QUOTE SHEET
REAL SALT LAKE 4-0 SAN JOSE EARTHQUAKES
RIO TINTO STADIUM; AUGUST 23, 2017
Real Salt Lake
Head Coach Mike Petke
On getting three points:
“Well I understand what you are asking but I have to point out I think we put them away before we had the one-man advantage to be honest with you. To give credit to my guys, the thing to me is that we didn’t do things much differently than we have done over the last month, month and a half. The only difference was that we converted chances, we created so many opportunities, we have been so fluid going forward and tonight it just fell to us. Guys were lethal with the ball at their feet going to the goal. I didn’t see a huge difference this game compared to the last month and a half, but the guys did well, they were up for it, and it’s great to have multiple goal-scorers.”
On opening the field against San Jose:
“Yes, there were times that they sat back pretty deep but they did open up and it did open up the game and that is when we are at our best. We are not at our best when teams are packing in 8, 9, 10 guys behind the ball. I thought the ball movement was good, we skipped players, it was precise. A lot of things that we worked on the last couple days leading into this they did and that is why I believe we got the result.”
On Luis Silva’s form:
“I told him he was going to score, so all of his goals this year, on the games I said he was going to score, so it’s me that is making him score. Listen, it is the same answer I am going to give about Luis over the last month is that he brings so much to this team. It sounds weird to say my number nine, we are not relying on him heavily to score because we know he is not a natural goal-scorer. But he is in a position that we need to get goals and lately he's been doing well with that, he has been putting himself in great positions, he is linking up with other players. You know I think he hit the woodwork twice tonight so he could have had two or three goals tonight.”
On Nick Rimando:
“I have said it all. Nick is phenomenal, but the shutout was a team effort and it starts with Luis up top putting pressure to all the way through. I thought Kyle and Luke had a phenomenal game, the midfield controlling it. And then it is great to know, that someone like nicky, when the ball does get through he can come up with an epic save. He is the leader in the back and his voice is heard and such confidence to play at a high line, to play pressure soccer because we know if it gets through he is going to come up big. He has earned it and I am excited and happy for him.”
On efforts in upcoming games before the playoffs:
“I am not a mind reader, I can’t predict the future but I believe in this team, they believe in themselves and when they are confident and doing the things we asked of them and believing it, anything is possible, especially in a league like Major League Soccer. We are going to need another performance like this on Saturday night and then be able to have 2 weeks to rest before a huge game in Vancouver so every game from now on is a playoff game for us and that started in Montreal. We weren’t able to go to 7 games unbeaten but we put it behind us and now we start a new run.”
On Danilo Acosta:
“Well, Chris Schuler is not 100 percent at the moment and that is not the thing with David Horst, I just don’t want to negate Chris Schuler out of the picture at all. David is an experienced guy, he reads the game well. I thought he did a great job tonight, he has been working hard so he is next in the pecking order right now so he jumps in. Danny, he jumps in because we needed pace, we needed fresh legs. Chris Wingert has done everything we have asked him over the last handful of games and it was a time right now, that we knew they were going to attack us down the wing. We needed those fresh legs and that youthfulness out of Danny and I thought Danny did really well tonight.”
On Yura Movsisyan:
“Well I didn’t see frustration in Yura, you will have to ask him that first of all. Second of all I don’t care if it is my number 2,3,4,5,6,8,9,10 that scores. We need goals and Luis had a phenomenal one and Yura had a very good one as well. So it doesn’t matter where the goals are coming from, it just matters that we are scoring.”
On Rusnák’s vision:
“Albert is the type of player that see’s plays 2 or 3 seconds ahead of everyone else, and that is why he is so valuable to us. Then you add Luis, Joao, Jefferson that are very similar players and that is why it is difficult when teams sit back because in transition they are so fluid and fast that they can read each other when there is space in front of them. It is a joy to watch tonight, Albert sees things and that is why he is going to the national team next week because he is a special player.”
On the VAR decision:
“I still don’t know what they called back to be honest with you. It looked like a 50-50 ball with the goalkeeper, but I guess you can’t lie with technology and a robot. That is why they do it, they watch it 2,3 times so that is why I didn’t really react that bad. But it just seems that things like that happen to us, so at the end of the day it doesn’t matter we won 4 to nothing.”
Goalkeeper Nick Rimando
How much are you following milestones:
“Not much, I just found out in the walkway in, I know the numbers are up there for how many years I have been here. I keep saying that every time to the media that what is most important is we need to get as many points as we can. Sitting at 100 shutouts, but it would be nice to get 107 and make it to the playoffs.”
On the backline:
“Dave brings a big presence back there, talk, he’s a leader. We were home, we did a lot of video this week. We looked at the goals we let up at Montreal and they didn’t have a lot of chances. It was about being tight and in balance and continue to do what we were doing. I think everyone from the back to the front did great defensively.”
On the effort:
“The message came across in the locker room that all of these games are like playoff games. We need to get as many points as we can and it starts with a shutout and putting away our chances. That post had our number a little bit tonight, but we kept going and we got the goals we needed.”
On getting into rhythm:
“It is tough when teams park the bus against us at home. They have the altitude at play but I thought we did well, moved the ball quickly into the attack and when a team comes here and wants to play obviously, there is going to be more space. I thought the front four did tremendous tonight with movement and Luis did great holding the ball that runs off. It was great to watch.”
On Luis Silva’s play:
“I have seen Luis in training, leading up to all of the games where maybe he wasn’t scoring, but Luis has something other than scoring all of the time, he holds the ball for us, he wins balls out of the air, he does well with other two outside forwards. If you add him scoring goals now, he will be dangerous. Tonight, he showed that and if Luis continues to score goals and be a vital attacker for us up top, we are going to be dangerous.”
On the results:
“You get a lot of your roster back, you said it early, you get healthy, you get in a rhythm. Mike said it to when he took over this team, it is not going to be over night, it is going to be some time. I don’t think we are perfect, but we are better than we were. We are getting the wins, and the ties, getting results but right now we need to start winning more and continuing what we are doing because it looked great out there tonight.”
Midfielder Albert Rusnák
On attacking against San Jose:
“We knew that they were going to come here and sit back. The first half we did well against the 11 men. We scored a goal which was very important. Once they got a red card, there was just so much space to play. We did that really well today.”
On attacking when up a man:
“We really enjoyed it because that’s the type of game you want. Especially at home, to score 4 goals, to keep a cleat sheet, and to create so many chances. We could have scored 6-7 goals today easily. That was our plan, we knew that they would play with 5 in the back, 3 out of those 5 would play centrally, and then another 3 guys in front of them. So we knew there would be space out wide and we made the most of it today.”
On the confidence level:
“It finally started to work for us. Even 2 months ago we were playing very well but we weren’t clinical enough in front of the goal. We didn’t score the goals, we created so many chances every game that I wouldn’t be surprise if we are on top of the whole league with creating chances. In the past games we didn’t score a goal and it was kind of frustrating because you create great chances and you can’t score a goal. Then today, it finally paid off. We scored 4 goals so we have to keep that momentum going if we want to make it to the playoffs.”
San Jose Earthquakes
Head Coach Chris Leitch
On the second yellow card to Anibal Godoy impacting the game:
“It’s pretty tough to play away from home in a place like this, in altitude and down a man that’s for sure. That’s a pretty big one. Playing a man down is tough.”
On the struggles to get Chris Wondolowski involved:
“We like to get Wondo’s touches as close to goal as possible.”
On what the team needs to do differently to get results on the road:
“We have to change a few things for sure. Obviously we give up some late ones where we’re down a man and the game gets stretched and we gave up a couple today. We can’t give up more of those. We have to be a little smarter. Taking a free kick on the last one when we had guys hobbling up there that had been playing a man down here for a while and they can’t recover and they poached it with two extra guys out there. Things like that are hard and makes the score line look bad and kind of hurts the psyche of the team which isn’t great.”
On what it would take to feel satisfied coming out of the California Clasico and the game in Toronto:
”It’s that time of the year when you need to get results and you need to get as many points as possible. That’ll be our approach every single game no matter where it is either home or away from here on out.”
On what will give the team a spark going forward:
“That would be good if the rivalry game gave us a spark, that would be really good.”
Forward Chris Wondolowski
On playing away from home:
“I think with the things that have made us successful at home and then comes a wave. I think that we tackled, we tracked runners and connect our passes. Last few games on the road we haven’t done that for some rhyme or reason and I think we need to get back to playing simple and playing effective.”
On the red card:
“It’s not a very good thing, especially against a talented team, against Salt Lake, especially chasing a goal, or down a goal chasing the game, makes it very difficult. You open yourselves up and we got punished for it. Credit to them again, I thought they did well. That was a definitely big point, or turning point for us, but to be fair they had a lot of chances before that as well.”
Looking ahead:
“I’m very frustrated with where we are, but I’m very excited to see how we respond, because I’m hoping we have some fighters in this locker room and if we do we’re going to come out swinging on Sunday. I’m really hoping for that, and if it’s not then, that’s some other problems.”
On chasing a playoff spot:
“Absolutely. It’s huge. I think we have a belief that we can make the Playoffs and that we will, but again this is a situation where we need to come, where we need to come in. We have our backs against the wall, and it’s time to show what we’re made of and see who’s men in this locker room.”
