Photo Credit: Di Miller
On August 13, the MLL held their weekly Coaches Conference Call and Denver Outlaws Head Coach B.J. O’Hara was asked about the overtime loss to the New York Lizards on August 9. He said:
“Both teams put winning the game ahead of any of the other distractions in terms of margin of victory. We were trying to win the game that was in front of us, as they were. At the end of the day when it was over we were disappointed to let one get away. We had some chances to win it. We were awfully excited to be going back to Denver one more time and that sort of took some of the sting away from the loss.”
What is your game plan on facing the Lizards for the second time in one week? Coach O’Hara commented:
“Well, we have watched the film numerous times. Guys have all had access to the film and there are things we need to do better for sure. We gave up some goals in transition that we’ve got to make sure we are going to clean up. Their goalie Drew Adams was awfully tough against us. Hopefully we can solve him better than we did. He probably was the difference in the game. Everything else was pretty even. Our goalie played very well but their goalie had 22 saves and a lot of them were big ones. We will make the adjustments. I don’t think there will be any big roster adjustments but there are certainly some things we want to be aware of going in to it.”
What’s the status of Curtis Dickson?
“He is right on the edge, we’re taking it day-by-day. Hopeful but I don’t know if he will be ready this week. If we can get another week then there is a good chance he will be, this week we’re not sure yet.”
Will the matchups against the New York Lizards stay the same?
“Most likely, they move people around a little bit. They had Ned Crotty playing attack, and they had him playing midfield. They had Tommy Palasek playing midfield. Matt Gibson was in and out, so it’s hard to come up with any strict one-versus-one matchups. You have to be flexible because they change their look a lot during the game.”
The final question was about rookie Colin Dunster and how he fits into the lineup. He responded by saying:
“We thought a lot of him when we drafted him, as is often the case, it’s tough to get the young guys into the lineup. The few times we used him early in the season he caught our eye and then going down the stretch he’s back in the lineup and has been getting stronger and stronger. He is so difficult to stop one-on-one. Long stick or short stick he just gets to the goal. He brings another offensive threat to our midfield. He will definitely be in the lineup this week and we expect big things from him.”
