QUOTE SHEET
Real Salt Lake 2-3 Minnesota United FC
TCF Bank Stadium; Minneapolis, Minnesota
July 14, 2018
Real Salt Lake
Head Coach Mike Petke
On overall reaction:
“Damir has two clear-cut chances that got away from him, Corey has a one-on-one and he maybe should have taken a second touch. We outshot them in the first half and I thought we were organized coming out of half time. I believe Albert and Luis were sent through on one-on-ones, we did enough to get a result tonight. I thought in the first half that they were relying very much on Quintero and I think we did a good job with them. We gave a little too many set pieces to them early on, but the response was good. Listen, the response was good in the past five or six previous road games. The start was good in half of them and finish was good in the other half, it’s a 90-minute thing though.”
On Joao Plata being subbed on and scoring:
“It was great to have him come on and contribute to two goals. What can you say about a player coming off the bench and having two goals? It was a great response for him. I’m happy for him and for the team. You can tell that he’s not hanging his head and he’s working hard.
On Damir Kreilach’s recent play:
“That’s a tactical thing game by game. We did it in Columbus, and it looked good. Tonight, we did it, and I thought that he freed himself up well and got his opportunities. He didn’t put them away, but they were tough takes for him. I think it’s going to be a game by game thing, tactically who we’re playing against and for which games we think it could work.”
On second half struggles:
“It could be mentality, if I had that answer I’d be coaching Barcelona and we win every game in history. I don’t have that answer. We prepare, the players are up for it. You have to give credit to Minnesota as far as doing what they had to do to get a result. Maybe, perhaps it comes down to mentality from everybody. I’m not pointing to just the players, it’s everybody.”
On being ejected:
“Schuller goes in on Danny Acosta, studs up, a foot off the ground into his leg. If he is a foot to the left of Danny, face on, he breaks his leg. Does none of this crap that the referees do to the VAR? It’s a yellow card. Marcelo gets a yellow card 12 minutes later for toe poking the ball during a set piece fifteen yards away? What are we doing here? Quintero on the goal, doesn’t look at the ball. Plays literally not the ball, runs in and extends his arm, looks at the last second and they score. And then it’s this crap again.”
On discussions with fourth official:
“Let me tell you something, the conversations with the fourth official over the last four games was starting three games ago, Savarino is being targeted. You know what the fourth official tells me? “Yeah, I know, we talked about it. We’ve watched it, we’re good.” And continuous fouls, fouls, fouls, nothing. But I don’t want to talk about the last four games though, I wanna talk about tonight. Because up until that point, we had more shots leading into the second half. We were blocked up, we were good at denying anything. It’s not good enough. The only thing I get from the MLS is, “stop criticizing the referees.” I want to know where the referees are at now? Why can’t we ask the referees a question? Why can’t we do that? Why can’t we ask “Why didn’t you go to VAR?” “Why when the studs are coming up, you just give a yellow card?” That would make them more human. To the MLS, it would be better for the league. For the fans, for the owners, for the coaches, for the players, to hear from them. And hear their side of the story. Perhaps, we say okay I see it, maybe it happened a little fast. Maybe the guy in the booth, wherever the hell he is, watching this. You know, maybe he was watching the Simpsons at the same time, I don’t know. I have no idea, but it’s not good enough to me.”
Midfielder Damir Kreilach
On the result:
“Unfortunately, we lost a very important game for us. The first half was pretty good. I had two chances myself and I have to put those chances in. Every goal changes the game, unfortunately I missed it. In the second half after the first goal, our lines were so big and after we did a very good job and our response was excellent. We had the chance to tie 3-3. We have to concentrate for the next game against Colorado.”
On second half struggles:
“We wanted to keep possession and keep the ball. Unfortunately, Minnesota scored the first goal, but our response after 3-0 was excellent.”
On Croatia’s World Cup:
“Tomorrow is a big day for all Croatians and Croatian fans. This is the best result in Croatian sports history ever. The whole country is behind the team and the chances are 50-50. Hopefully tomorrow Croatia will be the world’s Champion.”
Midfielder Kyle Beckerman
On the second half:
“It looked like it was the same, about, as in the first half. We just want consistency. It was a call that if you don’t call it, it changes the game and if you do call it, it’s not a big deal. That got them all the momentum they needed. We probably should have gone into halftime two goals up. We didn’t finish, but the fight at the end to really come back and make something of it was a good show of character so we’ll take some positives from it.”
On using the comeback as motivation:
“We’re going to look at the negatives, we’ll look at the positives and try to improve. We thought we had a good gameplan coming in and you’ve got to change the game. When you get those chances you’ve got to finish them.”
