QUOTE SHEET
Real Salt Lake 6-2 LA Galaxy
Rio Tinto Stadium; Sandy, Utah
September 1, 2018
Real Salt Lake
Head Coach Mike Petke
On what to take away from the game:
“We were very specific throughout the week. Hats off to my assistant coaches. The amount of data and information that they not only put together for me, but more importantly for the players. We have a young back line and tonight they shut down one of the best forwards in the last 10-15 years in the world. The moments where they double teamed (Zlatan) Ibrahimovic were the perfect moments and the times they didn’t were the right times not to. Hats off to my assistant coaches and hats off to these players.”
On moving Damir Kreilach forward:
“I don’t honestly consider Damir as a forward tonight. Him and Albert (Rusnak) rotated. There were two positions tonight that we didn’t identify to our players that they were playing, that was Damir and Albert. Someone had to occupy the center backs, and someone always had to drop in and I think most of the time Damir was the higher one. Credit to these players. We’re in fourth place right now starting four to five home grown players almost every game and without having a true number nine this entire season.”
On being the first team in league history with back to back six goals:
“Does it get us in the playoffs? One thing I want to say about Damir and what impresses me about Damir is that he scores a hat trick and when he’s asked to come in here he sends Justen (Glad) and Nick (Besler). That helps me and helps the locker room and that’s the type of player I want playing for me.”
Midfielder Damir Kreilach
On the hat trick:
“I’m very, very happy about it, but I’m much more happy about three points. We deserved to win. We played unbelievable. In the first minute it was a little bit of a shock for us, but then we turned the game and in the second half we played excellent. We controlled the game from the second minute to 92 minutes. I don’t have words to describe this game. It was amazing.”
On what was working well:
“We put the gameplan in and all the things the coaches told us to do this week in practice. In the end, we created a lot of chances, we scored for a second time in a row six goals. It is not so easy. It was brilliant from us and in the end we have to keep going.”
On the defensive effort:
“It was amazing. All four in the back, Kyle and Sunny – they worked unbelievable and then it was so much easier for the four guys in front. It looks like a team. We won three times in a row and we have to keep going and put work in and be ready in 14 days against Minnesota.”
Defender Nick Besler
On taking the lead before halftime:
“That goal before the half was huge. We thought maybe that other than the first minute and a half, we controlled the whole first half. And you get the goal, you go up, we thought we deserved it big time. Gave us confidence in the second half better than the first half.
On the team coming together:
“I think that Houston game just gave us confidence that we can start winning really. We had a tough spell on the road for sure. It’s not like we hadn’t been creating chances, we just haven’t been finishing. I think the last two games, more than anything, we’ve just capitalized on the chances we created. And tonight, we were extremely clinical, and we saw that on the scoreboard.”
Defender Justen Glad
On if stopping Zlatan from scoring his 500th goal was on their mind:
“Yeah absolutely. The team was motivated all week to not only to shutout Zlatan, but for the playoff push. It was a huge win for us tonight, and I couldn’t be happier”
On the pressure from LA:
“We know they were going to come in with hard energy and come into our field. We’ve been training during the week moving and playing out the back and using the altitude to our advantage. We had them running, and we knew the gaps would open up. Credit to our front five for finishing the chances.
LA Galaxy
Head Coach Sigi Schmid
On the result:
“We came out at the start of the second half, we were right there on the 2-2 with a header that goes off the post, Rimando is beat off the play. Six inches the other way we score a goal, they come back and get a deflected goal, it’s 3-1, we lose confidence and it gets worse from there. It’s one of those games where – I know we had one a couple weeks ago – it’s one of those games that we just have to forget about. We’re still trying to be able to play the same lineup from week-to-week. We thought we would be able to play the same lineup this week and then two guys come up hurt. We’ve got to change our lineup a little bit and find that rhythm. We’re all in this together, players and coaches, and we all have to look at our part of what we did and pull together and embrace this challenge.”
On the rough patch since the unbeaten streak:
“The biggest thing since the unbeaten streak has just been the moving parts within the lineup. There are certain players that don’t have a role on this team and some are players that start week in and week out or come off the bench at times. It’s different asks at different times. We’re throwing a different mix out there all the time and today we lost our confidence. We had two games at home against Minnesota and Colorado that we should have won. We had two leads in each game and we should have won. If you win those games, your confidence stays up and you move forward.”
On moving forward in the playoff race:
“We just have a hill to climb. What our team needs to do now is accept the challenge that presents itself in front of us. It’s a task but we shouldn’t be pro soccer players or coaches if we didn’t like challenges and if we didn’t go after it. Now it’s a matter of going after it, accepting the challenge and embracing and working hard to move forward.”
Midfielder Perry Kitchen
On the trouble adjusting:
“It was a very interesting game. We started very low, scoring in 40 seconds and then from there we really fell apart. Credit to Salt Lake, they were very good all night – they picked us part. It felt like we were chasing shadows, we couldn’t really get out to anyone. It wasn’t good enough and in this part of the season we can’t make mistakes so it’s very frustrating.”
On what’s gone wrong since the unbeaten streak:
“It’s tough to pinpoint one thing exactly. For whatever reason we are out of our rhythm that we were in. We are bleeding goals in the back again – and that’s a full team effort not just the guys in the back – it’s tough to pinpoint what exactly it is.”
On pushing forward in the playoff race:
“It’s tough. Similar to the Seattle game, there really is no excuse for it. They say we have two weeks to figure it out and really train hard. We have six games to go, we still have a shot and still have control of what we can do. There’s a lot of work ahead but we are still in this thing. We have to believe and we have to fight, now we really have to try and climb this hill but we found at the bottom again.”
Midfielder Servando Carrasco
On the second half:
“We come out and create a great chance to tie it up and don’t score it. They come back, they score the 3-1 goal off of a play that was a deflection. We should have responded a lot better but didn’t and from there we just couldn’t come back.”
On the offense:
“There was a lot of things that went wrong tonight. It’s easy to look at the game right now and think about all the bad things we did. I’ve been in this league long enough to know that it takes one win. We have five games left and it’s going to come down to the stretch. Right now, with the bye-weekend, we have to come back to work and come back to work a lot harder. That’s the focus. Things did not go well for us today and we cannot hide from that. Now it’s just a matter of guys being together and knowing that we’re not out of it yet. We have to find a way to rebound, find our confidence and prepare for that game against Toronto because it’s going to be a massive one.”
On mentality vs tactics:
“It’s a little bit of balance. Every game is different, but there is a little bit of pressure. We have to embrace that pressure and the fact that we are the Galaxy. The expectation is that we are going to be in the playoffs. Trust me, all the guys in the locker room right now are very pissed off and know that we have a huge challenge.”
