Postgame Quote Sheet
U.S. Open Cup, Third Round
Real Salt Lake 1 : 3 Minnesota Stars FC
REAL SALT LAKE HEAD COACH JASON KREIS
On the match:
“First and foremost I want to make sure we do the right thing here and give credit to Minnesota, because I don’t want to talk too much about how poorly my team played, I want to talk quite a bit about how well they played. From minute one to minute 90 it looked like their team wanted it more than we did. At the end of it all, I think the score was fair, because the effort just wasn’t good enough.”
On RSL’s performance:
“We’ve been preaching the same message to our team for many, many years now which is: if they’re not going to be fully committed to the game, they will not get results, and tonight they came in at about 75%. They thought that was going to be good enough and it clearly was not. We made it very clear to our players that this was going to be a very organized defensive team, very difficult to break down, a team that hasn’t lost yet, for a reason. It was a difficult game for us to breakdown, tons of players in the middle of our midfield, really challenged us to do something different.”
To RSL fans and management:
“They just wanted to win more than we did, which is embarrassing. I think we owe a debt of gratitude and apology first and foremost to our ownership and to the management for pulling strings and working extremely hard to get the match here, and we owe an apology to our fans. That was a terrific crowd tonight for an Open Cup match, and we brought them down miserably.”
On not putting FW Fabian Espindola on field:
“He’s too injured. I was hoping that he would come healthy, but after talking to him and the trainer, wanting to use him meant risking losing him for a long time. I just wasn’t prepared to take that risk.”
On moving on from the match:
“We will go back to the drawing board, and we’ll make sure that everybody on my squad right now recognizes that there is only one way to play here, and that’s to give your best, and if you’re not going to, you need to stand up and move aside. The coaching staff is waiting for me as well as the trainers. We are going to look at the next 2 ½ weeks. I’ve said this once before in my coaching career and I’ll say it now…I would not want to be a player under me right now.”
RSL MIDFIELDER LUIS GIL
On the support of the fans:
“It’s a joy to have fans like that that support us through everything, especially in times like this, so a big thanks to all of them. Having all of their support out there makes us feel better.”
On his goal:
“It was off of a quick simple play, and then I just had to get the shot on target.”
On the U-20 MNT trip coming up:
“It’s an honor. It’s always good to represent your country. I haven’t been out with them for a while, so it’s good to go back and progress as a team. I feel like we’re getting better as it goes on. It’s just a joy to be back out there again.”
RSL MIDFIELDER NED GRABAVOY
On if there was a psychological aspect out on the field:
“It must have had some part to do with it. I think they came out at the start of the game and got the lead. They’re an organized team, and they were feeling really good about themselves coming on our pitch and going up twice in the first half. I think guys fought on our team, but I think it was too little too late.”
On the break from games now:
“It is what it is now. We don’t have a game, because we lost in the Open cup. Winning is a habit. This is a different team than 2009 or 2010, and sometimes I think that we feel a little too good about ourselves because it’s a different group now. There’s a lot of guys who still have to prove that they can just win games, whether it’s reserve league, first team, exhibition, or games in training. This level, it’s all about winning and that’s it period. I think the emotion from this game over the course of the break will settle and it will pass. It’s just frustrating.”
RSL DEFENDER NAT BORCHERS
On the loss:
“I’m embarrassed right now to be honest with you. I can handle mistakes, I can handle missed chances, bad passes, and defensive mistakes, but I can’t handle when we don’t go out and try to fight. From the first minute, they out-battled us. We gave up in the last 15 minutes. It was very unlike us, and I’m embarrassed right now. It’s just not good enough from us. Every guy in this locker room needs to look at himself in the mirror and learn from the night, because you can have all of the quality in the world, but if you don’t try then you‘re never going to get anywhere in this sport.”
MINNESOTA STARS FC HEAD COACH MANNY LAGOS
On the quick start and continued dominance:
“I’m just super proud of the guys. I’ve told them, since I’ve played at all levels, this is pro soccer and we are playing against a team of a higher level but this is still pro soccer. We stepped on the field and things went well for us, and we played well. We have had a nice run in our league and I was expecting our guys to come out here, play, and get a good result.”
On the expectations of winning this game beforehand:
“Well, you never know; every game is a new game and every day is a new day. Fortunately, we haven’t lost yet this year and this is a tight knit group so I knew that we had that going for us before the game started. We made a good run last year for the championship, so coming into the game we knew we were going to battle against a high level team.”
On how the goal before halftime changed the tempo of the game:
“Oh yeah, that was a big change. Certainly, Real Salt Lake got a great equalizing goal. Real Salt Lake had a nice run of play. I think we kind of pressed them before the half and it turned out well for us. During the second half, I thought that we moved the ball better and sent the message that if they had too many guys forward then we were going to get some more goals. There is a certain psychological level of a lower level team playing a higher-level team, and in here, it’s a tough place to set the pace of the game. I’m really proud of the guys for the win.”
MINNESOTA STARS FC DEFENDER BRIAN KALLMAN
On Minnesota’s attitude coming into the match:
“We were just thinking all along of winning. That’s kind of all we know right now. Me and our captain Kyle Altman said before the game, we haven’t lost in 17 games in a row starting last year. It was never really an option to lose. We all came in expecting to get a result today.”
On Minnesota’s goals moving forward with this season and the US Open Cup:
“Our goal is to win the (US Open Cup), obviously. But, we’ve got to get ready for a league game on Saturday. Somehow, get a result there and keep our unbeaten streak. Then come out against whoever we play next Tuesday and have a good showing.”
MINNESOTA STARS FC DEFENDER CONNOR TOBIN
On what it means for them to come into Rio Tinto Stadium and get a win:
“It’s definitely fun. It has a certain spirit about it no matter what happens in the game. You come in trying to get a result and it’s really special when that happens.”
On the importance of Minnesota’s chemistry:
“It’s not just the 18 that are here, it’s also every guy back home that didn’t travel. It doesn’t matter, the guys get behind them. I don’t think that happens in every locker room. It makes it a lot easier when things aren’t going your way when you know that everyone is behind you.”
