LOS ANGELES FOOTBALL CLUB MEDIA CONFERENCE

April 17, 2021

Corey Baird

Press Conference

Los Angeles Football Club 2, ALos Angeles Football Club 2, Austin 0

Q. Give us your thoughts on match and first game for the black and gold, first goal for the black and gold. Tell us your thoughts.

COREY BAIRD: It was awesome, getting out in front of the fans, getting my debut, getting a goal, getting our first win of the season, can't ask for much more than that. Austin had a good game plan coming into the game. They played well, but I think just through a lot of possession from us, getting the ball in dangerous areas where we could just keep going away at them and ended up getting a couple?

Q. Can you walk me through the goal?

COREY BAIRD: Yeah, I think Danny had the ball, trying to get it over to Latif. So I asked -- to take up a spot, once he's got it as an option for him for slip me in on goal and then Mo happened to squeak out just right there, and I think I just, I saw some space, because you don't get that much space right outside the 18. So took it on, got a little lucky with the deflection, but if you don't shoot, you don't score.

Q. I imagining you probably didn't expect you would be playing most of the game with Danny and Mahalo up top but how did you feel in having to build some chemistry on the fly with them in this match and obviously you ended up getting a couple goals and a win out of it?

COREY BAIRD: I felt fine, totally comfortable. I mean, it's been close to six weeks, maybe a little longer than that, where I've been training with these guys every day, getting to know them in the locker room.

So I don't think it's like, oh, I only have chemistry with certain guys on the team. I'm looking to build it with everybody and whoever is playing. So I think whoever steps in our team, they are ready go to. They have been putting in the hard work, so no matter who is in there, I think I trust them.

Q. Talk about the goal and that included for the score and for LAFC, do these goals make a big confidence on your first match with LAFC trying to make your new history, this makes big confidence?

COREY BAIRD: Yeah, obviously getting goals and assists, that helps the confidence. And coming in as a new player, I wanted to make sure I got off to a good start, so I think that's just lots of work in the off-season and preseason trying to make sure I was really ready for this game both physically and mentally.

So I think that's big for my own confidence and I think that was a big moment for us where I think we hit the bar, we had a couple went just over, and we had a lot of little half-chances and it wasn't quite going our way with those chances. I think finally getting one was nice for us, just reassuring, all right, just keep going, we're doing the right things to create opportunities and we're going to be dangerous if we keep doing this.

Q. Just wanted to ask you, most of us have been in the stadium where it's been packed with the fans, but even today, the fans just created an insanely good atmosphere. Wanted to get your take on playing in the atmosphere and just your overall experience, especially as we are now just getting back to fans coming into stadiums. It was pretty great to see from our perspective, too.

COREY BAIRD: Yeah, I mean, I think the fans played a huge role today just keeping us going and giving us that energy. And I think sometimes throughout this pandemic, you're thinking, okay, I might be able to talk to my teammates a little more, the stadium won't be quite as loud and not as many people in there, and communication might get a little easier. But they did an unbelievable job today, making noise, cheering our game. Made me making a cheeky remark a little tougher, but I think we love the energy that they are bringing.