Quote Sheet
D.C. United 6-4 Real Salt Lake
August 1, 2015; RFK Stadium
Real Salt Lake
Head Coach Jeff Cassar
On the game:
“It was exactly how we wanted to start and we talked about starting. And what happened in the second half was what we talked about not allowing. Some individual errors. Maybe some decision-making by myself. But we created a lot. The game just got too spread out in the second half and that’s not what you want. You don’t want to get into a track meet, especially on the road in warm conditions. Guys get tired and sometimes decisions get a little bit fatigued as well. I think that’s what happened.”
On what he would have done differently:
“Just tactically. Substitutions. The things that I can control. And, obviously, preparing them. You’re always striving to continuously get better. This is a game where there were some bright spots for us and then some dark ones. But we’ve got to move on really quickly and get ready for Municipal.”
On road woes:
“I don’t think it was the travel. Credit to D.C. They’re a very dangerous team on the counter-attack. With Fabian and Sabo doing things a little bit differently up top, it causes a little bit of indecisiveness for the defenders. And then DeLeon and Rolfe were very dynamic today showing up in different spots in the field. So we have to give them a lot of credit for causing us problems. I wish we could go back home and try to work on those, but now we have to leave this game and get ready for our Champions League game.”
On starting Jeff Attinella:
“To be honest with you, it had nothing to do with Nick’s knee. Jeff fully deserved this start. Nick did play a game on Wednesday and traveled, but Jeff truly deserved this start. I thought he had a very good game, to be honest with you. He deserved better than six goals.”
On Javier Morales:
“He’s a warrior and I know he doesn’t want to come off the field. And to be honest with you, he did a very good job when he was on there. When you’re down a goal, you’re always looking to keep people that can score goals or create goals on the field.”
On Champions League ahead:
“We’re really excited. It’s nice that we can get back to it after this type of result. It can get the momentum going again. We’re going against a new team, a new coach and a new style of play. We’re going to have to adapt to change and hopefully we’ll have a good response.”
Defender Justen Glad
On the match:
“We started off strong. Obviously we were up 2-1 going into the second half and then we didn’t really finish the game out. We didn’t focus for 90 minutes. A couple mistakes here and there and they punished us for it.”
On bad clearances resulting in goals:
“It’s tough. I’ll take full responsibility for that. It’s got to be better than that. If you’re going to clear it, it’s got to go high and wide. You can’t hit it to their players. It’s not really an excuse, it’s just unfortunate and it’s got to be better.”
On the hectic game:
“We had a lot of chances on both sides. You can tell with all the space, there’s a lot of attacking options that normally in a 1-1 game you wouldn’t really see. That’s when you have to pull the ball back, keep possession and calm things down a bit.”
Midfielder Kyle Beckerman
On the game:
“It was a crazy game. A lot of good goals. Hopefully it’s one we learn from.”
What to learn:
“We’ve got to tighten up for sure. Especially after we score. Those next five minutes are always important. We’ve got to do better next game. There’s a lot of positive things for us. We’ve just got to look at what we didn’t do so well and get better.”
On urgency for the team:
“We’ve got to get going. We don’t have any more time to wait. We’ve got to get wins. A tie would have been nice, but it wouldn’t have done much in the standings. I think we felt when we got it to 4-4 there was no reason we couldn’t go win it. We were just on the other end of it. Kemp hit the shot of his life and that seems to happen to us here. But hat’s off to them. They pushed. We pushed. Gave the fans a really good game. We just didn’t come out on top. We’ll just look to rebound next game.”
On bouncing back vs Municipal:
“I think it’s a good thing for us that we have a game so quickly after. We’ve got to put it past us. We’ve got to move on and really respond. It’s a great opportunity for us Tuesday. It’s a short turnaround. We’re really looking forward to it.”
