QUOTE SHEET
REAL SALT LAKE 3-1 CHICAGO FIRE
RIO TINTO STADIUM; August 6, 2016
Real Salt Lake
Head Coach Jeff Cassar
Thoughts on getting Nick Rimando earning the win record:
“It’s such a special night, such an amazing achievement from an amazing goal keeper and an amazing man, and to do it in front of our fans and for him to do it here in front of his fans and family is massive. It could have happened a little earlier, but he had an amazing game and came up with two huge saves at the end of the game. Just couldn’t be happier for his achievement. I have to imagine that he’s going to be thanking a lot of the guys in the locker room for all the wins that he’s racked up. It’s a special night for him and it’s a special night for the club.”
Thoughts on what stands out about Nick Rimando:
“There is no answer to that. There really isn’t. I wish I could give you something special, but you don’t achieve that record by doing one thing. It’s being a leader, it’s being you know obviously unbelievable at your craft, it’s recognizing time, he’s come up big so many times for this club in moments where it’s shootouts and big saves. It just goes on and on, but he’s a leader the way he approaches the game the way he takes care of it and he has just got better, better and better, and he hasn’t rested on where he’s at. He continues to work hard every day at training with Daryl and you know Jeff’s been… there’s been a lot of good goalkeepers that have pushed him along the way that have made him better and it’s no different this year, and I think that’s really important and it keeps Nick on his toes and hungry, because Jeff’s pushing him every day. It’s just amazing, really amazing.”
Thoughts on what went well tonight to get 3 points:
“As a coach, as a staff we try to put these guys in as many situations as possible for them to be successful. Something’s it happens, sometimes it doesn’t, sometimes I make some bad choices, sometimes they miss the frame, or a goalkeeper makes a good save, but you have to keep believing. The stats don’t lie that we’re doing a ton of things right. We’re creating more chances than we ever have, we’re denying less opportunities than we ever have. It’s continuing to try and get better at the little things and keep believing and putting our players, our special, special players into situations for them to succeed, and I told the guys the other day that I believe in every single one of them that they will. Do we do it every time? No, but you know that’s soccer. It could be a great save like I said, or whatever, but you have to believe. This isn’t a false belief. This is a belief in exactly what we’re trying to accomplish and tonight beautiful plays and beautiful goals, and it takes that to score goals in this league. It takes sometimes it takes a little bit of luck, sometimes a little bit of brilliance and tonight it wasn’t luck, it was brilliance.”
Thoughts on Javi being able to continue being incredible at age 36:
“He’s taken care of his body unbelievable and his soccer IQ is just off the charts. He recognizes situations in games and where to be. I don’t see him slowing down at all. I see him getting smarter, more efficient and taking care of his body and I just love where he’s at right now. I told somebody in the pregame that I think on a different, he could have 4 more goals and probably 6 more assists if some things went better, so couldn’t be more happy for him, couldn’t be more happy for just our overall feeling for the team right now, because in Philly we were rewarded kind of, and tonight we were. It’s life, but this group of guys recognized the urgency of this game. We needed 3 points tonight. Is it a must 3? No, but they recognized this situation that we needed these 3 points.”
Thoughts on Olmes Garcia’s goal:
“Well I think he’s been unbelievable and could have had a few other ones at other times, but we talk about choices right, and everybody wants to rip one and hit the back of the net, and hit it off the post and come in and have a fantastic goal, but that was the right choice by him in that situation. It wrong footed the goalkeeper and it doesn’t take a blast in the back of the net. It takes a smart choice and good placement and I couldn’t be more happy that he chose that type of shot and from there and recognizing what needed to be done. How about this work ethic for this guy? It’s been off the charts for these last 3 games, and I can tell you that each and every one of these players is feeding off of that energy, and they see him working and they have to follow suit, and when everyone seeing each other work, that’s when you see good things happen.”
Thoughts on Yura:
“Listen we had a plan all along. It was going to be a must need thing. I went down and talked to Yura at the 70th minute mark I believe it was 2-1 at the time and I needed an honest answer. Could he chase down, could he run down every single play, and to his credit he said that’s just error on the side of caution. It was the right choice. It was what I really wanted to do all along anyways, but if we were into a situation where I felt we needed it and had to have it, I‘m sure he would have came through and would have been fantastic. It’s good communication between Yura and I and the training staff. I told him after the game, thank you for working so hard to BE available. A pulled groin in less than 10 days, that’s a tall task. He was doing double sessions everyday on our road trip, came back and put himself in a great position and you know, that’s the kind of man he is.”
Goalkeeper Nick Rimando
On earning his 181st win – the most in MLS history:
“It’s all to myself now. It feels real good. Obviously, I share it with a lot of teammates over the past years and lots of fans and my family. But to put myself on the sheet at number one feels great. My first year I didn’t think I was going to play this many years and who knew 17 years later, 16 years later I’d be here and have this record. It’s been a long road to get here. I feel good; I feel fresh and to do it in front of the home fans tonight is definitely a special feeling.”
On when earning this record became a goal:
“I would say the last year – probably this year. Honestly, I didn’t know how close I was to the wins and minutes until this year. Shutouts – I felt like I knew a little bit earlier on, maybe the year before. But this year I knew to focus on just playing and the team and getting those results. When I got that shutout record, I felt like there was a lit of focus on it and it didn’t come and it didn’t come and we just kept on trying so hard for it and I felt a little bit of that this time. We just needed to focus on the game and the win will come. Those guys busted their butts today and I owe this victory to them.”
On the quick start from the team tonight:
“That was the message clear and large: that we needed to get a good start, get some goals early, and don’t put your foot off the gas. We knew we had it in us. We haven’t had a game where we exploded in goals and really took over the game for a while. I think we deserved that because we’ve been putting a lot of hard work in on the training field and in games and sometimes the goals weren’t coming on game day. But when you continue to do the right things, good things come. And tonight was one of those nights that I think our whole team deserved.”
On what he’s contributed to the team:
“That’s a tough question. I don’t know; I think you have to ask my teammates on that one. I’m a goalkeeper that I think everybody respects and I show my teammates and the fans with actions on the field. I think that’s a question for them.”
On Javier Morales’ game tonight:
“He’s been a special player for this team for a while now. A lot of people don’t see what he does off the camera and what he does for this club in the locker room and outside. To have a performance like that today doesn’t surprise me one bit. He’s almost got a new life when Burrito (Juan Martinez) came. There’s nobody that wants to win more. When we lose he’s so frustrated and when we win he gets so excited. When you saw us after the game, he was so excited for me and what we accomplished.”
Forward Olmes Garcia
On his goal:
“[Joao] Plata played the ball and passed to Javier [Morales]. I asked for the ball and thank you God I was able to finish it.”
On how it felt to get his first goal in a while:
“I felt happy. I’m working hard for my team and I feel confident. I’m a forward, so I have to make goals and help the team.”
On his play in the last three games:
“I feel great because we won two games and we could be going to the playoffs.”
On the importance of this win:
“It was very important. We tied the last few games [at home] and the coach told us that we need to win this game.”
Midfielder Javier Morales
On getting the win:
“I think it was important for us and for the fans because the last couple games at home we couldn’t win. But tonight we did it; we scored three goals. I think it was fun for the guys; it was fun for the fans so we’ll be happy.”
On the first half intensity:
“We knew that we had played 2 games in four days. Maybe we were going to get out of shape in the second so we had to push hard in the first half and get the lead. We scored two goals, and if you see in the second half we started a little bit slow – it’s normal, three games in six days. At the end of the day, we got three points and we played a good game.”
On Olmes Garcia’s play:
“I think he’s played three good games. In Philadelphia, I think for me, he and [Joao] Plata were the men of the match. Tonight he worked hard and in Toronto. I think he deserved it and I’m happy for him, I’m happy for the team and now we have to keep looking forward.”
On the importance of the early goal:
“If you’ve seen the couple games at home, we couldn’t score right away. And when you don’t score right away, you have to work harder to get the lead. And then you get tired and if you don’t get the goal the other teams gets comfy – it’s tough. That means a lot to scored in the first half right away and then we took it off the game.”
On 2 goals and an assist tonight:
“I’m feeling old. No, I’m feeling good. It’s good when you win. When you win, everything changes and I don’t care if I score or if somebody else. I care about winning games and we have tonight.”
On his second goal:
“The last goal – to be honest – my first thought was to hit it with my right. But I saw the guy slide tackle so I cut it in. And always when you cut in, the goalkeeper thinks you’ll go the far post so I tried to kick it to the first one.”
On what Nick Rimando has meant to RSL:
“A lot, a lot. I don’t understand how Nick never won the Goalkeeper of the Year. It’s really tough. I think he deserves it and he’s a super professional guy. He works super hard and I think he deserves it a lot. Before the end of the match I heard the people “Nick Ri-man-do” and then he makes two saves. It’s good, it’s good for him.”
Chicago Fire
Head Coach Veljko Paunović
On giving up an early goal:
“We look forward. For us this game is already behind us. There are good things and bad things that we can take from it. We have to look forward to our next game, which is in just a couple of days. It is for us the most important game of the season. So we have to leave this game behind as soon as possible and we have to recover. We look forward to our next game it’s very exciting. It is the most important game this season for us so far and we believe that if we do well in that game then we will have another game, like a final of the Open Cup. That’s it that’s all I have to say. That game was not a game we expected, good things, bad things, we just need to move forward.”
On Solignac playing his first game with the Fire:
“He was very good we are very happy with that. Unfortunately he cannot play in the Open Cup because he is cup tied but he was good for us and for the team. It was good for them to get to know each other, to play with each other for 90 minutes. We decided we had that opportunity to give him those minutes because we expected him to be important for us. So he needs to get to know our style and our players. It’s a great opportunity for us to have him here especially with the first half I think he did well. The second half he was maybe a little bit tired having that negative result. We tried hard in the second half but we have to move forward.”
On holding certain players out:
“Yes we always want to win. The issue we have on our squad we have to manage the best possible way to start with the lineup we started. I believe we had enough proof that we wanted to win this game with thus starting line up. Our mind is the next game and that’s how we always play. Like I said we are looking ahead to our next game and we are very excited. We have to recover from this loss and we have to recover the spirit and the positive energy in order to prepare well.”
Forward Luis Solignac
On his first game with the club:
“I mean it is tough to come the day before and play but I think the second half I got in touch with the guys, we got to know each other so we will improve day by day.”
On the positives of the game:
“I think that we bounced back in the second half. The attitude was totally different and we got a goal. But after we conceded one right away but I think we had a good spirit and that’s a positive thing.”
Midfielder Arturo Alvarez
Thoughts on the game:
“I think the first half was not our best half. I’m proud of the guys especially the response that we had in the second half I think we came out the first 15-20 minutes trying to play, trying to keep the ball. We created some chances off of that and scored a goal. We just have to keep pushing and take that from the game. I think the second half was a good half and we have to keep playing like that. Especially against New England on Tuesday for the Open Cup semifinal.”
On his goal:
“I saw Nick [LaBrocca] getting on the ball and he always plays a good ball in the box so I kind of made my second post run. He played a perfect ball and I just had to make sure I hit in on target.”
On his 200th appearance:
“It was something that I was thinking about during the week but once the game started I put it in the back of my mind but it is great. I’m happy to play my 200th game and hopefully I play many more. It’s a dream come true to play in MLS when I was 17 and now I’m 31. So I’m still enjoying the game and I’m going to keep doing it until I can’t.”
