Real Salt Lake
Real Salt Lake Head Coach Jeff Cassar
On the overall flow of the game:
“I would have liked to see us be better in the final third, maybe, in the first 45 minutes. Then, after we got a couple of changes, it injected some energy into it. A little bit of threading behind [their defense] opened things up. It was much more attractive in the second half. We wanted three points, and we got one.”
On the penalty called on DF Nat Borchers that led to Vancouver’s 1-0 lead:
“It’s not a PK. It’s 100 percent not a PK – I just watched it again. I wish the referee would, you know, be positive [about a call like that]. I went up to him afterwards and asked him ‘are you sure about that call?’ He said ‘pretty sure.’ It’s a PK in the box – you need to be sure. You can’t be ‘almost right’ about those types of calls. Maybe in the middle of the field, you can get away with that, but not a PK. It changes the game, changes the momentum. I was really not pleased with that call. I was really pleased with the way that the referee controlled the game. I thought [Vancouver] was wasting time. I tried to express to the fourth official that our fans deserve more. They deserve better – they wanted an entertaining game – and when the goalkeeper is taking 20 seconds to take a goal kick every single time, it takes the excitement out of the place.”
On their fast start putting Vancouver on their heels:
“We really had them back for the first 20 minutes. We were putting the ball in really dangerous spaces, and then they countered and became dangerous a couple of times. They gained some momentum there. We need that little bit of extra brilliance in the attacking third, whether it’s a better final pass or a better shot – we’re just lacking that.”
On the effect that the midfield scuffle after Vancouver’s goal was a long-term positive or negative:
“I’m not exactly sure why that all happened, but I think everyone was getting a bit frustrated. I think it was because the referee didn’t control the game. For us, we need to have cooler heads – that’s for sure – but it also gave us a little boost.”
On the late move to a three-man backline:
“It’s not something that I want to do all the time, putting three in the back – especially against a team that played with three up top – but it’s something that we needed. It brought in a lot of energy and it really was threatening, a lot of it from Joao [Plata] and Robbie [Findley], but if we go to it that means that we’re behind. It was a great job from all the guys.”
On the importance of FW Joao Plata’s goal:
“It was a great ball from [Kyle Beckerman] – a fantastic ball, hit [Plata] in stride. Joao [Plata] took a nice cut inside and had a great finish. That’s what we needed: a great pass that leads right into a nice shot. I thought our passing was just a little bit off tonight. That final ball was just a little off. At the end of the day, no teams gain ground and no teams lose ground. We gain a point, a couple of teams lost tonight and Dallas won. We picked up a point.”
On the value of getting the club’s first goal in the run of play in a long time:
“It was a nice ball – it was excellent. There’s a lot of talk of ‘not scoring through the run of play,’ but if you count the two PK’s [against New England], that was in the run of play so we earned those. We’ve just got to keep pushing forward.”
On how he plans to handle FW Robbie Findley’s playing time:
“I’ll talk with the rest of the coaches and see how Robbie [Findley] feels after the game. He’s had a great last eight days of training – before that, he wasn’t able to train, fully – so I think we’re starting to see him get close to 100 percent. You can see his explosion in his run tonight, and that was really nice to see. I think we’re moving forward nicely.”
On whether the called penalty against DF Nat Borchers will affect how he coaches his back line:
“I can’t remember the whole play completely, but I think we gave the ball away cheaply, but I think he did a great job. It’s not even close on replay. It’s just not close. In fact, I think it’s fantastic defending from Nat [Borchers]. He won the ball completely – it’s not even close.”
Real Salt Lake MF Kyle Beckerman
On his overall thoughts:
“It’s just tough to play. You got one team coming in for a tie – winning is second or third on their list – it’s tough to break down a team like that. You got guys trying to slow the game down, taking their time on goal kicks, just taking the rhythm out of the game. That’s frustrating, because we’re trying to play some soccer in front of a packed crowd tonight, and there were a lot of stop-start type of stuff. It’s not as fun as it could have been for the fans and for the game of soccer, and that gets frustrating sometimes.”
On how FW Joao Plata’s goal changed the flow of the game:
“It felt good. It felt like we were going to get another one. It brought some life to the crowd. I figured we’d get another chance – which we did, and their keeper made a big save. We’ve got to keeping working and keep trying to get better.”
On what he saw of the midfield scuffle after Vancouver’s goal:
“I didn’t [see how it started]. But it shows how they went after our smallest guy – real tough.”
On what he saw that led to his assist on Plata’s goal:
“It was just a play where I tried to get it off Luke [Mulholland]. I saw Javier [Morales] play it in to Luke [Mulholland], and that I was going to receive it back from him. He got the ball off to me, and I heard Plata screaming for it. I knew he was wide open, so I just played it.”
Real Salt Lake DF Chris Wingert:
Thoughts on the penalty:
“It looked clean to me, but I was behind the play. I saw the ball squirt out to the right. Looked like a great play by [Nat] Borchers.”
Thoughts on the midfield scuffle after the penalty goal:
“I honestly don’t know. I just saw some pushing come out of the mix. I was on the other side, so I wasn’t really involved.”
On the team’s response after Vancouver’s goal:
“It was great, but you know I thought we played well at the beginning of the game too. It’s not like because of the goal we played good. I am proud of the guys that we didn’t put our heads down. We fought back and created some chances. They were dangerous in a couple of plays in the first half on counters, but for the most part I thought we got after it. We’re just unlucky not to finish. We had some pretty good chances, even some broken plays where the ball was in and out and bouncing down and landing at someone’s feet, and they blocked a couple. The goalie made a great save on Javier’s [Morales] free kick. I think that’s part of it. You got to keep grinding away and things don’t work out your way. Like it was 0-0 at halftime, then keep pushing and hope that it comes. Unfortunately we got put behind the eight ball.”
On the back line formation change:
“We went to three back. In terms of actually serving the ball, I’m still more comfortable on the right, just because I’m right footed, but Tony [Beltran] for me is probably the best right back in the league, so we’re right up there, so that’s an obvious reason to play on the left side. Wherever they need me I’m more than comfortable playing there. We just decided to go three in the back to push some guys forward. I thought when Robbie [Findley] came into the game he changed the entire game, which is not a surprise. He’s just an unbelievable weapon. Credit to [Joao] Plata on the goal, what a finish. And it was a good team goal to win the ball and make a couple of good passes. I thought we were unlucky not to get another one right after that.”
Real Salt Lake DF Nat Borchers
On the penalty kick:
“I didn’t think it was a penalty obviously. I think that in that situation, the referee needs to be a hundred percent sure if they’re going to make that call. I felt like I got the ball first, and unfortunately he didn’t think that way.”
On the midfield scuffle after the penalty kick was scored:
“I’m not sure why everyone is making a big deal of that. I didn’t see how it started. I didn’t think it was a big deal. Two teams that want to win, you’re going to have a lot of words exchanged, and physical confrontation is just normal.”
Thoughts on the final 15 minutes:
“It’s always that flow in the game, and in the first half we some chances, and we had some good possession, and they had some good counter attacks and some chances, and then the second half I thought we dominated most of that half, though they had a couple of chances, but for the most part I thought we did well. And then we went to three in the back after the goal and I thought we really responded well.”
Thought on FW Olmes Garcia entering the match for DF Tony Beltran:
“It’s an adjustment. We have good players like Chris Wingert and Chris Schuler next to you and Kyle [Beckerman] in front of you. It doesn’t change a whole lot. We’re still pretty deep and able to make adjustments like that.”
On whether the penalty call makes one think twice on making the next sliding tackle in the box:
“I think sometimes it does, but once he’s made the call you know that he owes us one on the other end of the field. The 4th official knows that it’s the wrong call. He’s seen the replay, and then on the other end of the field you hope you get one back, but unfortunately we didn’t.”
Real Salt Lake FW Robbie Findley
Thoughts on being back on the pitch:
“It feels good to get out there and it was an exciting game. I’m feeling good and I’m ready for the next one.”
Thoughts on the tie:
“I think we played alright. There was an iffy call on the other end. You can look at tape, but it is what it is. Make the call, and you got to deal with it. I think we just really got to focus on the shutout, and go out there and play our game. That’s the main thing.”
Vancouver Whitecaps FC
Vancouver Whitecaps FC Head Coach Carl Robinson
On his overall thoughts:
“Intensity in the game. I thought it was a great point for us – I really did. I thought it was a thoroughly, hard-working performance from us. Tactically we got it spot on. We managed to go ahead with the penalty, whether it was a penalty or not I didn’t see. I couldn’t see from where I was and I’ve heard that it was and that it wasn’t, so I can’t comment on that. Then we held on. They scored a goal – a super goal from [Joao] Plata who’s a super little player. And then we saw out the game, so Real Salt Lake might be a new rival of ours.”
On what attributed to the added intensity:
“I’m not sure. I said to the guys that we’ve got to dig deep today – we really have. We’ve had a horrible road trip, and that’s why I made some changes, and I asked them to give me everything. I said, “Be aggressive. We don’t get outworked and we don’t get outfought”. They [RSL] are a good footballing team – one of the best teams when they’re on their game. If we got into a football match with them, after a road trip, we’d probably lose the game. Where we are at the moment, we’re still a team that’s developing, we’re a work in progress, so the decision was just to be tactically different today, and try to catch them on the counter - I thought we did it numerous times.”
On what he learned about his team in a game like this when it’s physical and emotions are high:
“It doesn’t matter how big they are, because I’ve got a very small team. That they’re willing to fight for the jersey. The camaraderie, the spirit they’ve got, it’s fantastic, it really is, and we’re going to need that if we want to be challenging at the end of the season for the playoffs. To come here twice this year and get a point on each time is a fantastic achievement for us, against a team that’s been in playoffs every year, really, and won the MLS Cup. So it’s a good starting block for us.”
On how they’ve been able to earn on point on five of their last six road games:
“I was asked this on the east coast, and I said maybe we should be in the east because play good against the east teams. Maybe we should just play every away game. I don’t know. It’s the collective mentality that they’ve got in the group, that “never say die” attitude that I wanted to instill, it built a culture at the football club. And we’re slowly building that. It interesting what we see in players’ reactions. I want to be a coach, a manager, that builds plays with simple football, cut through teams, like Salt Lake do to other teams, but if I get into a football match, now, six months from where we started, playing away from home, after two games in a week, I’m probably asking for trouble myself. We will get there, there will be a day where we can come here and try to out-football them, but that might be a long way away. Delightful football today.”
Vancouver Whitecaps FC GK David Ousted
On why they’ve had crazy games in Salt Lake this year:
“It’s just a tough place to play. You come into altitude, it was warm this time, and they’re a good team, so we need to be smart about it and play. And I think we got a little bit under their skin, and it just creates drama and it must be nice being out there and watching.”
On his overall thoughts:
“Three games in a week now. It was tough. Coming here is always tough and we knew it was going to be a game where we needed to be smart about how we played and not let them dictate too much of the game. I thought we did really well and kudos to the team. If we were a little bit luckier, we might have gotten away with three points, but 1-1 is probably a fair result.”
On the chippy nature of the game and the grit of his team:
“I think it showed, especially after the penalty…that there was a little scrum…there. I thought that we showed that we’ll stick up for each other, and that’s the way it’s supposed to be in the team. Normally we like to get away from the fights and not get into them, but we’ll stick up for each other.”
Vancouver Whitecaps FC FW Darren Mattocks
On his view about the penalty:
“There are going to be a lot of calls that fans don’t agree with in MLS – that’s up to the referee to make, the decision to give a penalty kick. My job is to try to do my best to help the team win.”
On his overall thoughts:
“I think the team was very resilient from David Ousted all the way up to the front. I think we worked together as a team. We were very compact and I think we caught them on the break a couple times. Unfortunately we didn’t get all three points, but I think coming out of Salt Lake – a very good team, one of the best soccer-playing teams in Major League Soccer – I think we are very grateful and thankful for a point.”
