Quote Sheet
Real Salt Lake 0-1 Los Angeles FC
Rio Tinto Stadium; Sandy, Utah
Saturday, July 3, 2021
Head Coach Freddy Juarez
On substitutions:
“You want to leave Rubio [Rubin] because he is one of the lead goal scorers. You want to leave them on the field. You want to leave Damir [Kreilach] who has goals in him. Chang gave good minutes in the first half and into the second. We wanted to bring in Meram. We were actually going to make a different switch, but because they got that goal we ended up dropping Damir as a six and taking out a holding midfielder so we can keep goalscorers inside. That’s why I made these decisions. Albert had one of his best games. It’s very good. He found pockets for distribution. As a result of keeping him in there, Rubio will bolster the demand. So that was the reason.”
On the last minutes:
“A lot of flopping. A lot of going down and breaking the momentum. That was obvious to me. I saw an LAFC that I haven't seen in a long time and our team played them toe-to-toe. We were aggressive and they made two great plays off the line: their goalie made an unbelievable save and the defender cleared Rubio [Rubin’s] shot off the line. Our team did a great job defending Vela and Rossi. It was a cruel game. I thought our guys deserved a lot more than the result we got.”
On LAFC’s gamesmanship:
“I’m not going to talk about LAFC because that happens all over the woods. The ref has to deal with those things. If you watch the tape, you’ll see the minutes that LAFC got from stoppages: the trainers had to step on the field four times and there were a lot of substitutions. The refs have to put the law down, but that’s not LAFC’s fault. Teams on the road are going to do what they need to do to get a result and it’s up to the refs to manage that. I thought our team came out in the second half bossing the game and then LAFC got a goal and then there were a lot of momentum-breaking situations. No one to blame. I’m so happy with the effort from the guys. It was a mature game from them to go toe-to-toe with a team that is dangerous, that quality, and that plays that kind of football. I thought our team was fantastic at making them suffer, run, and dissatisfied. We have to kill off the game and get that goal. We have to make a play.”
Midfielder Albert Rusnak
On his end of the match reaction:
“I tried all game to give that final goal. I was getting into some spaces throughout the whole game. First half more from the left hand side. Second half, kind of all over trying to find where the space was and give that killer pass and create that chance. As a team we created very good chances today. Once again we get punished. They created a couple things and one of them went in for them. We didn’t capitalize on the chances we created so it’s frustrating.”
On staying positive:
“I don’t think it’s hard to stay positive. The games are coming fast one after another. We have another game Wednesday. I feel like we should be frustrated after tonight. We have to start scoring goals and then create these good looks into goals and not just good chances. If you look at it there was a lot of good stuff there tonight. There were a lot of positives to take out of that game and I’m sure we will go over the film tomorrow or Monday. Once you watch that film you have to forget about it and move on to the next game. That will be Vancouver on Wednesday here. It is another opportunity for us. As far as the play and creating chances and defending and the commitment and the hard work, I think all of that was there tonight. All of that has been there in the past few games. The most important thing is the results and those haven’t been coming our way so we have to change that around.”
On if tactical shifts are needed:
“As far as tactical change I’m not the one making tactics. If we were getting dominated for 90 minutes then maybe you could look at the tactics, but I can’t think of a game that we have been dominated for most of the game. So therefore, the tactics are right. We are playing well and we are creating chances. The only way to change this around is by hard work and commitment and to keep doing the good things over and over again. There’s not much that we have to change other than putting the ball in the back of the net when we create a good chance. We go again and we keep doing the good things that we did today. We keep doing them on Wednesday again. I believe it will change around for us.”
Midfielder Nick Besler
On the team’s mindset after the loss:
“We’re frustrated, especially when we felt we were in control of that game. And it’s been a similar story the last couple of games, like the Houston game, where we’ve had chances but haven’t put them away and then it felt like they had that one chance and they scored it. We’re disappointed. It feels like if we can take care of our chances and put them away then we can be on the forefront and unfortunately that didn’t happen tonight. The performance on the field was positive. If we can be in control of the home games, we still have a long season left and hopefully we can turn those kinds of games that we had tonight into wins.”
On LAFC’s goal:
“From what I remember, they had us pinned deep on a throw-in. The ball switched to the middle, they got it out wide and then they played it into a dangerous area. We’ve done a decent job throughout the year of defending that area, but unfortunately on that play we didn’t have anybody there to take care of that space. It was a good cross and a good finish, but it’s something we need to correct and make sure that it doesn’t happen in future games.”
On RSL’s ball movement and creating chances:
“Our ball movement felt pretty fluid today. Pablo [Ruiz], Damir [Kreilach], Albert [Rusnák], and I did a good job of coming inside and Chang did a great job staying out wide and creating width for us. LAFC is a team known for usually controlling the game and I thought that our movement in the midfield and controlling the game through possession were two positives we can take away from this game. There’s going to be greater focus and sharpness in training with any kind of finishing drill that we do. Crossing and finishing, patterns and shadow pressure going to goal. We need to be as sharp as we can so that we’re ready for games and can take care of those opportunities in front of the net.”
