Selected Quotes: John Carver

Matt Bernhardt
March 28, 2009

Following are some selected quotes from Toronto head coach John Carver.

(opening statement)

They were crowned champions and rightly so. For me, they were the best side in the league last year by far. Deserved to win it, got a great side, very well organized. Robert's come in there, he's taken over the reins from Sigi, they've got that continuity.

So we knew we were coming here, we knew we had a tough game, especially with our away record from last season. Three away wins, that's all we had.

We're missing the heart of the midfield. Yeah, granted, Columbus had a couple of guys missing, big players for them as well. So to come here, against the champions, in their home opener, and they had a little bit of a party celebration for winning the championship. I think its a good result for us, yes.

(Can you describe your goal, was it lucky?)

Yeah, well it was, but I keep talking about set plays are very important. If you put the ball in the right area, then if you don't get a touch on it, the opposition's going to get a touch on it and I think that's what happened. I think one of their guys got a touch on it, and it came back off the crossbar and we got a little bit of fortune, which is nice to see because we haven't had a great deal of that in the past. But we got a little bit of fortune and got back into the game.

The guys dug in, we've got a little bit of character in the dressing room now. This time last year we would have probably lost that game again and conceded a late goal, but we've got characters in there now, strong characters, and that will put us in good stead.

(What did you think about Schelotto?)

He's a talented footballer; he's a very talented footballer and when he's on the ball you've got to worry about him. He's got great ability. I'll not comment on other things, but he's a talented footballer.

He plays the game well, and we had a little bit of banter, when he went down the second time, he came across to me and he gave us a little wink because he's a professional, he's a good professional and he knows how to play the game. I'm not going to criticize him for that. He's a top class player, deservedly getting the MVP award last year.

(how would you describe that last 5-10 minutes?)

They're the home team, you know? They're expected to win their first game of the season at home, their home opener, with all the razamatazz of the championship being presented to them, so you're going to be put under pressure. If you think about it I think they had two good chances, two really good chances where Sutton made two good saves in the second half. If you look, I mean I've not seen the stats yet but if you look at the possession, I think most of the game was played in the other half of the pitch. Although we didn't create a great deal of chances I thought we took the game to them and had a go at them. I'm disappointed with certain aspects of our game, there's still an awful long way to go. We haven't made it, we haven't done anything yet, but coming to the champions and getting a point, I'll take that.

(on not creating chances and the two missing players, Amado Guevara and ?)

Well, you've got two very good footballers missing, you've got one in particular who is our creativity, Amado Guevara. When he's not in the team, it is a little bit tougher to create things.

...

And I didn't think we did that enough, certainly in the first half.

You've got to have a base, and the base is your strikers, and if the ball keeps coming back, then eventually your midfield players get sick of running forward, so it becomes 'you just kick it up there, you lose it, and then they're on the attack again' and that's what happened in the first half, and I let the guys know that I wasn't happy about that.

(on Vitti and Marshall's battle)

Yeah, that's a good battle. Pablo's still not match fit yet, and it was a tossup who I was going to bring off but I feel that at the moment, Pablo's the one who has a goal in him and I thought he might just have got something for us. That's why I took Chad Barrett off rather than Pablo. The fitter Pablo gets, the better he'll become . He's a good player, he's got a lot of qualities. He's a young lad, he's working on his fitness and this will put him in good stead, having 90 minutes under his belt.

(was changing goalkeepers a strategic thing?)

No, the goalie made a world class save when he tipped it over the bar for a corner, and I think he's hurt his hip, or the lower part of his back so we had to change it. I was going to change one or two other things at halftime, but because he was injured I didn't want to gamble and put three substitutes on at the same time, so I had to wait. It was forced on me, I couldn't do anything about it. Fortunately, Sutton's come in there and made two great saves.