Post-Game Quotes: Herzog, Packwood, Morris, Pelosi Talk Defeat to France

U-23 MNT head coach ANDI HERZOG

On conceding two early goals:
“It was a shock for our players. They completely lost confidence. In possession we lost the confidence to connect passes. Even defensively we were not able to close the attacking players from France down and at halftime we knew it was going to be tough because my team was mentally in a tough positon and I said guys, we’ve got to correct all the stuff we did wrong in the first half. We’ve got to start again and I think the second half was okay, but when a team like France is 3-0 ahead they don’t play 100 percent any more, but I think overall after the first half it was good and my team showed character to score at least one goal and keep the game a little bit open, but with the performance we had in the first half you can’t win games in this tournament.

“We conceded two goals in one minute, but not because France created opportunities, but because we made two horrible mistakes. I know France is a very good team they have a lot of good players, but we helped them. We supported them a lot with our mistakes and that was the key of the game and that’s why we lost the game. You can see that France is a good organized team and in attacking they’re a very technical team with a lot of great attacking players and we made it too easy for them in the first half.”

On how difficult the tournament will be moving forward:
“It will be difficult, but we knew it from the beginning. I was hoping that we’d have a good start into the tournament, but like I said the first half was really, really bad so it’s not getting any easier but we want to try now every game to win the next game. Of course with our schedule we play every second game, so I think most of my players aren’t used to playing that much, because they’re not even starters in our league so it will be tough and we coaches have to be smart and have a good balance between playing time and regeneration and resting some important players.”

U-23 MNT defender WILL PACKWOOD

On the game:
“Obviously we’re disappointed in the result first and foremost, but that came in the first 15 minutes of the first half when we let them get two easy goals. In terms of actual play in terms of the way we played and the way they played, I thought it was a very even game. Overall, we came back a little bit and one the second half 1-0, but the damage had been done by then.”

On the team getting off to a slow start:
“The first two goals are mistake. The first one we gave the ball away at the edge of our box and then the second we gave the ball away at the edge of our box again. When you do that against good teams like France, they’ll punish you and they did. Those are things that you just can’t do. But in general, we worked a lot on our shape, and tried to send them off to the edge and I thought we had some success and I think it showed in the second half.”

On what the team needs to do for the next game:
“We need to tighten up a little bit, because obviously these are good teams and they’re tough to play against, and we know that we can’t give them gifts the way that we did today and when we don’t, we’re a very good match for them and we’ll play right there with them and have a good even game. We need to cut out the mistakes and play forward and keep the ball and be a little more ruthless and we’ll be right there with those teams.”

U-23 MNT forward JORDAN MORRIS

On the game:
“That was the most frustrating part that we came out and gave up easy goals so quickly and a couple of them definitely could have been preventable, so I think it’s frustrating to see us come out in the second half, and I think we were the better team, so we saw that we could play with these guys, but going down 3-0 is tough to come back from.”

On moving on to the next game in the Tournament:
“I definitely think we have to put this game behind us. There were some negatives for sure, but also some positives. I thought we worked really hard and showed some really good stuff in the second half, so if we can take that and translate that and instead of just doing that in the second half, doing it in the first half, I think we’ll do very well.”

On the run of play that led to his goal:
“I think Marc [Pelosi] had the ball on the left and he played it to me around half-field and their center back stepped and missed it and I turned and kind of just ran at the last center back and took to my left and fortunately slotted it by the ‘keeper. I think he came out and it just kind of trickled by him”

U-23 MNT midfielder MARC PELOSI

On the game:
“I think just showing against a team like France that we dominated the second half and had most of the chances and scored a goal, I think it just shows that we can compete with the top teams. In the first half to be honest I don’t think we played that bad, but obviously letting in three goals in ten minutes, you can never do that and expect to finish with a result and after one goal you’ve just got to hold together and not let one in again.”

On how it felt to be back with the MNT:
“It was great. Obviously you want to start better, but being back with the National Team again and seeing the boys I haven’t seen in a long time its great and it’s just an honor to be with the U.S. team.”