QUOTE SHEET
LA GALAXY 2-6 REAL SALT LAKE
JULY 4, 2017; CARSON, CALIF., STUBHUB CENTER
Real Salt Lake
Head Coach Mike Petke
On the result:
“I will say this. I do feel for Curt [Onalfo] and that team, because there was a time within the last month and a half that we were more depleted than they are right now. And, we felt the wrath of that. So I obviously feel for them, but I’m not going to take something away from my team. The way that they played, you know I’m very proud of them.”
On the Pairing of Albert Rusnak and Jefferson Savarino:
“They’re both phenomenal players and, obviously, both relatively new to this league. Rusnak [Albert] has been here a bit longer, but Savarino [Jefferson] has just got here. And, we have been talking about the excitement about those two being on the field together. We talked about them being centrally together, or one out wide and one centrally, like we did tonight. But the good thing is now with players of that quality, and Plata [ Joao], and a guy like Brooks Lennon was on the bench tonight, you know even though he’s young, the quality he brings, we have options of not only who to play, but where to play them. It was great to see those guys linking up, and it was magic.”
The clearance in the 15th minute:
“Very, very important. And, I’ll tell you why. This is a team that psychologically, we’re getting better, but an early goal has really put us under it a lot of times this year. And if that goal goes in, perhaps the outcome is a little bit different. But, great clearance by Aaron [Maund], and these guys stayed with it.”
On expecting the win:
“These don’t happen this often, even when teams have played better, better than we’ve played tonight to put six goals in. These guys were hungry, and I feel confident every game going in. But, there was something about this game, talking to the staff before. In our pre-game meeting and the two days we had training leading up that just felt, you felt something a little different. I don’t know if it was frustration on their part, because we are back healthy and against Orlando we played very well and didn’t get the result. So I think they were a bit fed up with it, and they let out their frustration tonight; which was good.”
Midfielder Kyle Beckerman
On the season and tonight’s win:
“Yea it’s been a tough year, and we’re trying to just keep at it. It’s all you can really do. Keep doing the right things every day in practice and hopefully on the weekends it happens, like tonight. It doesn’t always happen like that. Tonight we were able to execute and hopefully we are able to execute and build off it for the rest of the season.”
On what made the difference today:
“The big thing is scoring and finishing chances. I think that we had a lot of chances in the first half. In our last game we had a lot of the play and you just don’t score and it leaves chances for the other team to get that one. So it was important to get the lead and then to restore the lead before halftime helped us a lot with the confidence. Good finishing. It seemed like that translates into the possession and into our movement and defending as well. We have to continue. It’s a big win but we have to move on, keep working and get ready for our next game.”
On his goal and celebration imitating Robbie Keane:
“I kind of blacked out but I have so much respect for that guy and he’s done that to us plenty of times. It was just a tribute to him.”
On how the team’s attitude is before playing the LA Galaxy:
“I think we’ve had some success and we’ve had some failures here, but we always know it’s a tough game. It’s one that’s going to be a big challenge coming in. Everybody really seemed that, together, we had that extra, whatever that means. It seemed like we wanted it a little bit more than they did tonight and that’s what helped us get the win.”
On Jefferson Savarino:
“He’s a very good player and he’s one of those players that can skin a guy with the guy right in front of him and next second he’s on the other side of him. It’s definitely a big help when you have that on your team. We just have to keep jelling, keep playing together, keep working hard in practice and keep perfecting it because that’s an advantage we got.”
Goalkeeper Nick Rimando
On what made the difference tonight:
“We scored more goals than them. I think we let one go in Salt Lake City and we wanted to put a good performance on. We knew that it was only a matter of time before we could get things right and get some goals. In the locker room I did feel like there was some belief in here today and we went out there with what I think was our best performance of the year.”
On the importance of this win:
“Huge. Every time you get win specially away from home, its very big. Specially for a team like us that hasn’t had the best of years this year so far and three points is something we could be proud of.”
On what’s ahead for the RSL:
“We’re one game at a time. We can’t look far ahead. We’ve won one game right now this week. We have to work hard during this break. Just look at Portland now, we can’t get too ahead of ourselves.”
Midfielder Albert Rusnák
On getting healthier:
“We’ve been missing so many players, and that’s part of the game. We struggled with that. Up until two games ago, we always had five or six guys injured. We’re all full strength now so we need to take this game as a turning point and hopefully keep playing like this.”
On how important it was to get a win:
“That’s what we said before the game. Before this break coming up, we said it would be good to come away with a win, and with a 6-2 win away from home that’s a great result for the whole club.”
LA Galaxy
Head Coach Curt Onalfo
On his general post game thoughts:
“It’s unacceptable, it’s disappointing, not just to the sold out crowd that showed up tonight. I’m very disappointed.”
On if this represents the team’s multiple games in the past weeks:
“It very well could be but we can’t make excuses, we find solutions. There’s no doubt about it we’re a tired group. This is our seventh game in less than three weeks. We’re without a lot of our veteran players so we’re relying on a younger group, and we have a lot of injuries but these younger guys have shown that they can do it before so we can’t make excuses. Me as a coach, I can’t make excuses, our players don’t make excuses. It was unacceptable. We need to have a very short memory, we need to get that out of our system very quickly. We need a mental and physical break and then we can get back to business for the second half of the season.”
On how he will approach this next week:
“We’ll give a day or two off because they just need it, even though you want to get right back to work because of the performance, but it’ll do some good. And we just have to get mended, we have some guys that are real close to getting back, and we can start incorporating those guys back into the team. It’s time to focus 100 percent on the San Jose game, and then obviously we have the Manchester United game and then we play Vancouver here in a game that we have to win.”
On whether Clement Diop or the defense is to blame:
“It’s a group thing. We got beat on a lot of plays and credit to Salt Lake, they played a very good game tonight. I told our team they weren’t getting results, but in my opinion they’re a very good team but we saw their quality. Their attacking quality is very good. If you’re not at your best, good players are going to punish you and they punished us at every occasion they could.
Defender Ashley Cole
On the defensive performance tonight:
“Everyone has to look in the mirror and ask themselves how did they perform today because certainly I don’t think anyone performed. You can’t just keep going for every game being known as the team that works hard and deserves more. Sometimes you have to be quality and have quality and the ball but we didn’t have that. No one wanted the ball, no one wanted to play and this is what happened.
On if the injuries and tough schedule are starting to take a toll:
“I don’t think it’s the schedule. I missed the last game but I’m fairly sick and I’ve played a lot of the games. These are young kids so it’s not about the schedule. It’s about the desire and will to not get battered how we did today. When we were down 3-1 you figured we’d fight for every ball and we didn’t, so let’s not make excuses like Curt said. We have traveled a lot but they’re 20 years of age. It’s not an excuse.”
On what the younger players need to do to get better:
“Sometimes I can’t control them, it’s hard to control nine players every game. That’s how it felt today. They’ve played enough games now they have to step up and understand they have to win. It’s on their shoulders, you can yell at them as much as you want, but if no one’s going to put their foot in a tackle you can’t teach that. They know the mentality you have to have and today they didn’t have that mentality.”
On giving up more goals than ever before:
“I’m embarrassed, I’m pissed at how I played and that we have this record. But it happens. It’s happened probably once in my career, but these young guys have to step up now and hopefully we’ll get some older players back and we’ll kick on from there.”
