Quote Sheet
Real Salt Lake 0-0 Colorado Rapids
Rio Tinto Stadium; June 7, 2015
Real Salt Lake
Real Salt Lake Head Coach Jeff Cassar
On his teams play against Western Conference opponents this year:
“I think they’re each individual. They have a different story behind each one. But it’s a way to move up the table. If you don’t take care of business like that you’re going to kind of be where we’re at right now, and that’s on the outside looking in. Today was a big opportunity for us to get ourselves back in the mix there. I thought we pushed, we wanted it, we tried. We talk about getting that first goal and more will come after that. You’ve got to get that first one before it opens up.
Thoughts about the game being a missed opportunity:
“Yes absolutely without a doubt today was a missed opportunity. With that being said I still thought we had a good performance. I thought our offense clicked very well, and I thought we limited them to not too many opportunities. Some direct play that they had, and some set plays we defended those pretty good for the most part. So we limited them and then we created a lot of chances. If we get that one I think things will open up and we’ll get more.”
Thoughts on how Plata, Jaime, and Saborio played together:
“I thought they did a good job. You can still see that they’re not quite 90 minutes fit and they’re having to go 90 minutes. That’s tough. Especially when we have to make a substitution in the back line a minute into the game. That really throws off your plans. Especially using a sub in the back. So that is frustrating. We could’ve used some fresher legs in the attack. But I thought the guys put forth a great effort tonight and just came up short.”
On the injuries to Olave and Jaime:
“Jaime just took a knock and is sore. I really don’t know how he’s doing now. I believe Jamison either strained his quad or his hip-flexor, something in there. So we’ll have to tackle that.”
On the attacking impact of the team before/after Devon Sandoval came on:
“I think we got a little tired. When you get tired you don’t really want to play much defense. But all of a sudden when you’ve got the ball you have a lot of energy. We need to get better at that because those lulls can make you pay. Then when we do have joy with the ball we need to make them pay. But I think we still have a lot of guys out there that don’t normally play 90 minutes. Credit to them for sticking it out. That’s a part of getting better and back to game fitness as well. I thought Luke and John did a good job in the midfield. John doesn’t play 90 minutes every week for us and he went 90 minutes and did a great job for us. I still think we’re still getting 90 minutes fit.”
On having Nick Rimando back early from national team duty:
“He was supposed to be here the whole time. We had been communication with U.S. Soccer trying to get both of them back. We knew Nick was coming back the whole entire time and it was still up in the air if Kyle was going to come back. But they have a few players that have some injuries on the national team, so they couldn’t afford to let Kyle go.”
On giving up another penalty kick:
“The play should’ve been taken care of earlier. But when you let the ball bounce a couple times, and with one offensive player against two center backs, it’s those little things. Being fatigued, but you can’t be mentally fatigued. I would’ve never thought we were going to lose that game and sure enough we almost did. Then we almost won it a little later than that. It’s definitely a coaching point and it’s something to learn on. Thank goodness this is one of the few times we haven’t paid for one of our mistakes. Typically we’ve been paying for our mistakes and this game we didn’t pay.”
Thoughts on a typical Colorado vs. RSL match:
“There’s a lot of new players. I think some of them don’t quite know what the rivalry is. I thought the first half was incredibly chippy, and I thought our guys dealt with that well. But it was two teams that were battling. I think we were a bit more aggressive than they were. We just didn’t put it into the back of the net.”
On having a long break before facing Sounders 2 in USOC play:
“We’re giving them off until Thursday. Then we’re going to train through the game vs. Seattle 2 on that Tuesday. I think the guys need to recharge their batteries a bit. We’re going to have workouts for them to do, especially some of them. But it’s important; I don’t think we’re going to have another weekend off the rest of the year. And we have a very busy schedule.”
Real Salt Lake Goalkeeper Nick Rimando
Thoughts on coming back from international duty to play today:
“It was always just up in the air. Maybe I was going to come back, maybe I wasn’t going to come back, but the opportunity came and happy I was able to come back and happy to be able to contribute. (When did you come back?) Yesterday afternoon. When I landed, it was give me a call, let me see how you feel, how’s the body holding up, and my body felt well. I wanted to play, and we made the decision from there.”
Thoughts on overall play today:
“It’s a result. Not the result we wanted, but we had chances. I thought… we got a shutout, so that’s positive. We got to keep going. It’s a long season and we have to start getting points somewhere.”
Thoughts on missing points when playing teams in the West:
“Home games. You need all of your home games, and we didn’t do that tonight. We just got to continue to fight, and hopefully get those points back somewhere along the way.”
Thoughts on the penalty call:
“Just that he got him just after the second touch. From my angle it looked like he got him. It’s definitely different than any other year I have had to face these PK’s in awhile. It is what it is. The call was a PK and can’t argue it.
Real Salt Lake Midfielder Luke Mulholland
Thoughts on the missed opportunity to not get 3 points at home:
“Yep. I’ll be the first to hold my hand up. The back post headed and missed late in the game. Early on in the season I scored that one against Toronto, and just try and do the same. This time it didn’t come off the way I wanted it to, so that could have won the game and had a few other chances as well. Definitely two points dropped as opposed to one point earned.”
Thoughts on the second half:
“Did you think at half time we were better or worse? (Worse until the last 10 or 15 minutes.) I think that the weather played a part today. It was hot out there. First off we had chances and came into half time still optimistic that we would go into the second half and get the win. We weren’t being ourselves up at halftime and since, we missed too many chances running the risk of error and not grabbing our three points, so we got to stay optimistic and talk about things that we can improve for the second half and things to be weary of, but it’s unfortunate that we weren’t able to get 3 points today. Like you said, we reacted too late to really generate some clear cut chances to win the game.”
Thoughts on being down in the western standings:
“We’re well aware that now is the time to start putting a streak together and start climbing the ladder, but at the same time, you can’t worry about it too much. We’re still playing good football at times and we just constantly need to eliminate the areas and weakness in the game and get closer and closer to a solid day of 90 minute performance. We have a few days until the next open cup game, then we will see the midway point. 15 games into the season now that’s done with, can we start a new clean sheet and win a game and go from there.”
Real Salt Lake Defender Tony Beltran
Thoughts on missed opportunity to get 3 points at home:
“I think we very well could have let it slip away there at the end too. Nick does a good job setting up the penalty. Maybe a different day we would put that game away, but sometimes that’s the way work goes.”
Thoughts on the frustration with results with conference opponents:
“Frustrated yes, but disappointed. These are big match ups, especially at home. This is where we have to start collecting points, so again maybe a missed opportunity to let two points slip byus, but we have to be pleased at the shut out.”
Thoughts doing something to get better during the time off:
“First of all we’ll deal with some injuries. Hopefully Jamison is okay and some other lingering things other guys have. Then once we come back we will have a one week practice before this next big game, and so we use that as an opportunity to regroup and again go to the drawing board and work at getting better.”
Thoughts on getting better results:
“Summer is long and there is a lot of game, so it’s going to be tough, especially with international call ups. The fact is this is our time. 6 out of the next 8 at home…. Time to put some points together before the summer starts.”
Colorado Rapids
Colorado Rapids Head Coach Pablo Mastroeni
Overall thoughts:
“I think that coming off of last week’s performance in the first half, we harped on commitment. We harped on execution, application of all the work this week. What I saw in this 90 minutes was a team that was committed, that applied themselves really well, and did everything as a group. I think that’s for me a sign of many good things to come. I think at the end of the day, we fell short, but it wasn’t for lack of creating a good couple opportunities. I think it was a tremendous effort in a very difficult place to play.”
On the penalty kick at the end:
“That goes without saying. We’ve been on the other side of a lot of decisions. I’m not qualified, nor am I certified to give you a professional opinion about the referee’s call. That being said, obviously, we want to score those. To me, it’s you put yourself in good situations. When it’s hot, everything falls in. As a group, when you’re still lacking that confidence to score goals, it’s evasive. It’s about putting it past us and stepping up to the next game with the same application and the same kind of commitment.”
On if all his team needs is more confidence in front of goal:
“It is. I think we have a full lot of players that are very talented. We’re creating some good opportunities. We came into a difficult place and I think we created a bit more than they did on the day. [We] had some good looks, and it just didn’t go in. I know we’re on the right path. The idea is when you get one, you’re going to get a few – that’s the game of football. But all the stuff that led to those opportunities is very important to me because you can replicate that, week in and week out.”
On the rivalry aspect of the game:
“I didn’t want to throw too much emotion into the game. I wanted them to be more thoughtful and understanding what their individual roles were and how that kind of fit into the collective tactical application for the game. I think it’s no secret the fans get into the game and I think it would have been nice to get a result here. It wasn’t for lack of some decent football and some quality team play.”
On if this performance was better than the previous one against Portland:
“From top to bottom it was probably one of our most complete performances away from home for 90 minutes. I think there’ve been games when we’ve been brilliant in one half and kind of suffered in the other. Today was remarkable. It was that commitment, the application of all the work we’ve been talking about for the last five months. I think we were unfortunate today not to come away with 3 points.”
On what he’ll work on going forward:
“We’ll continue on the same path. You want to work on better movement up front, you want to work on better passing in the midfield, you want to work on being tighter on the back – you want to work on everything. We’re by no means a complete finished product, and I think it’s all connected. The game of football is dynamic – defending is attacking, attacking is defending. We work on every part of the game every week, and we look forward to improving a couple of percentage points on all those things, in lieu of becoming a better team and getting better results.”
Colorado Rapids Defender Michael Harrington
On the goalless draw being a fair result:
“Ah…That’s a good question. It doesn’t feel so fair right now. We should have won the game we sort of had it in our grasp there at the end, to have the penalty there at the end. But that’s football. I thought the performance was much better today than it had been in the last couple of weeks. Especially in a tough place to play against a rival team in Salt Lake. I felt like the energy was good. The connection between the back line and the forwards was good. It’s definitely something we can build on. The three points would have been nice but like I said that’s football.”
On walking away with a point from this game:
“Not to say that we dominated the game by any stretch or anything like that, it was a pretty tight game. Both defenses were pretty good. But to have that chance at the end, you do feel a little bit cheated.”
On multiple consistent performances from a changing backline:
“Yeah, everyone that has stepped in has played well. Going into the season we sort of made that our identity that we were going to be a tough team to beat, a tough team to score on. We have proven to be that. Again, we’re missing that goal when we need it. But like I said, the performance was better and to get consistent results that’s what has to be there. And it was definitely there tonight. The chemistry of the group was much better I thought. Luis, up top, was fantastic for us. His work rate, his ability to hold the ball up and then as you see at the end of the game getting that PK for us. Really excited about what he’s bringing to the group so let’s just build on it.”
On picking up teammate Dillon Powers:
“Well you know, everyone makes mistakes, everyone misses PK’s. It’s part of the game. It happens. Tell him to pick his head up and keep playing. I thought he played very well the second half. He was great. He was good on the ball. He was demanding the ball. He was a handful for Salt Lake to deal with. Like I said, I feel like that’s more important. It’s getting to that point in the season where it’s not so early anymore. You need to start getting those points when they’re there. Like I said all you can do is build on it and take it one game at a time and try get the points the next time out.”
Colorado Rapids Defender James Riley
On the result:
“Obviously unlucky. I thought we could have walked away with three points. They had chances, we had chances. Obviously this is a tough place to play. To get a shutout, we were a bit lucky we had guys laying their bodies on the line and defending as a group. We want Dillon (Powers) in that spot any day of the week. So we are going to keep his head up and we are going to move on to the next one.”
On keeping Real Salt Lake in check for the game:
“Yeah, they’re good. They had some momentum going home. They had some guys healthy that are coming back. Plata is back and he is very tricky and he combines well with Morales. Then obviously you have Saborio in the box trying to get onto some headers. Obviously we dealt with it the best we could and made some adjustments. I thought we neutralized that some more in the second half. Had a bit more of the game than we did in the first half. We obviously want to start better at home and on the road. But guys put the effort into it today so we’ll take the point.”
On getting more forward in this game:
“Yeah that is something that I always try to do, especially with a guy like Plata, or an attacking winger. You want to try to be in that sweet spot where you can make them defend so then they have 80 yards to go to goal. So it’s kind of a mind game, a tactical game, especially if you are getting in good spots and getting good service. He has to respect that and drop back a bit or you have freedom to play. I just like to get up and support in the attack, get up, connect and get some services off. I don’t try to complicate it too much and I just like to help the team that way.”
On his first Rocky Mountain Cup match:
“It was great. You know any time you have an opportunity for silverware or to be on top of another team in the region it crucial. This is our own derby. So we’ll take it that way, respect it that way. It’s definitely a great game against a great team that gets fans in the seats cheering so it’s great.”
