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In today's presser, John Hackworth sounds like a motor running out of gas.
Things said with a straight face:
"Keon's clearly in an attacking position." And, when asked if his subs were predictable Coach responded, "Eh..I don't think that's the case."
The first few questions focused on this weekend's match against Houston. Hackworth admits that 3 points are needed this weekend to stay in the playoff race. "Right now, I think we're focused 100% on trying to make sure we get a good result on Saturday night and thereby allowing ourselves to still be in the conversation... Our focus is solely on Houston right now."
Things then turned to last weekend's match against San Jose. "It was alarming, no question, and it was unacceptable, we all know that... Sometimes its an environment and sometimes its decisions by the officials. In this case, we didn't play well." On the plus side, Hack says "the greatest part is that we didn't give up another goal." Great, we didn't let 10 men score against our 11. We also didn't score while we were a man up. Hackworth added that struggling is "contagious" and that's what happened Sunday night.
When asked if there will be any lineup changes (because they haven't won in four games), Hackworth responded, "I think there are more positions open than there has been all season... There are 6 spots out there that are open right now." The Union are at the end of their season and more than half the lineup is up in the air according to Hackworth.
Coach was asked if now was a good time to have Houston at PPL. "We know we're going to get a very different Houston team than what we saw this past weekend."
Is there a loss of confidence offensively? "Yes and no. You have Jack McInerney who's struggling right now... Because hes so important to us being a productive goal scoring team, that's something we're all having to manage right now." Hackworth continued to say that other guys see Jack's drought as an opportunity.
Hackworth admits the team was too predictable against San Jose (after denying that his subs are not such).
Amobi returns this week but will not fit into the midfield because "Brian Carroll is the guy that we leave as the lone holding guy in the midfield" and "we gotta go on the attack." Hackworth believes "we really missed Amobi" at centerback.
The Union will be back at PPL against Houston at 7:30pm on Saturday, September 14 on the Comcast Network.