John Hackworth sits down with press to go over the Houston Dynamo match and look forward to the Montreal Impact.
The coach starts with condolences for the family of Eric Shertz, an integral member of both the Sons of Ben and Bearfight Briagde.
Hackworth then quickly moves on to Montreal, acknowledging the Union's habit of coming away empty handed and puts it all down to "executing better in front of goal". He calls the reunion with former Union striker Jack McInerney "interesting" but that he "will look forward to seeing him" and denies any ill will between the two.
Rewinding to the Houston match, Hackworth says the team need to shoot more from distance and calls for calm. When asked about current lack of results Hackworth says "we aren't happy with where we are in the standings", but "the tide will turn and results will come our way". He has an interesting moment where he talks about the unpredictability of soccer in general as a team sport and that according his staff and the metrics they use the Union are playing positively and have "been a really really good team" before he says that the "the shots on goal statistic is a terrible stat for soccer". For the record, the Union registered zero shots on goal versus Houston last weekend.
He hails Nogueira and Carroll passing statistics but says that this season the Union have "depended a little too much on the cross". Hackworth reveals that he and Wenger spoke after the last match and that Wenger "wroks wells within our system" and that he expects good things from the local striker.
The coach picks apart Aaron Wheelers first half performance against Houston and reveals that Wheeler is "still the first choice" at center back. He also added that Austin Berry looked good in training and voiced his pleasure at having competition for positions.
Coach Hackworth finishes with some talk about the switching of flanks between LeToux and Maidana, hinting that Maidana may start on the right and that perhaps he will go with a different option on the left flank versus Montreal.