QUOTE SHEET
REAL SALT LAKE 2-2 PORTLAND TIMBERS
RIO TINTO STADIUM; JUNE 18, 2016
Real Salt Lake
Head Coach Jeff Cassar
On being down 2-1 at half:
“Definitely the second half was another spirited halftime talk. I think we started the game much better than (Tuesday’s Open Cup game against) Wilmington, which was positive. I think we put them on their back foot a lot and then after we scored fell away from it. Everything that we were doing that was making us successful we started to come narrow and turn the ball over in poor areas. They started to get in to a rhythm. I had a nice chat with the guys and we talked about the thing that we needed to do. I thought we did them in the second half and it was a great response. I think it was an entertaining game and on a different night we come away with three points. But at the end of the day a tie was the right score.”
On starting a lot of players that played on Tuesday as well:
“Listen these are professional boys. You don’t have to rest them after playing one game. You look around the world and they are playing Saturday, Wednesday, Saturday, and Wednesday for pretty much the entire year. If you have to sit out a training session to play in a game, then absolutely. I felt that we were doing good things during the game. We were still dangerous; we were limiting their chances. At times you will give up some things with their speed and the quality that they have. But I thought that we were the aggressors in the second half. We were creating and I didn’t think any changes needed to be made.”
On turnovers in the midfield:
“Listen you don’t want to start giving up the same goals over and over. We’d be foolish if we didn’t recognize those and started to address them. At the end of the day I think it’s really choices that are made. In the middle of the field you have to do high percentage passes, you can’t jam something in there that is risk or reward. From that pass there was no reward. Maybe a little bit of possession and 40 yards away from your goal. The risk is that if the ball turns over then they’re off to the races. With that being said I think that when we get into those positions it’s never just one problem it’s another problem. I think at that play our backline wasn’t prepared if it turned over. We were surprised and defenders can’t be surprised when things go wrong. You have to be proactive and be thinking of the worst things that could happen. But then our response was very good.”
On the first dropped points at home:
“You always want three points and that is our main objective every time we play. There are going to be times that with a draw there is no harm no foul. But…there wasn’t anyone out on the field that didn’t want those three points and I don’t think we were that way the other day against Wilmington. Tonight was not that case. I think we created a lot of chances and their keeper made some fine saves as well. I’m going to harp on the three points but I am going to make sure we play with urgency at home and trying to defend our house.”
On if they will be prepared for Wednesday:
“110%. Absolutely. You get Sunday, Monday, Tuesday and that is a lot of time. The tough thing is that all the teams are in the same boat right now. You got Open Cup games, it’s a wonderful tournament, but it causes some issues for you to have. We are trying to win everything right now. We will find the correct time to rest the players but we are trying to put our foot on the gas right now.”
On answering Jurgen Klinsmann:
“No I haven’t. I don’t know when that is going to be to be honest with you. We’ll see. To be fair this one is a little different in my book. I want to do everything to help the national team and help our country but I also have to put priorities first and my first priority is RSL.”
Midfielder Luke Mulholland
Overall thoughts on earning a draw:
“We’re not happy with it. I think we’ve set the bar so high for this year – we’re trying to achieve greatness this year – so as far we’re concerned, three points is what we want every game, so disappointing.”
On if being able to come back for the draw makes for any consolation:
“It definitely feels better in regards to being two-one up and conceding the second goal late on. That would have felt more disappointing than coming back from behind. It’s definitely good in the sense that we came back in the second half. At the same time, a point is a point whether you score first or you score last. But we can definitely take care in some positives about our response in the second half. We need to focus more on having a full performance as opposed to just one good half.”
On if the team was tired after Tuesday’s extra time Open Cup match:
“I think so – heavy legs out there. We’ve got a lot of games coming up, so we’re going to need everyone on the roster to put their two cents in and dig out results. It’s just important that we take care of our bodies between games and give it our all and if we need to come off, come off and let some other players get on. But yeah, some heavy legs out there, but I feel like we always have players give their all until there’s nothing left to give.”
On how RSL was able to create so many chances:
“Plenty of chances created, I don’t think we capitalized on all of them or most of them tonight – but that can go into tired legs. [Joao] Plata is capable of hitting it into the top corner from that area. In the second half he had a couple of opportunities, but couldn’t get the ball off the floor. It’s unlucky. I think we can take plenty of positives from the fact that we are creating chances. There are games when you’re not creating chances, and then there’s no way the three points can come from anywhere. So it’s good that we’re creating chances and we’ll just have to move on to the next game. We need to take a look at the tape and see where we can be more clinical.”
Thoughts on looking ahead to Wednesday’s game against the Red Bulls:
“We’re still undefeated at home. We’re undefeated in the last three games. We’ll take the day off tomorrow and enjoy Father’s Day and come back into work on Monday and get our minds right for the game on Wednesday. The New York Red Bulls, in my opinion, are the best team in the east – it’s going to be no easy game for us. We’ve got to make sure we sit down, study their game plan, and see what we can do to beat them. I think we just really need to have a complete performance against them. It starts with the first half. We need to be a lot better in the first half and not switch off for ten or fifteen minutes at a time.”
Midfielder Javier Morales
Overall Thoughts:
“I think we made a couple mistakes, especially with the ball in our half of the field. That is dangerous – we have to improve. When we attack with the ball from the back to the top, we have to be smart with the ball in the middle. They scored two goals – but they could have scored a couple more.”
On if the team was tired after Tuesday’s extra time Open Cup match:
“I don’t feel that way. I think the energy was good especially in the beginning when we take the lead. We were creating chances, basically, in the left side. Then, when you make a mistake it’s tough because we’re playing good and in order to score a goal we have to create and do special things. For them, we just lose the ball in the middle and then they score.”
On what needs to change going into Wednesday’s match against the Red Bulls:
“I think we have to improve and be better with the ball in the middle of the field and be smart, even in the second half. We played a couple balls in the back that were dangerous – Aaron almost missed one there. I think they didn’t do much – it was just our mistakes.”
On Yura Movsisyan’s confidence in getting a goal:
“[The goal] changed the game because [Portland] was feeling more confident with the ball and we tried to push higher and higher and it was tough. We use a lot of energy trying to go forward and it’s tough, especially in the last five or ten minutes.”
On if this game felt similar to the 2-2 draw in Portland back in March:
“I think the other one was different because we were down a man for a long time. To be honest, I liked the way that we played in the top. We created a lot of chances. We missed the last pass, but I think the soccer was there. Like I said before, we have to be smart and not make those mistakes.”
Portland Timbers
Head Coach Caleb Porter
On the called off Mattocks goal:
“I watched the PK and I watched the goal, for sure Mattocks is onside, Wingert held him on. So we should’ve won the game. The PK, I’ve seen it go either way. There’s 15 fouls in the game that aren’t called with the same exact type of thing but you have to give credit to Movsisyan. He sold it. It is a little bit tough to swallow. But I don’t even need to complain about that call because the onside is a goal, so we should’ve won the game. But we still leave this game feeling good about the performance. I thought we deserved three points on the day I thought we were excellent. We played to win even until the end. We were pushing to win the game and that says a lot about our team. That’s five games in all competition unbeaten and we are in a good rhythm right now and we go back home and hopefully we can get three points against Houston. We leave this locker room feeling like we deserved better. But it’s still a good point. RSL is a very good team and I was pleased with the performance today.”
On his team’s reaction after RSL’s early goal:
“I felt like we started the game very well. And then we get punished in one set piece moment. But the guys didn’t hang their heads they kept fighting. I felt like our play was very positive. I felt like they were up 1-0 against the run of play. We have to do better overall marking guys. Overall I just really liked the energy in our team today. I like that we came here with a positive approach. We had a lot of the ball, we created chances, I thought when we needed to drop off to and defend deep we did that. So for me we’re going to take the point and look at it as a positive. But the reality is we should’ve had three.”
On a positive attitude at Rio Tinto:
“I think it is more the matchup with RSL. It is one of the things I talked about leading up to this game. There are certain teams that we match up well against and typically it’s the teams that look to play football. The Columbus Crews of the world. We’re a team that likes to play but we’re organized defensively. We can keep the ball and do different things. The key today was making RSL defend. They’re a team that wants to get on top of you and make you drop off and defend and I think the more you can make RSL defend and make the front guys work, the less energy they have to attack. That was kind of our goal to do that to put pressure on their back four and I’m real pleased with my group and please that they played the way that they played today.”
On his teams 19 game scoring streak:
“I think it shows again that we play to win and have an attack minded approach. I think it great we get goals from different guys. Similar to RSL we have a team concept and that’s how we survive in MLS. We have money but we spread it out amongst the team. Going into these competitions now coming up Open Cup and Champions League having to rotate and compartmentalize competitions we’re going to need our depth. I’ve been saying it all week; the first 15 games have been tough. We’ve had 10 or 11 guys out with injuries and we’ve kept grinding. We’ve never thrown in the towel and we’ve kept working and we’ve played different guys, we’ve called different guys’ names and they’ve stepped up and got the job done. I’m pleased with that because some of the guys are new and they need to learn what it’s about. We have a high level investment from a lot of the guys now in the first 16 games and that’s a real positive. We’re going to need that depth moving forward.”
Midfielder Ned Grabavoy
On his emotions being back at Rio Tinto:
“Obviously you have different emotions going on before the game. I didn’t think I would necessarily pay that much attention to it during the warm-up. But I haven’t been back here in a while as an opponent. Once you settle in and everything comes into focus and you just focus on your soccer. I’m a little disappointed that we didn’t get the full three points because I thought we put a pretty good team performance in. Unfortunately we couldn’t get the full three.”
On not leaving with the full three points:
“I thought we were pretty good with the ball, especially in the first half. It seemed like there were some spaces for us to play little through balls in behind their defense and give us some looks at goal. The response after giving up the corner kick goal was great. This is a difficult place to play with the altitude, the crowd and it’s obviously a good team. So to show that response right away in the first half was great. Tough two calls in the second half, I haven’t seen the replays but it changes the game a little bit. They’re a good side and I thought we played well for the most part.”
On the physicality of the game:
“I think was physical in a different way. It seemed to me for the most part, everyone on the field was a step late on both teams. I’m not sure if that’s something to do with the break, the altitude obviously there’s technical players all over the field who were just a step late. I didn’t think there was anything dirty over the top it just seemed like guys were off in their challenges. But at the same time that’s a club where both clubs are familiar with each other and have had a lot of big games against each other. So there’s more respect out there to not let a guy run by you because you know who the opponent is.”
Forward Fanendo Adi
On his goal:
“There’s no match to the goal. The ball just went to me and sometimes you are just lucky to stand and get the ball so I think you can give the pass to Chara. But I was just able to take a shot.”
On the games physicality:
“It was a big challenge, especially in the second half because we came out more prepared. But the first half we did well against them and the second half they came out and attacked us. Of course you can talk about the ref calling the fouls, but a lot wasn’t called on me so I kept going. It was a very good team; they have a very good game style. They played well and we played well, that’s why everything came out level.”
On the teams 19 game scoring streak:
“We keep working and that’s just the chemistry. We try to get goals. If I can get goals and the other strikers can get goals then that’ll be very important. The most important thing is to try and win games and getting goals as a forward is important.”
