On the win over Vancouver

It was another tough game for us. We came out ahead on the night against a good team, it’s nice to see the boys win in a different way, to manage the game the way they did. After halftime being up a man, I thought it was a mature performance in the second half, which is never easy just because you’re up a man. I saw some good stuff there in the second half and we had a lot of control. Yes, it’s a shutout, which is really important. It’s a victory here for us at home. The fans once again came out. Pride night is so important to our club, to so many of our fans, and to our team. So yes, even extra special on the night. We look forward to a few days from now. We know what’s coming up.

On the upcoming contest with Real Salt Lake to clinch the Rocky Mountain Cup

I wish we were hosting this one. This Rocky Mountain Cup is such an important cup to us as a team and to our fans. It would have been nice if maybe we played one on the road and then one at home, or one home and one on the road. To have the first two on the road, it’s tricky but that’s what it is. The fact that we have the slight edge at the moment is what it is, it’s an edge. We have a lot of work to do to go there and get the trophy. However, I think you can go through an entire season and not really play for a trophy, and now we are 12 games in or so. The fact that we have a chance to bring one home this early in the season, that we’ve put ourselves in that spot, is a really big positive. We know Salt Lake, they’re a really good team. We’ve played them and we’ve gotten a look at them, but they also have managed a busy week. What team do they put out? It’d be hard to predict that and then even prepare in detail without knowing exactly who they’re putting out with two days [to go]. I think the most important thing is that we went there, we had a victory, and the guys have some confidence that we can go there again. To be clear, we will be going after that. It’s important to our fans. After the match tonight, I can’t say how many were chanting “Beat Salt Lake”, so we will go after them with everything that we have. I can promise our fans that.”

On the significance of winning the Rocky Mountain Cup to Rapids Homegrowns

If you ask those guys, they’ll tell you there’s extra motivation. Every game is a game, but it means a lot to our Homegrowns in our club, it’s ingrained in their blood and what they’ve been brought up with through here. It means a lot to our club, our Unified Team is gonna go for it as well. We’re going for it. Our Homegrowns are always extra motivated for that one. We have a lot of respect for what they’re doing. But we will go there, no doubt to try to bring home the win.

On Connor Ronan, Jonathan Lewis getting back from injury, updates to Djordje Mihailovic’s condition after being subbed off against Vancouver

Always good getting guys healthy, getting guys back on the field, getting the minutes to get deeper in the roster. I trust the guys that we have. You can see that that each of them brought what we thought. [Jonathan Lewis] all of a sudden becomes a guy in transition and in spaces can make something happen, and in those moments and we need to do better. But it’s good to see him back out there. And of course, I think we can all appreciate Connor Ronan’s quality that in that very moment, that he helps control things even more in the middle of the pitch, his decision-making and we’ve missed that. It was good that we could use that on the night. With Djordje Mihailovic, I haven’t gotten all the details yet, but it looks like right after the shot he felt that heel [injury] which is what he was battling recently. I would say it’s fairly minor and we’ll have to see how that responds.