An inside look into roster depth, style of play, and season goals with Emerald FC Orlando head coach Adam Raji.
We caught up with Emerald FC head coach Adam Raji during the First Coast Athletic match at Bishop Moore Catholic High School in Orlando for a mid-season check-in. From roster depth to his young goalkeeper phenom, here's what he had to say about the state of the club.
Congratulations on the new addition to the family!
Thank you so much.
Can we get an early scouting report? How are things at home?
Yeah, he's a big boy!
Where do you project him on the field?
Oh, that's tough! His mother's a good defender so anywhere on the field is good. Goalkeeper or on half.
We're here at the First Coast Athletic match at Bishop Moore. What were some of the keys going into the game tonight?
Yeah, it's a good game for us right now at this point in the season. They're a good team, but they are a little bit below us in the league. It's good for us to get our style of play down so we can make a good push forward.
We've been super aggressive tonight! Lots of shots on goal, great corners. How would you describe the style of play?
Dave Kelly and Harry New throughout the week, and every week in practice, work on the style of play. We've been very unlucky throughout the season to drop points. We've only been beaten once, and we should be a lot higher off the table. But the guys have worked towards it, and this match is perfect for us to build the confidence and play calm but still aggressive.
Angel Rodriguez has two tonight! What's been the secret to his success?
Last game was huge for him. Definitely, it's like a switch went off and everything was sticking with him. He was able to hold up everything and he's running down all the balls off top, he's chasing everything. And he's young, he's active and he's very good. Definitely a switch has flipped for him.
Any pleasant surprises this season?
We have so many guys biting to get in. If you came to training it's like 30 people. It's been a lot of injuries to key players but with that depth it's been a good selection. This game right now is nice because you get some guys that are right there around the starting 11.
It's nice to see this effort tonight without Stephen McGinn available!
Yeah! He's missed but obviously he's with the guys.
What's it like to have a presence like that constantly?
McGinn, he's huge. He's a leader. We're getting older now, so a lot of people he coached! It's crazy, but he's just a good leader.
What are you looking to see moving forward?
Just to gain more confidence. We've got a good group with good players. We hopefully get these points towards the end of the season that we need, and move up into the playoffs, and hit our rhythm at the perfect time because that's what we need. It's been a good turnout, a lot of people are here. It's the same people every week and we're blessed to have that because they literally come no matter what. It means a lot to us. It's growing!
Vibes are high.