Quote Sheet
Real Salt Lake 3-4 San Jose Earthquakes
Rio Tinto Stadium; Sandy, Utah
Saturday, October 30, 2021
Interim Head Coach Pablo Mastroeni
On his tactical changes:
“I think for me it was more about managing moments within the game. There were a couple of plays where we’re in the attack and Cade [Cowell] is on the sideline naked. Those are the kind of situations that we need to deal with in real time. I think we played with some of our best stuff early in the game. It was a very emotional game and at times when emotion takes over it overrides reason. We were trying to get back into the game, but we lost a little bit of discipline in that second half. Altogether though I felt like our effort was fantastic we now just have to go back and look at the film to make sure we can identify those things we struggled with. It was a very up and down game. We played with some of our best stuff and as well as our worst stuff against a team that always makes it difficult with their style of play.”
On the physicality of today’s game:
“It played a big role in today’s game. I also felt like we were playing against 14 individuals. There was a lack of consistency in the way the calls were going. The big call for me that wasn’t given was at the top of the box that changed all of the momentum and they ended up scoring off a corner right before halftime. They came out and were very aggressive, but I think it was interesting how those moments played out. Getting results requires more than just the effort and the tactics you need to have breaks go your way. Tonight they had a lot of breaks from an officiating standpoint.”
On the impact of those late goals before the half:
“It’s extremely tough to concede before the half because you have 15 minutes to have that mental talk in your brain as a player. Instead of moving onto the next play now you have time to think about it. I told the guys we played some of our best stuff, but we got a bit careless. We started to think that we could just walk all over these and that put down our guard. We started doing some interesting stuff around the midfield. We were giving away balls cheaply against a team that likes to break. Conceding before half is always difficult to overcome and tonight proved to be the case.”
Midfielder Albert Rusnak
On the struggles after the first 30 minutes :
“We started well and got the early lead. We kept creating chances and were playing attacking football. Collectively we had individual errors that just continued to add up and that’s how they scored their goals. There’s not one person to blame, it's a collective loss and they punished us today. This is a very disappointing result.”
On the disappointment of the loss:
“It's as disappointing as it comes given where we are in the season with just a couple of games left. Up to this moment we had it in our hands now we have to depend on other teams' results. It’s a tough one today because I think the majority of the game we played good football. We kept getting into their final third and the first half I felt like we could’ve added a couple more goals, but we didn’t convert chances and they got some goals. In the end, it was an open game. It was up and down, who knows if there were five or ten minutes left, maybe we could’ve tied the game, but that wasn’t the case today. I would say it is as disappointing as I can remember.”
On the locker room atmosphere in halftime:
“We were disappointed at half because we conceded two goals and went into the half down. We kept saying at halftime we believe and we’ve been here before. We’ve been losing so many times this year at halftime and managed to turn the game around. So it was nothing new to us, but we had to sacrifice more bodies in the attack which left us more open in the back. San Jose didn’t play for a playoff spot today so their front guys stayed high and they took advantage of the spacing we left behind. The game could’ve gone either way in Dallas it went in our favor and today it went against us.”
