QUOTE SHEET
Real Monarchs 5-0 LA Galaxy II
Zions Bank Stadium; Herriman, UT
March 23, 2019
Real Monarchs
Head Coach Martín Vasquez
On two Monarchs players making their professional debut:
“Third game of the season, I think just like against Sacramento and against El Paso, today David Ochoa continues to make big steps in his development and continuing to show his maturity, his quality and his composure. Jordan Pena did what he’s been doing for the U-19s, for the U-17s. He’s a ball winner, he’s feisty, he’s explosive, he keeps the game simple and I thought he provided that for us today for the 90 minutes. That’s how the game is. Steve Jasso also comes in and plays 10 minutes and contributes. We’re feeling good about those guys.”
On the game:
“Before the game today, we talked about some key points, we gave the players, the team ownership, and they showed up. We were missing guys, we had some guys injured, the guys that came in set the tone, they did a lot of damage in the first half. In the second half, with us a goal up, the Galaxy had to take chances and get numbers forward, and we were able to be efficient, to have the killer instinct. That helped us to win the game.”
On the first win as Head Coach:
“Definitely it’s a good feeling. Hopefully the first of many this year. Credit to the team. Credit for what we’ve been working on during the week. Going into the game, there were a few boxes we wanted to check at the end of the game: us creating chances, putting our chances away, moving the ball, being patient. In comparison to last week’s game, where we were too anxious and too quick to go forward. I thought today some of the boxes that we wanted to check, we can cross them out because they did a really good job.”
On Avila’s injury, bringing in Kacher and moving Chang central:
“It’s something that we talked about during the week. When we train, we call it neutral players, and usually those neutral players are the players that are creative, are the players that have the ability to provide creativity. I think Masta is one and I think Maikel is definitely a creative player; Andrew Brody on the right side. Looking at the options on the bench, after the 1-0 we needed someone to come in and help us hold the ball and somebody who can play behind Douglas and catch them on the counter with pace. Matt, Jamison, and myself, we said we think Maikel can help us there, Maikel can play this role, and he did it in going forward. Obviously, now we have flexibility and we might have to continue to do that because of the injuries that Luis Palma picked up and now Ricardo Avila.”
Goalkeeper David Ochoa
On his confidence as goalkeeper:
“We’re feeling confident. We think our defensive side has been really good. We’ll just keep going on that path and keep getting more clean seats.
On his thoughts about his performance:
“I feel good. I feel confident in my game. I just want to keep going and keep getting more good performances and then hopefully get a bigger opportunity down the road.
On keeping the momentum:
“Next week is going to be hard away especially in Las Vegas but we’re just going to stay focused, keep going, and working hard at trainings. Hopefully we get a good result.
On making a save in the early minutes:
“It feels good if you get an early save and it was a good save. You start feeling confident and feeling good about yourself and it just keeps going throughout the whole game. It just feels good.”
On the LA Galaxy attack in the second half:
“The beginning was a bit tough. They had the ball most of the time and that’s how they were breaking us down but once we started getting the ball, getting good tempo and getting good rhythm that’s when we started doing good and then Galaxy. We just punished them every time we got an opportunity. We just kept going with good momentum.”
