\n Orlando City Interim Head Coach Mart\u00edn Perelman<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019m\u00a0happy, of course, with the result but also with the performance. More than anything,\u00a0I\u2019m\u00a0happy for our group of players because they put in a huge effort every day. Not just now, from the very beginning, they have been fighting and\u00a0I\u2019m\u00a0glad they were able to deliver a performance like this.\u00a0I\u2019m\u00a0happy to move forward in this competition and to put the team in the semifinals, which is important for us and for the club.\u00a0I\u2019m\u00a0happy for our fans because they deserve it. They\u00a0support us always,\u00a0in good moments and in difficult ones. And of course,\u00a0I\u2019m\u00a0happy for the entire club, the managers, the owners, Ricardo [Moreira], everyone here. We work\u00a0hard, and\u00a0today was a good day for us.\u201d <\/p>\n
On\u00a0the team\u2019s\u00a0performance <\/p>\n
\u201cI mean, every time we play at home, we want to be aggressive, both in pressing and in play.\u00a0This was a\u00a0Cup game, as we talked about before the\u00a0previous\u00a0match, and we knew it would be a different context and a different competition.\u00a0Maybe those\u00a0were the behaviors I was referencing in terms of adapting. Sometimes it works, sometimes it\u00a0doesn\u2019t. Thankfully for us today, it worked, and it worked because they did\u00a0it,\u00a0they put in the effort and made it happen. Again, I am proud of the players.\u00a0For the players, this is a good victory, a good step forward for us and for the\u00a0Club. But\u00a0it\u2019s\u00a0just that. We need to\u00a0maintain\u00a0balance,\u00a0rest\u00a0and prepare for the next game because we have\u00a0a very important\u00a0match on Saturday, and we want to finish the stretch with a win.\u201d <\/p>\n
On\u00a0the team\u2019s\u00a0progress <\/p>\n
\u201cI think this\u00a0is the process we have always talked about here. The team is developing. I said that when\u00a0we\u00a0lost, and\u00a0I\u2019m\u00a0saying it today.\u00a0It\u2019s\u00a0the same. The process and the performances are progressing and growing. The understanding and connection between the players are stronger, which is expected with time and work. I said from the beginning that we needed to work hard, and we still need to work. We need more work. The break will be useful for us because to continue growing,\u00a0performing\u00a0and trying to find consistency, not only in performance but also in results, we need more work. This is what we are going to do with balance, being humble and always knowing how we started, where we are now and where we want to be.\u00a0I\u2019m\u00a0calm because my message is always the same. It was the same at the beginning, and\u00a0it\u2019s\u00a0the same now.\u201d<\/p>\n
\n Orlando City SC Defender David Brekalo<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019m\u00a0so happy we advanced to the semifinals.\u00a0The team performed really well.\u00a0We played the same opponent in a tough game three days ago, so it was not easy from an energy standpoint, and\u00a0I\u2019m\u00a0very happy.\u00a0I\u2019m\u00a0proud of this team.\u201d <\/p>\n
On\u00a0scoring\u00a0his\u00a0first goal of the season <\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s\u00a0really nice, honestly.\u00a0I\u2019m\u00a0relieved it happened, and in a game of\u00a0this magnitude. I hope\u00a0it\u2019s\u00a0the first of many this season because I know\u00a0I\u2019m\u00a0capable of scoring more goals.\u00a0I\u2019m\u00a0glad it came\u00a0relatively early\u00a0in the season, and\u00a0I\u2019m\u00a0looking forward to many more in this stadium in front of these fans.\u201d <\/p>\n
On\u00a0the\u00a0team\u2019s game plan <\/p>\n
\u201cI\u00a0have to\u00a0give credit to the coaching staff here.\u00a0They prepared the plan really well.\u00a0The main idea was to win the ball either high up the field or deep in our own end and counterattack. It worked exactly as planned, and as we saw in the first half several times, three or four chances that did not result in a goal could have gone in by a few inches. That was the approach. Win it deep in our own third or high up the field. And obviously,\u00a0the\u00a0hard work\u00a0from everyone, defenders shifting, midfielders running nonstop;\u00a0I\u00a0couldn\u2019t\u00a0do it alone.\u00a0So,\u00a0hats off to the whole team. Everybody worked so hard today.\u201d<\/p>\n
\n Orlando City SC \u00a0Forward Tiago (Interpreted)<\/p>\n
\u201cWe were obviously extremely focused on the game. We know Atlanta is a tough team. We played them over the weekend, and we drew them.\u00a0So,\u00a0we came into this game\u00a0very focused, and we knew the quality of the group and that we could advance.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019m\u00a0extremely happy. I know the quality of\u00a0player\u00a0I am. I spoke with coach Mart\u00edn [Perelman] during the week, and he told me the runs I should make, so naturally the goals came from it.\u201d<\/p>\n
On the team\u2019s game plan<\/p>\n
\u201cEverything is well thought out. Mart\u00edn gave us some\u00a0film\u00a0before the game on Saturday, and he told me those movements could lead to goals. From that, we were able to develop a plan over the week to score.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Orlando City Interim Head Coach Mart\u00edn Perelman \u201cI\u2019m\u00a0happy, of course, with the result but also with the performance.…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":277715,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[11],"tags":[7701,4787,115,139,4786,141,140,117880,96736,77458],"class_list":["post-277714","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-orlando","tag-david-brekalo","tag-matchday","tag-news","tag-orlando","tag-orlando-city","tag-orlando-headlines","tag-orlando-news","tag-orlvsatl-05-19-2026","tag-they-said-it","tag-tiago"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/277714","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=277714"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/277714\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/277715"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=277714"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=277714"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=277714"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}