Real Salt Lake
Real Salt Lake Head Coach Jason Kreis
On RSL getting their first win in Dallas…
“It was an important result against a very good team in their stadium. Right now we’re in first place and they’re in second and that’s what’s important. It feels good. I don’t think I ever won a game here even when I was a player [for Real Salt Lake].”
On GK Josh Saunders’ Injury…
“We don’t know the prognosis yet. We just know he strained his knee. He’ll have an MRI. He’s in a lot of pain right now. [Jeff] Attinella made a couple of critical saves. He’s a player we have a lot of belief in and he came in and made an awesome contribution for us.
He [Saunders] wanted to try but we knew he felt a little shaky and we found out pretty quickly. I really, really hope that Josh is going to be ok and we’re just looking at a couple of weeks.”
On Javier Morales’ one goal, two assists performance…
“He was incredible again tonight. This is a player so many people had written off – including some people in our club actually – so for us to continue to believe in him and him to believe in himself… to make something happen this year, I just couldn’t be more pleased. He’s a terrific player but more than that he’s a terrific man and it just really warms my heart to see a guy like that do well.”
Real Salt Lake GK Jeff Attinella
On stepping into the match for an injured Josh Saunders…
“I’m happy I could step in and help the team get a win. Our offense and our defense were the stars tonight. Javi’s [Javier Morales] first goal was unbelievable and to get that second insurance goal was huge. Then, of course, the third put the game out of reach. Obviously you don’t want to come in due to someone getting injured… Josh has been a mentor to me so I was sad to see him go down but happy to contribute.”
On his first save…
“Fortunately I got a good read on the ball and he took that big first touch. It gave me a chance to close it down. When you come into a game like that, your first touch is really important and fortunately for me I made a good save and the rest of the game went to script. I’m still trying to wrap my head around what just happened. Josh will get evaluated and we’ll see how he feels during the course of the week. If he feels good to go I’m sure he’ll be back and do a great job. If my number’s called, I’m going to train hard and be ready.
On making his MLS debut…
“I actually enjoyed it better this way. I got to watch the whole first half and see what was going on. I feel like in that situation there’s no pressure for me. I’m sure everyone thought I was going to come in and not do well. When you don’t have too much time to think about things, you go out there and you play.”
Real Salt Lake MF Javier Morales
On his first goal…
“I think he [the defender] was waiting for me to cut and shoot to the second post and when he opened his legs I thought I could play it through. Lucky for me, because it was a goal. I was looking for the goal. It was my second goal like that that this season. I like to do that because, the goalkeeper, he doesn’t expect me to shoot like that.
On the importance of the victory…
“It’s very important for us because we are in first place and they are just behind us. If they beat us, they’ve even with us. Now we’ve got six points [ahead in the standings] so that’s pretty important for us. Also, we got our first win in Texas so the confidence is pretty high.”
On missing starters out for national team duty…
“We have to give credit to the coaching staff. We lose four guys. One guy is out with a red card, so we’re missing five guys. We play the second place team in the league and we beat them in their home 3-0. That is huge. We play for the coaches and we play for the team.”
Real Salt Lake MF Ned Grabavoy
On his coordination with teammate Yordany Alvarez…
“Yordany [Alvarez] and I have talked about picking and choosing our times to make that run to the top of the box. I thought it was a great time. He hits a perfect ball and I have time to take a touch and then finish. It just felt like we had chances to bury the game and we did. Sometimes we haven’t done that in the past and I think that’s probably the most important thing.”
On Jeff Attinella coming into the match for Josh Saunders…
“It was a little crazy because Jeff’s [Attinella] been on-loan a little bit this year but he’s trained every day, trained hard, and we feel confident having him in there. I felt really bad for Josh but we’ll see what’s going on with his knee. You feel bad for a guy any time like that. Especially when it’s really his time to help us get some wins. Jeff steps in and makes some great saves, and not just great saves but he was very calm back there. One time, he took the ball off his chest and killed some time. He looked really comfortable back there. That’s good going forward because we might need him the next three or four weeks.”
