MLS POST-MATCH QUOTE SHEET
SATURDAY, AUGUST 14, 2010
RIO TINTO STADIUM –
SANDY, UTAH
REAL SALT LAKE
2 : 0 COLUMBUS CREW
REAL SALT LAKE HEAD
COACH JASON KREIS
Thoughts on the
win:
“I think we’ve had a
really successful run of games. The last home game and then two away in difficult
circumstances … to get those two draws, then to come home and get a convincing
win against a really good team makes us feel quite good about where we’re at
right now.”
Thoughts on Javier
Morales:
“Javier was spectacular
tonight. We were really concerned because he was really active for us in
Philadelphia (on Wednesday). Coming off of that match I thought he was
one of our best players out there; on the ground he covered for us offensively,
and how alert he was defensively in that match, he was spectacular. I
kind of expected a letdown tonight, so I was really, really pleased to see how
up for this game he was.”
Thoughts on Nick
Rimando:
“I’m really pleased with
Nick Rimando’s performance here tonight. He made some critical, critical
saves for us. But at two-nil at home, I’d prefer he didn’t have to make
those saves.”
Thoughts on
Wednesday’s CONCACAF Champions League opener:
“All of these games are
going to affect every decision. Talking to quite a few of the guys last week,
we made the decision to rest a bunch of them. I talked to all of them
individually, and I was a little surprised. I thought it was going to be a
little bit of a sales job for me to tell them how important this tournament is
for our club. As has happened many times before, my players made me very
pleased because they were all saying how important it was to them.”
REAL SALT LAKE
DEFENDER NAT BORCHERS
Thoughts on the
game:
“We dominated
possession, and defensive I thought we were really sharp. From minute one
we played really well, so I think that this was one of our best
results. It was about us tonight – how we were going to come out, how we
were going to play, our energy level, how we were going to create
chances. Javier [Morales] had just a dominating performance in the
midfield and he changed the game.”
Thoughts on Javier
Morales:
“I think that if you
look over the season this far, you’re probably not going to see another player
dominate a game like he did tonight. I thought that he was
spectacular. You need guys like that to change the game. If you
have a bunch of vanilla guys like myself who just go out and play defense
you’re not going to get the chances, but when you have a guy like Javier who
changes games, it’s just fantastic.”
REAL SALT LAKE
GOALKEEPER NICK RIMANDO
Thoughts on
tonight’s result:
“It’s a huge three
points. We wanted to get a win on the road (last week) but we had two
hard-fought ties. After that you are kind of itching for that win and
tonight was that night where we got three much-needed points to keep in the
race. We all knew the result of the LA game before we got into the match
so there were some motivations there and our team went out and played really
good soccer today.”
Thoughts on the
upcoming CONCACAF game:
“Obviously it’s
difficult because we don’t know any of their players and that’s going to be up
to the coaches to find scouting reports. But the first game at home is
big for us; we’re comfortable here, we play good here, and we have to get a win
here.”
COLUMBUS CREW HEAD
COACH ROBERT WARZYCHA
Overall thoughts
on the match:
“I think Salt Lake
played a good first half. They possessed the ball well and we basically chased
the game. There was an error on the first goal, and it was a good shot by
[Javier] Morales. In the second half we started pretty well and we possessed
the ball, we found a rhythm.”
On the team’s
first half struggles:
“We weren’t aggressive.
We lost the middle of the field and that caused us to lose the 50-50 balls and
we weren’t able to get our shots off. The second half was a bit different and
we were a bit quicker and a bit more aggressive, and we started to win some
50-50s and the game was a little bit different.”
On RSL using
statements following April’s loss in Columbus as motivation:
“The statements are not
statements from the team. I don’t think that there is any disrespect from the
team. Some individual players just want to express their opinions and we can’t
stop that. We were the Champions [in 2008] and [Real Salt Lake] were the
Champions last year and so we need to respect each other because of our good
play. Both teams are playing good this year.”
COLUMBUS CREW
GOALKEEPER WILLIAM HESMER
On RSL’s first
goal of the night:
“We were slow, we were
asleep. [Javier] Morales gets the ball in the box and makes an unbelievable
shot through traffic.”
On his words being
posted on the scoreboard before the game:
“I never meant any
disrespect to Real Salt Lake. I respect them and I think they are a fantastic
team. The disrespect was meant towards the media in the sense that they were
asking us, ‘You guys just beat the defending champions, how great does that
feel,’ and I was just saying, ‘Whoa, whoa, whoa … let’s take a step back.’”
On the budding
rivalry between Columbus and Real Salt Lake:
“I think that,
individually, off the field, they are great people and there are a lot of good
guys. But when we step on the field it’s starting to get heated. They had our
number here and we have had their number at our place. They had our number here
in the playoffs and that was ultimately the one that mattered. As long as both
teams are doing well you are going to see some intensity.”
COLUMBUS CREW FORWARD
STEVEN LENHART
On the match:
“I am a little
frustrated. I think we sat back too much in the first half and we were lucky to
get out at halftime only down by one goal. We managed to stay in it for a
while, but that second goal deflated us. We battled, and it’s a hard place to
play. It’s alright though, we will bounce back.”
On his near goal
in the second half:
“It was a good save [by
Nick Rimando]. Sometimes they go in and sometimes they don’t.”
On regrouping as a
team after the loss:
“I think we are still in
a good spot. We are still in first place in the East and the real strength is
the team. I think we just have to stick together. It’s just a loss on the road,
it’s not going to kill us.”
