Despite losing the first leg of their Concacaf Champions League round-of-16 game 3-0 to Major League Soccer team Los Angeles Galaxy at Dignity Health Sports Park in Carson, California on Wednesday, Mount Pleasant FA Head Coach Theodore Whitmore is not ready to give up hope.

A hat-trick from Brazilian Gabriel Pec came against the Jamaica Premier League team who were without at least 10 regular players and Whitmore said they would be trying to win Thursday’s return-leg game at the National Stadium.

Whitmore included two teenagers in the starting team, Owen Jumpp and Jabari Howell, two of the five players they had on the national Under-20 team.

“This is football, we don’t know what will happen, we just have to prepare ourselves,” Whitmore said in a post game press conference. “Recovery is important, as best as possible we want to go out there and we want to represent Mount Pleasant. So, we know it’s going to be difficult. We’re going to make it difficult for the LA Galaxy team. But as I said before, I don’t know what will happen, but we’ll give it 110 per cent.”

Mount Pleasant conceded the first goal after six minutes and despite improving as the game progressed, conceded two late goals in the 89th minute and in time added and Whitmore said that could have been caused “by a lack of concentration,” adding he was proud of how the team played.

“Despite the challenges, we would have probably been without 12 to 13 of our regular players, but we make no excuses,” he said. “I think the boys tonight, they put in a decent shift…we conceded three goals, but overall, I think it was a decent performance from our team and I make no bones about it I think we played against a decent LA Galaxy team tonight.”

Whitmore would not say who was responsible for the players not getting visa interviews on time but said there were positives.

“We give our younger players some experience and this would help them to better understand the level of competition, so there’s a lot to gain from this game despite the result,” Whitmore said.

Mount Pleasant fell behind after Pec scored in the sixth minute.

Minutes after a goal was disallowed for a handball in the build-up, Pec scored again in the 89th minute and completed his hat-trick in time added.