QUOTE SHEET
Real Salt Lake 1-1 New York Red Bulls
Rio Tinto Stadium; Sandy, Utah
Saturday, March 7, 2020
Real Salt Lake
Head Coach Freddy Juarez
On improving the set pieces this year:
“Matt [Glaeser] did a good job of scouting New York and the last week he was talking a lot that there was going to be opportunity on how they zoned that we could have some dominance and we created the chances. Some amazing saves from their goalkeeper, scrapping there and saving one off the line, but we were pretty effective. It also starts with the service of Albert and I thought his service was spot-on today in a difficult situation. Anytime it’s windy it complicates things, but the service was there and where we wanted to get the ball we got it there and now it’s up to players to get into those positions and they were pretty effective, but that last part of scoring the goal.”
On out-shooting NYRB 21-4:
“Super happy with the group, we’ve been training trying to be a little bit more vertical when it’s on. To be vertical you’ve got to have some players that can be effective in that, in that manner with speed and all that. And I think when we made some substitutes and adjusted instead of just having two players, all of a sudden it became three front runners that are very dangerous with their speed and that’s what we’ve been training. It’s not always easy to do that. I think in the first half it gets a little harder because of the wind in your way. Now the pass has got to be a little more accurate and all of that, but second half, maybe you just played it into the space and the wind was going to kind of hold it up. The 21 or whatever shots sometimes it just doesn’t go in. I think we created point blank shots and the goalie - don’t forget about their goalkeeper - made some very good saves. I think Duncan saved one off the line that sacrificed his body. What I told the group is the more you can play like that you’re going to have more wins than losses and that’s something we’ve got to have consistency on, where we’re that aggressive when we have those players on the field.”
On VAR taking back a goal:
“I think the mentality was at halftime guys came in and there wasn’t much to say other than pushing up when we hit a flighted ball into space, that we wanted our backline to push up a little quicker to allow our midfield to push up a little quicker and how we could actually pin them into their half. The first half we weren’t getting service into the box, being aggressive. But other than that the guys came into halftime and understand to be a little bit more aggressive with our passes in behind and we’re going to have opportunities. They’re going to die in the altitude, especially the way they want to play. So, the mentality was just the whole time like it’s coming, it’s coming, it’s coming. Even in the first half I turn around to the bench like we’re going to get a goal on a set piece today. It didn’t happen but that feeling from everyone was like we’re not losing this game.”
On frustration of only getting a draw:
“I’m happy with the attitude of the guys. I would have loved the win for the fans, but what can we do? There are some games we’ve played in where we shoot once, we score, we win. In this one I felt we deserved the win. I truly believe that. I think the players believe that. So that’s soccer. I’ve been around soccer for a long time and it always kind of comes back around. So, I think there’s going to be a game where we end up winning somewhere along the line where we have one shot and we score and there’s going to be games where maybe we do get the 26 shots and maybe we score multiple goals. What I’m happy about is the team was exciting. They were dangerous, creating opportunities. We fought. Playing Red Bulls and San Jose I’m always going to say it’s a tough game. You’ve got to scrap, you’ve got to run, you’ve got to do all the little things and that’s the hard part, right? We all want to run and have the ball at our feet, but we did all the little things today to really dig into finally where the game settled down. Then you started seeing more possession and more attacks. What I’m most excited about was just the attitude of the group.”
On Douglas playing up top and dropping Damir down:
“It did [help settle] and that was the point, that we had to have the runs in behind in the first half. We were a little tentative, even though that was a game that we felt there’s gonna be times you just gotta get the ball in behind and that was gonna push us up, back them up and we’re gonna win the territory, we didn’t do that as effectively. But on the other things, what we want to do is stretch them once or twice. It’s going to create some pockets in the middle of the field. When Douglas [Martinez] went in there it’s not that this was just a sacrifice, we said okay we better chase this game, we’ve got to put someone as traditionally an eight who, like Damir, is going to give us aerial battle, but then that forward passing it worked out.
On Ramírez’s impact and first minutes”
“You guys saw that, first of all it got played all the way to the corner, he gets to it turns, serves a volley. That’s what I saw in the last couple of weeks, we had an excitement right away, but I didn’t want to get too excited because I’ve got to make sure to see it in a game. But you saw an eighteen-year-old guy goes into the game chases down the ball, not nervous, turns the guy, and goes for the serve. I think he’s going to be a bright, bright player for us for now and for the future.”
On Giuseppe Rossi’s fitness:
“Yeah, we’re going to take a look at that. We worked him really hard last week because of fitness. He actually trained super hard throughout the week and we’ve got to just make sure that we’re taking care of his body.”
On crosses into the box:
“We know we have good service when you have Damir [Kreilach] in there. You know it’s a big guy who can be an option. But Douglas [Martinez] that’s one of his hidden strengths. To be honest, we’re not saying that every time you get to serve it in. I think that the game asked for that. We started getting numbers in there for the last eight minutes or so, we also started pushing up Donny [Toia]. Now we have Douglas and Dami matching up against their center backs. Anytime we get out wide and then we should have near guys pull and staggered running in, and that was actually an exercise that we did on Thursday where it was a final-third plan, rushing against defenders and it proved to be effective today and we see in the one goal.”
Forward Damir Kreilach
On how the team played:
“We played well and we dominated the game. We controlled the game, and our attitude was unbelievable, we pulled for each other. I think that we deserved a lot more than we took from this game, but we have to stay positive and look forward to the next game.”
On set-piece opportunities:
“We practiced set pieces all during the week. A lot of games are going to be decided by set pieces. We have so many players that can score from set pieces so it's our big advantage. I think overall the way we played today was dominant. From the first minute and in the first half we created four 100% chances and in the second half as well. It shows how much quality we have, especially at home and this is why we have to be satisfied. I’m now a little bit disappointed because, as they said, we deserved two more points today.”
On his chances on goal:
“Actually, I went in 100% just unfortunately I didn't hit the ball to score the last minute goal. We’re very happy about the equalizer, but as I said in so many cases, we needed to do more to get three points.”
On not panicking after the opening goal:
“Honestly we expected one from Red Bull today, we know how good they are, they’re an athletic team. They want to press 11 men for 90 minutes, so I think in my opinion, we really pressed them much more than they pressed us. We controlled the game. We didn’t panic in any situation. They scored the first goal unfortunately to get the lead, but then after that it was our game and just on one went their way.”
Defender Nedum Onuoha
On struggling to score:
“I’d say so. But, then to be honest they were quite convinced to keep the ball out of the goal. I say they had two or three maybe big saves and clearances off the line and things like that, so you know you can’t really account for that. At the end of the day I think that we ended the game comfortably.”
On Red Bulls’ goal:
“I haven’t been able to see it yet, but maybe we could’ve put more pressure on them, this is just off memory, maybe put more pressure on them before they struck it. How he got in that position I’m not exactly sure.”
On success of team set pieces:
“We’ve been working on it. If anything I think Albert put some good balls in. I think, of the people in the box now, we have our plan of where we’re supposed to be and things we are supposed to do and I think it makes it very difficult for teams to defend. We have good size as well, I think the smallest person going into the box might be Nick Besler who’s 5’11”. I think it’s probably that. We’ve been working on it, but yeah we are a good size and we're convinced at trying to get some goals.”
On continuing to push after the goal getting called back:
“I think it’s great mentality. The people are all in this together. You know we’ve played a lot of games here together, we know what the energy’s like and the team starts to get depressed and the crowd gets louder. We’re always gonna push, whether the goal counted or not, we’re always going to have a big push towards the end of the game because we feel like we have to win and that’s exactly what we’re going for.”
On disappointment of not getting the win:
“It is disappointing, but I think the fact that we didn’t lose the game is probably going to be seen as a positive. It wasn’t a perfect game by us, it wasn’t a perfect game by them, but we did have a lot of chances and we stayed true to our game plan and we were committed. I think the commitment is probably the biggest thing which we’ve had this preseason for the first two games. It seems like something that is gonna take us through for the end of the year because you know that’s our character. The quality really improved but the commitment’s always gonna be there, so it’s something to take away from a game like this.”
On how New York played:
“They played exactly that way [we expected]. We’ve seen them play for years and you know we watched them last week against Cincinnati at home and they like to just put you under pressure. They do play some long balls, but also it’s good territory not necessarily just to give it away, I mean they have people that will constantly put you under pressure and I think that once they scored maybe there was a slight change for them in terms of their approach, but it was more or less the same so nothing surprising.”
New York Red Bulls
Head Coach Chris Armas
On the game:
“It’s a valuable point for us, hard fought, well-earned and I’m proud of the guys for that because a lot of the teams are going to come to this building this year and not get any points. Our last two visits we didn’t get any points, we lost our previous two. So, to see the guys show up today and be aggressive, get the first goal, stick to what we were trying to do, was great to see and then as a coach to see a team that is together that sticks together and suffers together, I’m proud of them for that. So, hard fought point, really proud of them and it’s a shame we didn’t get all three because we scraped till the end and had it in our grasp and you can credit Salt Lake for the good push that they made. Tough to play here at altitude and happy to leave here with a point.”
On Cristian’s goal:
“Cristian, he’s a ball winner and you know at altitude the ball flies, so he drove with the ball, took his chance well, shot it hard and shot it well, and yeah it’s great that he gets rewarded for that — it was a big goal for us.”
On defending the whole 90 minutes:
“Well I think that we’ve seen over the last month and a half throughout preseason, and now two games in the league that we’re hard to play against and we’re hard to beat. It’s a group that sticks together, that they’re prideful, this ‘not on my watch’ mentality and there’s a lot of trust going on in the group that you can trust the guy to your left and right that guys are going to put their bodies on the line, their going to run for each other and that’s what winning looks like — it’s what winning looks like, it’s winning habits going on this team and I’m proud of the boys.”
On Jensen coming up with big stops:
“I think that David was a presence in goal, made a couple of really big stops for sure — when he pulled out of the upper corner off of I think it was a set piece. Yeah his distribution and communication and leadership was also impressive, so we thought he’s had a couple of good games now.”
On moving on to Minnesota:
“What you take from it is there’s no easy games in this league once again, and that you have to, on your good days, take advantage and get all the points. When you’re away from home you’ve got to stick together, stick to a plan, and concentration and the togetherness becomes really important. So we’re four points after two matches and we feel good about that so we’ll regroup and get recovered and go after Minnesota.”
Defender Amro Tarek
On the match:
“It’s a tough game. We knew before the game it’s tough to play here in Salt Lake. I think it’s good that we have a point, it’s kind of frustrating because we conceded a goal in the last few minutes, but it’s good to have a point."
On the defense:
“I think it’s just amazing we have a solid back line and a solid goalkeeper. Some games it’s just going to be like this, you’re going to step up and make those big saves. We could have won because of them if we kept the clean sheet. It’s a great team effort and I think we’re happy with the point.”
On the lessons to take from this:
“We could have fought a bit more to the end. It was still close. It would have been better if we had gotten the three points, six points out of two games and an away game would be amazing, but we put this in mind for the next game.”
Goalkeeper David Jensen
Thoughts on the match:
“Tough game. Tough game, for sure. We didn’t have the altitude with us, so that was also a big factor, I think. It’s difficult conditions to play in. We got a point, we scored a great, great goal. Cristian [Casseres Jr.] had a good long shot from there and I think we defended the best we could. The boys did well. I think we fought for this point and that’s the thing we have to take with us.”
On New York’s defense:
“Nothing but respect. That’s what it’s all about. It’s a team effort. We come here, it’s a difficult game under difficult conditions and we just fought. Two big saves from [Sean] Davis and [Kyle] Duncan, big saves. They got my back, that’s what it’s all about. This was a team effort.”
On the lessons to take from this:
“We cannot take anything for granted. We have to work our asses off the whole 90 minutes and we did — and we got a point. If we do that, it doesn’t matter if it was an away game or a home game if we do that every single time, then we can look at ourselves in the mirror and say, ‘OK, guys, this was a good job today.’”
