Quote Sheet
Philadelphia Union 1-2 Real Salt Lake
July 31, 2016; Talen Energy Stadium
Real Salt Lake
Head Coach Jeff Cassar
On what he said to his team at the half:
“I really just said to keep believing. I thought Philadelphia was good in the first half. I thought we were very good. I thought we were dangerous for the first 30 minutes, but then I thought our confidence just dipped when we turned the ball over cheaply and Philadelphia started to get a little bit of a rhythm. And then obviously, we capitalized on that period of time when we had the movement and were more aggressive. It was just to keep believing because over the last month, I think we have played some of our best soccer ever and we haven’t been rewarded. If we keep doing what we’re doing, we will be rewarded. Two world class goals, in my opinion, from Joao (Plata) and Javi (Morales). Sometimes it takes that to break the game open.”
On Joao Plata’s performance:
“Yeah, fantastic. I thought his energy level was very high today. Obviously going into a two game road trip with the amount of traveling, we felt that this was our best opportunity to be aggressive and have the right energy for this game. Tonight was exactly what we thought. Joao, in particular, was very threatening all the time. When you have have players that are threatening all the time, you can keep back their outside backs from getting forward, which was the big part of the game.”
On the Union allowing more goals as of late:
“Listen, we respect Philadelphia a lot. But, they are very similar to us in that they are very aggressive. They play with a belief. This year Jim (Curtin) has them playing with a belief. You can see it in their team, there’s no quit in their team. At times, we thought they could be a little overaggressive. It’s how we recognized those situations and tried to capitalize on them. But, their goalkeeper made some great saves. They are a very good team and I have nothing but respect for Jim and what he has done this year and the team that Earnie (Stewart) and Chris (Albright) have put together."
Midfielder Kyle Beckerman
On the win:
“It feels good. We stayed at it and kept fighting and were able to get the win.”
On what was said at half:
“Just to keep at it and see if we could finish our chances. We created a couple of good chances and we scored some fantastic goals and it seemed to change the game.”
On the team’s five comeback wins:
“Yeah, a lot of character. I think the early success with going down a goal and getting some wins and some ties, then when we do go down a goal nobody panics and we feel like we still can win it. And, that was the same tonight.”
On the team’s place in the standings:
“Today was a really important game. To be able to come out and get a win was really important for us. So, hopefully we can take the momentum right into the next game.”
On Rimando tying the wins record:
“Yeah, it’s huge. It’s just a testament to his hard work and being a great goalkeeper. I don’t know what other records he has to break, but I’d guess he’ll get it. He works extremely hard so it’s a testament to that work he puts in. I’m really happy for him.”
Goalkeeper Nick Rimando
On what was said at the half:
“Yeah, at halftime I think a lot of guys were looking at each other in the eyes and putting the work in in the second half to get the result. I think that’s exactly what happened in the second half. We dug in, committed to defending and we got two special goals from our big players.”
On his save and goal line clearance:
“I think there at the end when you’re down, you’re going to play it forward and that’s exactly what they did. Our guys buckled down and I came out for a ball. The ball went wide, it kind of bounced around and then Carroll hit it and I got down to my left. Again our players were back and on the rebound, they hit the ball near post and Olave turned it out. I think Aaron (Maund) had a block at the end of that play too. So, there was a lot of commitment from the guys in front of me, so this win feels good.”
On being tied for career wins in net:
“I’m tied with it. I want to have it all to myself. It’ll come, but it feels good. It’s a big accomplishment I think. But it’s just not MY night. I hold it with a lot of players and defenders that I have played with over the years.”
On making the Western Conference race tighter:
“There’s a lot of games in hand - I mean, to play still. One game at a time. The next one is Toronto. We don’t want to get too ahead of ourselves. We’re not way up there in the bracket like we want to be but three points is a step in the right direction.”
On being atop the career wins list:
“This year, I wouldn’t say I focused on it, but it was so close that I wanted to have it. I want to have those records and put my name on those sheets. It’s nothing personal, just something that I want to get to and it’s so close that I believe I can get there, especially with the team in front of me.”
On the relief of getting three points:
“Things weren’t going our way for a while, I felt like. Everything was against us. We weren’t hitting the back of the net and soft goals were going in. Today felt like a little mirror in the second half and to get those three points heading into Toronto, it feels good to get that monkey off our back with the ties.”
On what was said at half:
“I think they had one shot on goal in the first half. We just weren’t playing our style and we knew we could play a lot better. That’s what we did. Second half I thought we buckled down and played better defense and put away two special goals.”
On what he saw from his vantage point on the goals:
“A nice buildup on the left that led Plata with a one touch finish to the far post that I don’t think any goalkeeper is going to get to. And then, Javier (Morales), whenever the ball is at his feet, he’s going to make something special happen. He caught Blake off his line and hit it back post. Two, I think, world class goals. Our special players, we expect them to do that.”
Midfielder Javier Morales
On what changed after half:
“We talked in the half that we have to keep believing. The first half wasn’t bad. They scored by a PK that was, by my opinion, wasn’t. We kept fighting in the second half. We scored an early goal and that gave us a lot of confidence to win the game.”
On what was said at half:
“A little bit. We didn’t deserve to lose the first half. I think we were hungry in the second half and tried to win the game.”
On his goal:
“I got the ball from Garcia and my first touch was wide. I saw the goalkeeper cheat a little bit and I tried to chip it. It worked and I’m very happy.”
On the comeback win:
“Yeah, it means a lot to us, especially after a couple ties at home. We needed a win so bad. I think, today, we earned it and we worked hard. I think we deserved the three points.”
On Nick Rimando’s effort in goal:
“Nicky, I can’t imagine this team without him. He has been here forever. He’s great. He’s played a lot for our side and in World Cups. He’s great for us.”
Philadelphia Union
Head Coach Jim Curtin
Opening Statement:
“It was a bit of a strange game. I felt that in the first half we had life – we had energy. The fans were there behind us from the start and again, we get our goal. I was disappointed with how we started the second half. Obviously, if you look at the goals they gave up there is a little too much time and space but you do have to say Plata’s first one and Morales’ were two special goals. We’ve been beaten out a couple of times by goals in the league and they scored two special one’s tonight. Again, in the game I think we deserved a second goal. We had chances. We got to the end on a bunch but it just didn’t seem like a night. It’s disappointing. We have to pick ourselves up. We have DC and New England on the road now – two difficult tasks. This is our second loss here. We don’t like to lose in this building so we’re disappointed with that. Again, it is a good thing that were playing towards the upper part of the standings and we’re not chasing other teams like we have done in the past. This is a unique position that we’re in and we need to get points – that’s clear. We need to take advantage of the hard work that we put in the beginning of the year. The breaks will start bouncing our way again. It comes through hard work in training and we need to continue that and obviously need to learn how to win on the road now.”
On defense:
“As balls travel we put a real emphasis on 50 or 60 yard balls getting hit and everyone keeping a guess between our lines small or tight. They’ve gotten a little bit loose so you get a lot of second balls swooped up by other teams and it puts us in difficult situations. If you break down the two goals, I haven’t reviewed them yet, but Keegan had an opportunity that just doesn’t play – it goes out of bounds. He hits it towards the forward and it’s a scramble from there. The second one is a clear foul. 18,000 people saw it was a foul. Even Beckerman stopped on Alberg and Morales pulled off a special play on the chip. Again, on all of those instances we need to get close. We talk about it all the time. If you get special players like Morales it will do what it did tonight. It’s difficult. We’ll learn from it though.”
On referees:
“The referees, again, are the referees. It’s a challenge each week. I felt that early on there were a lot of hard fouls that were not cards and then Fabi gets his foot wrong and it’s a yellow card and he’ll miss the next game. You just want consistency. I know they work hard and they’re trying to get it right but there were mistakes for both teams out there. I’m not blaming referees. We could have played better on the night but there are always questions. With four minutes of injury time – where they come up with the numbers sometimes… There are a lot of arbitrary things that sometimes go in your favor; sometimes they don’t.”
On getting better:
“I talked with Warren at halftime and a couple of other players that kind of went out too quick and let up some space in the middle of the field. I trust Brian Carroll. I trust Warren. They do a good job piling things up in the middle. Part of it is, Salt Lake is a good team. That created some problems for us. We have played in too many end to end games now. I think we’re built to be a team that is organized and our lines are tight from midfield to front line. Everybody has to be on the same page instead of playing individual and trying things on our own defensively – that doesn’t go well. So again, we need to get back to not giving up goals and need to improve on that.”
On conference/team:
“It’s not a conference kill if we win our next two games in the East. Again, this league is about rounds. At home we need three points – always. It’s the mentality that we have. We will have to steal those points somewhere else now. It will have to be DC or New England. There’s no team that’s really separated and has established themselves as a top team. There’s a lot of good teams, too. I think we’re one of those good teams. We have to win a couple of games in a row to get us back on top.”
Forward C.J. Sapong
On the penalty:
“Well I mean, I was just trying to get away from wrestling with them cause that’s the game that they like, but at the same time they did a good job of locating me when I wasn’t on the ball and staying close to me. On the PK I was trying to stay big, and he pulled me down so that was good, but I’ve still got to try and like my work rate, I just think that I’d like to be a little bit more dangerous towards the goal. But that’s something I could work on moving forward.”
On bouncing back:
“Well we got to win on the road, so it’s going to be a good test for us. Something that we need to get used to doing getting into playoff time. Think at this point in the season, you got to look at it as if it is a playoff. It’s going to take a grind to do it, we’ve just got to approach it with that mindset.”
Goalkeeper Andre Blake
On RSL’s goals:
“Two beautiful goals. Kudos to those guys. I mean if someone’s going to score a goal maybe that’s how you want them to score.”
On bouncing back:
“Yeah, we know we’re a good team. We know we can win games. We’re just going through a phase right now, and we think we just have to stick together, weather the storm, and keep going and we’re going to get it right.”
