QUOTE SHEET
REAL SALT LAKE 1-2 LA GALAXY
RIO TINTO STADIUM; MARCH 18, 2016
Real Salt Lake
Head Coach Jeff Cassar
On the difference between the first and second half:
"We did everything we wanted to in the first half. Obviously, really unfortunate to get two yellows, that was for us, both Luke and Kyle. Which is baffling. Which it really did change the game. We were the aggressors and then the second half we knew we were looking to have opportunities on the counter attack. I thought our shape was pretty good we were bending but not breaking. To give up a goal on a set play is never good. We paid the price.”
On the yellow cards:
“I don’t know what was said out there. Must have been something but it’s sad. I am disappointed for the fans who came out to see a good entertaining game. Anytime when someone leaves the field, there were ten of those fouls on the other side and there were no cards. We are not going to complain about it but it was poor. It was poor. I feel bad for our fans. I feel bad for the players.”
Finding the ideal starting 11:
“We are working extremely hard during the week and I couldn’t be more pleased with the efforts that we are putting in. Obviously, we need a good solid rotation of players. We are rotating for needs and necessity not because we want to do it tactically. Until that gets more solidified, you know obviously, we are going to miss players this weekend and have some players coming back from injury and I don’t know how far along they are. But we need to get into a rhythm and guys need to know their roles. Right now, their roles could be changing. With that being said, I do think this team is very much together and that is going to make us strong for different times of the year. I wish I could get my regular rotation down and then be moving pieces to make an impact in the game rather than piecing together a group but they are playing solid. We have not even come close to the normal starting lineup that was projected at the start of the year.”
On Brooks Lennon and Bofo Saucedo:
“I liked everything about what they did. You know, I think their work rate, their ability, their passion. And it also made Yura’s life a little bit easier when they are having to worry about two players that are going to go at them and stay hungry. So, I am really pleased with the experience. As Justin steps in and does another solid job. Again, I feel bad for the players, I really do because they put an effort forth that was fantastic. But we got to keep playing with eleven players on the field.”
On what needs to improve:
“Listen, at the end of the day, we go over and over and over, so the set up was fine. Everyone was on their makes and then you have to win your individual battles. That is just how it is on set plays. And we lost an individual battle. I thought we could have done better with not giving up the corner, but it’s tough to deal with and they made us pay. Our marks were set everyone knew who they had, and he broke away from our player.”
On the Galaxy’s second goal and an awkward clearance:
“I just watched it, it was very awkward. We had four players that could have taken care of it. Sometimes when you have so many people around the ball you think someone else will do the job. But again, the set up was right and everyone was there, and we didn’t get the job done. But we had four players around one and typically that should get done.”
On Yura substitution:
“It was a tactic move. He had worked incredibly and I wanted to bring Chad in. We wanted to wear them down even more. Chad had a wonderful opportunity to put us up 2-0 and I wish we could have that one back but he worked hard. He put himself in good positions and hopefully next time it goes in.”
Forward Yura Movsisyan
On getting first goal of the year:
“Yeah to get that goal early in the season it’s very important. The last couple of games we couldn’t get it on target, or we couldn’t score, so that was very positive.”
On going down a man:
“It changed everything. I think LA is a good team and especially when you play them with a man down is a bit difficult, but I think up until that red card we dominated this game. I think if we were able to stay 11 players I don’t think it would have stayed 1-0, but that’s soccer and sometimes you get calls that are questionable. You don’t know why. You have to deal with it, you have to learn, you have to be sharper and it’s just a learning experience. I would rather see these types of games early on in the season, so we don’t have to hold from that and deal with it better when it’s crunch time.”
On playing when the whistle is constantly being blown:
“Obviously you want to play a full game, and yeah we’re going to kick each other, that’s normal. That’s why it’s a man’s game. It’s tough. Obviously these refs have a difficult job too with the fans and the physicality, but in the end of the day all we’re asking for is a full game. All we’re asking for is to let us play. Yeah we’re going to kick each other. That’s normal, just let us play, let us do our thing and let’s see what happens.”
On the young players’ performance:
“I thought they were phenomenal, honestly. You’ve got two runners who will run them down. I honestly enjoyed it a lot, and we had as a team high expectations for them, and I think that they delivered and every time they got the ball and looked to go forward they beat their player and that’s what you want from your wide players, and I think we got all of our wide players are just as good and it’s good to have better competition for the starters or for the guys who are pushing for a place.”
On losing Albert next week to international duty:
“Albert is a young, very experienced player. He’s got a lot of talent, but I think that guys that played today stepped up, showed up and I don’t think that with Albert leaving that it’s more so. We’ll play a little bit different because every player is different, so we will have to adapt, train, get used to each other and go for it again.”
Midfielder Luke Mulholland
On what needs to change going forward:
“I don’t care about our last season. We start fresh. We’re in this streak now but we start fresh. It’s three games in; one point. It’s not great. There’s definitely been some heartbreaks already. Going against Chicago two-nil, them. And then tonight I thought we looked great on our line enjoying our football and playing exciting. It’s just fun to be out there. Obviously, you guys saw it. You saw the red card which really killed us. Going on the second half we gave it all we could. We ended up just running so much. Even then we had the opportunity to make it two-one and we hit the post. Five or ten minutes later, they scored again. So it’s definitely some bad luck and bad times right now. But there are positives still to take up. I personally don’t care how we finished last season. This year, there’s different players, different personnel. So we have to start with a different mindset.”
On the young players giving the offense spark:
“They did great. Obviously, you guys know [Joao] Plata and Jordan Allen on paper at the start of the season they were our two wide forwards and they both picked up injuries so we have to call them up. I mean, their confidence is sky high based on the way they performed for the national team. They did great down there and they’ve come back with the same mentality. They’ve done themselves proud tonight. I think everybody in the changing room encouraged them to express themselves and go at their defenders. I thought they did an exceptional job. I’m disappointed that we weren’t able to get three points for them.”
On his and Kyle Beckerman’s yellow card:
“Yeah, I mean [Jermaine] Jones goes quite high. Becks really isn’t the type of guy to go down easy. I feel he’s caught him pretty good. I haven’t seen the replay. And then, obviously, I just lost my temper and pushed him. But, even in this day and age a push isn’t worthy of yellow card I don’t think. But it was just hand bags and the fact that we both come out with a yellow card each and no yellow card for Jones is the icing on the cake. Five minutes later we have a terrible clearance and then Kyle has to make that foul and hits the dressing room early so it definitely cost us. It’s disappointing.”
On what needs to improve next week to get a win or draw in New York:
“First off, discipline and make sure we keep our 11. I think the last time we went to Red Bulls we were down to nine men as well in the first half. So, as long as we can keep 11 guys on the field then that will give us the best opportunity to get results. I really enjoy the way Red Bulls play. I think they’re a solid team. They have been for several years in this league. It’s going to be tough, obviously. They don’t have Dax [McCarty] there anymore so the midfield will be a different personality to go up against. Personally I’m excited for the battle. We will be without Nick [Rimando] Kyle [Beckerman] Albert [Rusnák]. And anymore? Like you said, I think their squad has gotten younger this year. They’ve gotten a little bit deeper as well. We still, obviously, lost a lot of great players last season but now it’s time for those players to be accounted for. I thought the wide boys and young boys were accounted for tonight and next week we need a few more players to get accounted for. [Matt] Van Oekel’s going to be going in goal. Myself and Sunny will be probably hold down the middle and Silva will probably play in the middle. Obviously the wide forwards are still up in the air, day-to-day with injuries. I’m confident we can go there and get the result. Need to have an all-around 90-minute performance. Right now where obviously we had a good first half, we were a man down in the second half. But hopefully if we have eleven men on the field we can do the same in the second half and grind out the result.”
Forward Brooks Lennon
On his first start for RSL ending in a loss:
“Yeah not the ideal result. We’re going bounce back at the weekend. I think we put in a good fight second half but I just don’t think the gas was there.”
On next match against New York and recovering from the losses.
“We’re going prepare this week as well as we can. Going to New York needing to get a result. We’re going to go there with the sole focus of getting the ‘W’ and that’s what we’re going do.”
On coming up from the academy and getting opportunity to play in front of RSL fans:
“Unbelievable. The fans here tonight were great on my debut. It’s an unbelievable feeling playing in front of these fans and I’m proud to play on this field. I’m looking forward to the season. I know we’re going to bounce back and do well.”
LA Galaxy
Head Coach Curt Onalfo
On how the team fought back:
“You could see the character of the team in the first two games of the year. I thought it was an exceptional goal from Yura. It’s unfortunate on the road with altitude in terms of results because it’s a hard pill to swallow. It took strength of character to get back in it. I thought we showed enormous grit. I thought we pressed and we used the space of the extra player. And that doesn’t always happen, so easier said than done, especially when you’re on the road. Credit to the guys for a great effort and more importantly being intelligent tactically in the way we played.”
On how the result galvanizes the group:
“As a coach, you earn your money when things aren’t going well. You have to keep everyone believing and in the right frame of mind. Early in the season you have to look at performances, especially when you have a new group like ours. It takes time to jell and find out the characteristics of people and how best to put it together. For us, it’s important for us to be patient and be realistic. We played well with 10 men against Portland. We played well in those games. It wasn’t like it was terrible performances. We’re a little bit of a depleted team so we’re in the process of developing depth. It was good for us.”
On getting the first win:
“It means a lot. I’ve been worked my whole life for this job. I want to win and be successful. And we’re going to. It’s good to get the first win under my belt. Hopefully it’s the first of many, many more.”
On how the red card changed the match:
“We just spread the field. We kept our width. We wanted to pull them and we moved the ball from side-to-side. We wanted to get a lot of service in front of the goal. That’s what we did.”
On his center backs replacing Van Damme:
“It was a good job. We gave away two opportunities. One was a goal, I think it was a great goal. I need to see the play to see exactly how we could’ve done better. We could’ve done better on the throw in, but what a great goal on Yura. And then we had the Barrett chance. Other than that, we didn’t concede much. Our back line did really well, and that was basically Galaxy II’s back line from a few years ago.”
Midfielder Jermaine Jones
On the adjustments:
“We changed a little bit. We pushed me up higher to try and get more chances, and finish them. I think the first half, they played it good. But we played the full 90 minutes good. You see the Portland and Dallas games and we go away with no points. Today is a team effort, especially the second half. You can see we wanted these three points and we weren’t going to get less.”
On how they build off of this:
“I say it always. The team is young. It’s a process. We have to build something and we’re building. Of course, wins help building. It helps people to believe and it helps to keep the outside quiet.”
On how the team fought back:
“You could see the character of the team in the first two games of the year. I thought it was an exceptional goal from Yura. It’s unfortunate on the road with altitude in terms of results because it’s a hard pill to swallow. It took strength of character to get back in it. I thought we showed enormous grit. I thought we pressed and we used the space of the extra player. And that doesn’t always happen, so easier said than done, especially when you’re on the road. Credit to the guys for a great effort and more importantly being intelligent tactically in the way we played.”
On his exchange with Rimando:
“I gave him a small head-butt. With all respect, it was an amazing save. To keep that out of the goal and then to keep it away from the goal to give me a second chance to finish it. It’s an amazing save. Me and him we know each other for a long time and I know that he’s good on the line. That was an amazing save with that head-butt I showed him that I liked it.”
Defender Nathan Smith
On what Curt Onalfo told him to enter the game:
“He told me just to get up and down the line. I’ll take that any day. I love getting forward.”
On what he brought to the game:
“I got in good spots behind their outside midfielder. It caused a little bit of confusion like they weren’t certain in some spots. I thought it freed up Alessandrini in some spots.”
On how this helps the team:
“It’s huge getting the first win, just to get the feeling is like of getting a first win. Once you get that first win, you want to keep that feeling that same win and same celebration. It’s a big moment for us.”
