QUOTE SHEET
REAL SALT LAKE 2-1 HOUSTON DYNAMO
RIO TINTO STADIUM; APRIL 30, 2016
Real Salt Lake
Head Coach Jeff Cassar
Where the Rimando save ranks in his all-time saves:
“Oh gosh, right up there with the best of them. Obviously timing comes into play too at that junction of the game. It was huge. A lot of keepers make saves when the game is 3-0 or something like that but at that time of the game it gave us more energy and gave us more belief. “
On coming from behind for the victory:
“We wanted to stress playing with urgency. We felt that we were starting to make them bend and that we had to make them break. We wanted to keep the intensity high. I think the start of both halves were really good. We were high pressing, we were intense and we were creating chances. We have a ton of respect for Houston. We watched their tape and we know what they are capable of if you give them time. They have talented players and a fantastic coach so we wanted to be sure that we were putting a lot pressure on them. But they were going to get their chances. They are a very good team. Their record does not show how good they are.”
On being scored on first:
“You hope that when someone scores on you, it sparks some urgency. I think that it was a bit against the run of play when they scored. It wasn’t hit the panic button, it was just play with more urgency. I thought Houston played a very, very good game and I thought we were pretty good tonight. We did a lot of the things that we wanted to do. We talked at halftime one or two plays that would change the game. It was some saves here or a short corner that we talked about. Then it was a beautiful play for Yura’s goal. I don’t think there was a negative ball played in that sequence. Guys were getting forward with urgency and then at the end of the day you need quality. You need those types of things to score against a good team and we had it.”
On the play of Jordan Allen:
“I was really happy with how he played tonight. I kind of had a small go at him at the end of the LA game. I said ‘Listen, you are so talented that people are going to be hitting you.’ The way he reacted to the tackle that early, especially for a player that young, it can make you back off a little. But he stayed aggressive. I thought he was fantastic tonight and I’m really happy that he was rewarded with a goal. I thought it was a very mature performance by him and I couldn’t be happier for him.”
On playing the last home game for five straight:
“I think in our attack we always want to have offensive thoughts first. We don’t want to be playing backwards and sideways we want to be positive with our thoughts. But, we are going to be gone for (five) games and three points is massive. At the beginning of the year we wanted to make Rio Tinto a fortress again and three points is what we are shooting for every time.”
On the injury to Jordan Allen:
“Just a hamstring. I think he is going to be fine to be honest with you. I don’t think it is a big, big tear and he may be back next week. But that is what I’m hoping for.”
Forward Jordan Allen
On his goal:
“The ball kind of ricocheted out to the top of the box and it was a little bit of a scramble. It fell to Justen [Glad’s] feet and to be honest, he had a shot – he had a good look at a shot – and he had the vision to find me and play me a ball that I was able to finish right in stride. All credit to him.”
On if the goal provided a needed spark:
“It’s always difficult when you go down a goal. At home, especially going into these away, we knew we needed a result. Not even a draw for us was going to be acceptable, so to get the goal – and we did – and there was still a lot time left in the half was important I think.”
On Nick Rimando’s save:
“There are not words for it; it’s incredible. But that’s Nick Rimando, that’s what he does, and we are very grateful to have him, obviously.”
On the importance of these points heading into the long road trip:
“It’s huge. I think we have (five) away games on the trot and each of those is going to be a battle. It’s important – I think any season it’s important to get your home wins, but going into something like this it was even more important. We’re grateful we were able to do it.”
Defender Tony Beltran
On getting an equalizer eight minutes after going down:
“I think it’s awesome. Unlucky on the goal – it was a deflection – but credit to our response. I think last year we lose that game, we end up tying that game. But not this year. We’ve got a different attitude, a different mentality. We come back and we score less than 10 minutes later and then we’re on the front foot. And we know we have to win that game and that’s what we did.”
On Jordan Allen’s progression and performance:
“I can’t speak highly enough of Jordan’s character. I think, at a young age, it’s pretty remarkable to see how determined of a young man he is and just the head on his shoulders, how he’s embraced being a professional, a complete professional at such a young age. And I think that’s shown on the field. He’s got all the quality in the world. I remember when he was 16 and he was training with us, and I knew this kid had quality, I knew he could be the Jordan Allen he is today. It’s just a testament to his hard work.”
On Nick Rimando’s save:
“I’m not even surprised any more. Nick’s incredible. He’s the greatest goalie this league has ever seen, probably ever will see. That’s a perfect example of why. He really keeps us in games sometimes. To make that big of an impact from that position – not many goalies can do that.”
On getting momentum tonight heading into the long road trip:
“It was mammoth; absolutely mammoth. I think this is our fastest to five wins ever. Four of those wins at home. In this league, if you take care of business at home you know you’re going to make the playoffs and you’re going to be in the hunt and that’s what we’re doing so far this year. We’re finding a way to win.”
Goalkeeper Nick Rimando
On getting the win at home:
“Good effort from us, it was a bit of a weird game. At first we couldn’t get a rhythm but the second half we clicked a little bit better, made some special plays up front and got the victory. It was a good win for us. We needed those three points.”
On his second-half double-save:
“The ball came across and I knew the guy was going to hit it, my instincts said he was going to go far post. I stayed and got my finger on it and it hit the post and I was just trying to make myself as big as I can.”
On the response after giving up the first goal:
“It was one of those deflection goals that you can’t really do a lot about. But we responded and we responded in a good way because we got two goals and we played really good defense after that and give the fans the result.”
Houston Dynamo
Head Coach Owen Coyle
On the game:
“It’s disappointing not leaving with anything. It was, I think, self-inflicted. Not a lot in the first half, but still dangerous in the counter attack. Second half again got in front of a very good goal and for all intents and purposes weren’t very good to begin. We tried to clear a corner and get to the edge of the box in a dangerous area and tried to be overly clever and that has just got to be sent, sent over in a dangerous area and from that got a shot in. It wasn’t very contentious to tell if he was off side or not, but I’ll give him the benefit of the doubt, because he’s a very good player. I think we’ve handed a very good team I believe RSL are, but I do think we’ve handed them the goals. I do think (Demar) Phillips was offside that second goal the way it looked. And you’ve got to hand it to Yura (Movsisyan). He’s an outstanding player, a terrific signing for the club and all credit to him. But for me Phillips certainly looked offside in the wide area and that’s one of the breaks that we’re not getting at the moment. But I think we’ve shown today that we can play and we can create chances and we can certainly score goals. Nick Rimando has probably already had the save of the season, at 2-1 from Andrew Wenger. So of course we’re feeling a little bit hard done not to leave with anything, but we know if we continue to perform and cut out the little mistakes, which we have to do, because if we cut them out, then we will win a few games.”
On giving up the lead:
“(Boniek Garcia) should have just cleared the danger, so that’s not something that we encourage, dribbling about at the edge of your own box. And we got punished for it. When you sense danger, the ball has got to be cleared. It’s as simple as that. But even at 2-1 we were still pushing on to get the equalizer and had some wonderful chances. … We didn’t change anything. We still kept pushing on and a couple of individual errors cost us dearly.”
Goalkeeper Joe Willis
On the double save in the first half:
“He got in behind and I was just trying to stay up and keep my feet and move with him. I was able to make a couple of saves and hopefully that will give us a chance there in the first half. It just comes down to individual mistakes these last few results. How much the team just kind of needs a break to go their way before they string together some results. That’s exactly it. We’re waiting for that break. We’re putting so much effort into every game and we’re coming away with nothing every time and it’s really disheartening. It’s tough to figure out what exactly we’re doing wrong, because for the most part we have good shape. We put so much effort into it that I think we need a lucky break to go our way to kind of turn the tide I guess.”
On going home and playing in front of the home crowd:
“The energy that we get at BBVA that the fans bring we really feed off of that. I think when we play there it gives us that little extra something, but we will be ready.”
Forward Giles Barnes
On the goal and creating chances:
“Credit to Sheanon (Williams) for chasing the loose ball down and giving it to me, and then a good finish from Leo (Miranda). It’s not the result we wanted, but we wanted to stick together. We’ve got to stay united. We really believe what we have here. It’s just waiting for that break, but we still got a lot of games left and we got a lot of belief in this change room. Get back to Houston, evaluate, train hard and get ready for the game.”
On cutting mistakes out:
“I wish I knew right now. What it is taking into accountability as individuals. That’s not in a spot that no one is trying hard, because that’s one thing that you could never say about this team that it doesn’t try hard. What it is, is making that right decision at the right time. We still believe in what we got here.”
On getting a win to snap out of the skid:
“The rub of the green isn’t going for us right now, but as I said we got to stay together. Everyone has pull to keep in the right direction and it’s going to turn around.”
On going back to Houston:
“Get into Houston, watch the game, think about your own individual performance and what you could have done better and how you can help the team. Everyone has to come with fire in their belly on Monday and get ready and get prepared for Kansas City.”
