Quote Sheet
New York Red Bulls 0-0 Real Salt Lake
March 25, 2017; Red Bull Arena
Real Salt Lake
Interim Head Coach Daryl Shore
On getting the team ready in a difficult week:
“It was a difficult week early in the week. But what we told the players is how unfortunate it is. This is the business that we're in. We told our players you guys are professional soccer players and you're paid to play soccer. We're coaches and we're paid to coach. So once the news came out, everybody had their issues with it, but we got on the field Tuesday and had a really good, competitive day of training, and then Wednesday we got into our tactical issues with the Red Bulls and came here. We knew it wasn't going to be pretty, but we persevered. Really proud of our group tonight.”
On the performance:
“I think it was solid. This is not an easy place to come play, and they're not an easy team to play against. They like to disrupt the play. They were a little bit more direct than we thought they were going to be early on. So we just had to deal with that, and deal with a lot of second balls and stuff like that. But we also came in here with the mindframe that we wanted to try to play a little more direct than we usually do as well. So I thought it was a little bit back and forth. They obviously had some great chances that we made saves on, both our goalkeeper and our defenders. But Luis (Robles) also came up pretty big on a couple of plays for them too. So I think zero-zero is a good result.”
On VanOekel’s performance:
“Matt's big, all 6'4" of him tonight. Matt's big, that's why we brought him in here. We know we have the best goalkeeper if not the best two or three in this League with Nick (Rimando). And Matt's been chomping at the bit to get into this league. He put his time in in the lower leagues and he earned his chance tonight, and I think he proved it to us.”
On why RSL sought VanOekel in the offseason:
“When I coached in Fort Lauderdale, Matt was in Minnesota and then he was in Edmonton. So I knew Matt. He's a solid goalkeeper, very good shot stopper, works hard, commands his box. Although we'll talk to him a little bit. I thought he could have come for a couple balls, but when you've got Chris Schuler and Aaron Maund in front of you, you don't really have to come for a lot of balls. He's a really solid goalkeeper. The thing I like about him, he reminds me of Jon Busch in the fact that Jon Busch started early in his career in the lower leagues and he's worked his way up and earned his chance. We're happy to have him on our team.”
Forward Yura Movsisyan
On getting a draw:
“It’s been a difficult week and everybody felt that but I think that we reacted very well, the team reacted pretty well. To come into this building and get a point, it’s not an easy thing to do so, I think that we definitely did react well. But at the end of the day, it’s my job to put the balls away, to score goals and I didn’t. I think that I, myself, have to really concentrate because the team was playing well defensively and to not get the result because I couldn’t score is difficult for me; and I’m going to put my hand up and say that was my fault and hopefully get everything right next week and get some goals.”
On missed chances:
“At the end of the day, that’s an opportunity I should be putting away. It’s a one-on-one with the keeper, I should be putting it away. There’s no excuses for it and, like I said, I’ll put my hand up and say “you know what, that was mine. I should’ve put that away.” In some ways, I let the team down by not putting it away but that’s soccer. Sometimes you get that and hopefully you can correct those things and reward the team for having such a good defensive game.”
On VanOekel’s performance:
“I thought he was phenomenal. It’s not easy playing your first game but I think he has enough experience to know that we needed him to come up big and he did. I think that we’ve been extremely fortunate with all of our goalkeepers; with Lalo (Fernandez), with Nick (Rimando) and Matt to make us feel safe.”
On playing after a rollercoaster week:
“It’s tough. Jeff (Cassar) wasn’t just a coach for us, he was a friend and we really believed in Jeff. When you get a decision like that in-season, it’s a tough one to swallow but this is the part of the game that’s not very pleasant and needs all of us to have reactions, good reactions, and I thought we did very well. I thought Daryl (Shore) handled himself very good with the coaching staff. So, I think, overall it was just a positive having gone through a tough week like that.”
Goalkeeper Matt VanOekel
On his one-on-one with Bradley Wright-Phillips:
“It was one of those things where I didn’t want to necessarily go to ground and trip him, get sent off, or anything like that and really screw the team over but I knew he was going to have to take a big touch. I saw Aaron Maund charging back as well so, thankfully, he took a little bit of a bigger touch than he would’ve wanted. Aaron was there to get body position on him and get a goal kick out of it for us.”
On his first start:
“It was incredible. It was a dream come true. It’s taken me ten years to get to the MLS. I’m glad that I was able to showcase my stuff today and hopefully the coaching staff knows that I can step in when Nick is gone on international duty.”
On RSL’s defensive performance:
“I knew that our defense was solid. Schuler and Aaron were fantastic as two centerbacks, really limiting their chances and the guys stepped up. The first ten to fifteen minutes they blocked a couple shots. It was nice, everyone was working for each other and that was the game plan.”
New York Red Bulls
Head Coach Jesse Marsch
On RSL’s defense:
“Sacha's a huge player for us in terms of creating chances, but we had plenty of chances. We had plenty of chances. Like I said last year, we're going to come together, we're going to score goals. It's taking a little bit of time, but we all know what we have here and that it's going to come together. So, I could go back and say that again. Listen, it would have been nice to get a win tonight and three points because it continues to give us time to feel good, and feel positive energy with everything coming together, and knowing that it will come around eventually. We didn't manage to do that, but I still feel like there's a lot of good performances on the day.”
On if getting a draw against a depleted RSL team was disappointing:
“I don't want to reference Salt Lake, but I'll say anytime we don't get three points at home, we're disappointed, because we've been a very good team here at home for quite some time now. We like to put on a show for our fans. We like to be very aggressive at home and get our points. So that part is always a disappointment. The guys walked off the field like it was a loss, and I kind of had to remind them in the locker room like, come on, man, it's the beginning of the year. We've got things to work on. But there are a lot of positives from that performance that we can build on and continue to move forward.”
Defender Connor Lade
On his first game returning from injury:
“I felt pretty good. I kind of just wanted to go out there and not really think about it. I didn’t really think about it the entire time out there, I just tried to get into the game, complete that first pass, that first tackle, and just get back into the swing of things, and I thought it was good to knock off some of that rust tonight.”
On his endurance during the match:
“I felt pretty good. I’ve been doing more fitness in the last seven months than I have ever wanted to do in my life so in that sense, I felt pretty good. Still, you can’t really replicate game fitness, and it was the longest I played in a while, so overall, it felt good.”
On if he was expecting to start in today’s match:
“Yeah we kind of set this date a little while ago. Jesse marked this down on the calendar, with international break and maybe missing some guys, that this could be a game where if I was feeling up to it, I could kind of be in that selection for starting, but definitely be in the 18. I’m just happy it worked out tonight that I could get that start.”
Goalkeeper Luis Robles
On the team’s performance today:
“I think you need to keep in mind it’s the beginning of the season, so that sharpness isn’t going to be there. Not everything that we want to accomplish is going to happen right off the bat. With that being said, they played us pretty tough. I feel like their chances came off some of our miscues, but we dealt with it. We got the shut out, we got a point, and we’ll just continue to move on.”
On Lade’s return:
“Yeah Connor is amazing. He brings a lot of energy, a lot of effort, leadership, and quality onto the field. I think more than anything we’re just really excited to have him back because I know it’s been a difficult path to recovery, and we’re always encouraging him the same way he encourages us so it’s nice to have him back on the field.”
