De Boer after Atlanta's match: "This is what fans expected"
The coach of Atlanta United spoke about the quarterfinals 2nd leg game against Monterrey in Concachampions, where despite the elimination, he highlighted the victory of his team.
Atlanta United coach, Frank de Boer said he feels motivated by the victory his team got in the 2nd leg of the quarterfinals series at CONCACAF Champions League, despite being eliminated of the tournament.
Monterrey got the win 3-0 win during the 1st leg of the series while Atlanta won 1-0 the 2nd leg game, but the MLS was left out of the tournament due to the 3-1 in favor of Rayados on aggregate.
De Boer was positive about the result at home despite it not being enough to reach the semifinals and referred to the atmosphere in the game which is what the fans like.
"It's always nice to see that good reaction after Sunday because there was not that energy in the game vs. Cincinnati, we can be proud of our performance, we played very well against Monterrey. The energy that the players put into the game against Monterrey is the energy you want to see; it's what fans expect from Atlanta United."
Atlanta leaders talk
Captain Michael Parkhurst, endorsed the words of his coach and said that after the draw against Cincinnati, the priority of the squad was to improve against Rayados.
"We talked about forgetting the score at the beginning of the game, and give a performance worthy of the star on our shirt and the fans that are at the stadium; I thought we did that. Of course, we're disappointed as we wanted to move forward, but considering how the first month went, this was a positive step in the right direction," remarked the captain.
"We are still adapting to our coach's style of play, and we understand that it's something we're working on, but the elimination is something that will help us move forward," were the words from Ezequiel Barco.