. I thought he had a tremendous performance. He took a couple knocks, got on up. He played, he had a tremendous two looks at goal. So real excited about that. You know, the youth and what we’re supposed to be about. So I was happy with that. You look at like a Renico Clarke, another 18 year old, 19 year old who was a beast out there in the air, in the attack. Defensively just fantastic, great in the air, just happy with his performance, his growth- he’s really stepping up. And I thought also like a tim paine, another young kid, younger guy, who just covered ground all over the place winning balls for us and distributing the ball. I look at that side of things, there’s the positives for us that some of those younger guys are stepping up and growing their game.”
On the first half positives:
“Yeah, I mean, we’re happy. Well, you can’t be happy when you don’t get the result you’re looking for. When you start looking at [when]one of your main attacking threats was a 16 year old, yeah, we did alright. But for sure our attacking, we need more production out of our frontrunners and wingers. We’re thin honestly with injuries and Schillo’s not being there, a couple other players not being there, or Rendell Winchester, so we’re missing that. Our movement into the final third was good, we just need better quality when we get there.”
On the mindset at halftime:
“Yeah, it was keep going. I think the big point was how to manage the game. That situation that we gave up, really that there’s a warning shot kinda before where they had a break, where they had a chance to counter us as well. So, it’s like, manage that better, keep going, find yourself on the ball even more. We did change a couple things around. It was just keep pushing. We felt good with what we were doing that was there, and it was a hole we had to climb out of.”
T2 Man of the Match Rennico Clarke
Opening thoughts:
“It was a tough loss. We work our tits off. I mean, we put in the work this week because we know it’s Seattle and the first team on Sunday did a great job of showing us what we need to do, where we’re at. It was just a tough loss, we put in our all, we just came up short.”
On his play:
“I mean, I got instructions to try and win those headers because, you know, my height. I utilize it. I’ve been training hard in training on those headers, because it’s my specialty. So it was just tough, it’s just one of those days. You put in your all but you come up short.”
On how to beat S2 next time:
“The guys just gotta put this behind us. As I say, it’s one of those games you put in your all and you lose. You just gotta look forward. We still have a long way to go. So we just gotta head back to the training session, look where we go wrong, and just put in the work and see what comes up the next game.”
On second half changes:
“We kinda changed up strategies, the players themselves. We decided that, hey, let’s just go for it. Try to hit some long balls and see what we can do. Because, you know, we have guys on our team that are six foot and over. so we said lets go for, and we just put balls in. We just came up short.”
On coaches’ halftime message:
“Just continue doing the same. We were tight in defense, and that’s all he [Vidovich] wanted because we’ve been letting in some soft goals and stuff. He said to us, we’ve gotta stay tight and organized and stay connected and everything will work out.”
S2 General Manager Andrew Opatkiewicz
Thoughts on the win:
“Obviously, very happy. They’re a big rival. The biggest thing for us with these games, it’s a great atmosphere, I mean, Monday night, 2900 [people], a beautiful pitch. Hats off to the timbers organization, doing a great job with t2 on and off the field. This is why we formed S2, to play in games like this. Obviously we’ve been fortunate, you know they [S2] absorbed a lot of pressure to be able to get two goals tonight, and we’ve had a good record against the timbers, but they’ve played us hard every time and I’m sure that fifth game up at starfire later this summer is going to be another hotly contested battle. But you know the biggest thing for me is, these are the type of games, this is why S2 was formed and I think this is why T2 was formed as well- to get the young guys minutes in games like this in a really competitive, meaningful atmosphere, so regardless of the results it’s served both teams really well.”
On Ashani Fairclough and state of the roster:
“I touched on it before- I think S2 is functioning really well as far as what we want to do with it. Get guys from the first team valuable minutes, promote guys who earn the opportunity to play with the first team, get academy guys minutes. Obviously Andy Craven, our first S2 to first team signing. So it’s functioning really, really well. Obviously, the last couple of weeks have been challenging for the entire organization from a depth perspective. We’ve had injuries, suspensions, international duty. Oalex Anderson just got off a plane after scoring in all but one game that he played for Saint Vincent in the U23s and senior team matches. So we’re excited to have him back. Obviously Ashani is a great defender. We’re really excited to have him in here. Obviously it was tough to lose Qudus. He was a big part of the organization, a big part of the first S2 team. Wish him all the best in Wilmington, where I think he’s going to get a lot of playing time and add something over there. But we’re excited to have Ashani. We think he’s integrated really well with the group. Really to answer your question, I think we’re getting healthy and we’re getting our guys back. The roster management, whether it be academy, S2-signed guys or first team-signed guys is working well from a perspective of getting guys minutes and allowing them to develop in meaningful USL games, hopefully which prepares them for first team matches. So we’re excited.”
On Andy Craven signing for first team:
“Honestly, first of all, Andy’s a fantastic human being. And besides all of his skills on the pitch, he has what it takes to excel at the next level mentally, and off the field. And that’s what’s really special about andy and that’s also what a lot of people don’t get to see about him. So I think everybody in the sounders organization, whether it be first team players, academy players, you know, my boss Garth [Lagerwey], ownership, technical staff, we all take a great deal of pride in what Andy’s accomplished in a few months with S2 and certainly I do as well because I’m really happy for him and wish him the best up there. I think he sets expectations and he’s a role model for every other player that ever touches the field with S2 and that’s important for our program going forward so we appreciate the fact that he set the bar pretty high for us early in the history of S2.”
S2 is second in the USL Western Conference on 29 points, while T2 sits 9th in West with 17 points. T2 host Arizona United on Thursday, and S2 next plays Saturday at Vancouver Whitecaps FC 2 in another Cascadia derby.
To hear the full audio clips from this article, check out Episode 48 of Radio Cascadia.
