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Community Corner

Silverbacks Recap Xelaju, Preview Minnesota

At the conclusion of Tuesday’s training session, atlanatsilverbacksfc.com caught up with Silverbacks Head Coach Brian Haynes, defenders Bobby Reiss, Martyn Lancaster, Willie Hunt and Mike Randolph, and forward Kellen Gulley to recap last weekend’s 3-2 win over Guatemalan side Club Xelaju MC and look ahead to this Saturday’s NASL Fall Season Opener in Minnesota.

HEAD COACH BRIAN HAYNES

On this weekend’s matchup in Minnesota:

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“When the whistle blows on Saturday, it’s going to be 11 against 11. I don’t care who they have on the other side of the field. I’m going to put my best team out there and hopefully we play well enough to not only compete, but get out of there with a win.”

“I respect the fact that everyone is going to be coming after us, but at the same time, we have something to prove as well. We have to show that we’re as good as our last half of the season.”

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On potentially having a target on their back:

“I think what may happen is other teams might think that we’re just going to take it easy because we’ve already booked our place in the final, but they’ll be in for a bit of a rude awakening if they do that.

“I’m not in the least bit satisfied right now. Yes, we won the first half, but as far as I’m concerned, we could have done much better. We look forward to improving on the things we didn’t do well last season.”

DEFENDER MARTYN LANCASTER

On traveling to Minnesota:

“We know that when we travel to Minnesota, all the fans will be against us. I think that last weekend’s game helped us get our mind right for this weekend’s game. Obviously, now we’re going to be a target. Everyone wants to beat the best team in the league, and that’s us right now. But we aren’t planning on taking our foot off the gas at all.”

On playing Xelaju last weekend:

“It was a good run-out for the guys because they played like it was a regular season game. The season starts this week, and I think we turned in a great performance. It was a great warm-up game for the season.”

“They definitely made it a hostile environment. It was a great atmosphere to play in because we were the away team in our home stadium. It was kind of bizarre, but it was good friendly banter and good for the game.”

DEFENDER MIKE RANDOLPH

On playing against Xelaju:

“It was crazy. I mean, it was a great atmosphere, especially considering it felt like we were away. But all in all, it was fun. The fans were great and it felt good getting back into action.”

On preparing for the fall season:

“Preparing for the fall season is a lot of hard work. It has been lots of finishing and lots of intra-squad matches. But every day I get to play against the best players in the league, so I’m lucky.”

FORWARD KELLEN GULLEY

On the preseason and getting ready for the first game:

“I’ve been working on my fitness because that’s always been my problem. It’s definitely better than it was at the start of the season.”

On the team’s outlook on the season:

“We’re going to go into the season with the same intent. We now have the option to cycle players through each game to give them some playing time, but our intent stays the same because we want to win.”

DEFENDER BOBBY REISS

On playing against Xelaju:

“It was interesting. I think it was good for us to play in an environment like that going into next weekend, but it was a little bit weird being at home and having fans booing you during warm-ups and stuff like that. At the end of the day, that Guatemalan team has a big fan base out here, so we don’t mind, as long as we hopefully get some of those fans back out to our games.”

On playing in a hostile environment:

“The environment that we were in really helped. I mean, we’re going to have fans in Minnesota heckling us just like they were during that game. It just kind of got us back into that mentality for the season and I think started to get us into a groove for the fall season.”

DEFENDER WILLIE HUNT

On the Xelaju game:

“It was a lot of fun. I was lucky enough to be here in Atlanta when we played against Irapuato, which was Cuauhtemoc Blanco’s team. I think Saturday gave us a similar experience. It’s always interesting playing at home in front of a packed house, but not having the home-field advantage.”

“They were a bit more technical than the NASL teams that we typically come up against, but they weren’t as physical and didn’t have much presence in the back. Xelaju seems to have a real attack-minded mentality – they were throwing everything at us.”

On this weekend’s trip to Minnesota:

“It’s 100% going to be a different game than the one on July 4. It’s the first game of the fall season, so the teams that underachieved in the first half are going to have a lot of pressure on them to win their first game.”

On the Silverbacks having a target on their back:

“I definitely think we have a target on our back. You know, we started this season a little overlooked, so we had to go out there and prove some people wrong. We need to make sure we hold on to that same attitude, though. We still need to prove to everyone that we’re deserving of that NASL Spring Season title.”

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