Real Salt Lake
Real Salt Lake Head Coach Jeff Cassar
On whether or not Real Salt Lake changed anything after the first goal:
"Not really. I like the way we started the game obviously. We don't want to give up the first goal for sure. We had momentum when they got that goal. I loved the reaction from the guys and that's been the message all week long: I wanted aggression, aggression, aggression. The guys did an amazing job of that."
On Real Salt Lake FW Sebastian Jaime's first start for the team:
"I thought he was fantastic. He put it in on both sides of the ball, made fantastic runs, won aerial battles, which was a plus for us. Just overall a very good performance."
On Real Salt Lake FW Joao Plata's goal in response to the early Colorado goal:
"He's been fantastic all year. He's been quality all year. It was a great build up, a great little combination play. It was fun to watch. At the end of the day I'm just sitting there clapping because I really enjoyed watching that. I think all of our goals tonight were very high quality because we put so much pressure on them."
On whether or not we’ll see more goals as teams are vying for playoff spots:
"Obviously we're going to go to Vancouver and it could be a different story. They're right there competing for the last playoff spot. It's not like they're several points away where they need three (points). I think they would be fine with a result, but obviously being able to get three points would be huge for them. Going forward every team needs points, every team, even if they are out of the playoffs, they're vying for their jobs next year."
Real Salt Lake MF Ned Grabavoy
On providing the assist on Joao Plata’s goal:
“He’s a guy that likes to get wide a little bit on the left and face up defenders and look to combine to get himself in. Obviously, when he goes over there to my side, we have a tendency to link up together. So just that combination of moving around and trying to make their guys follow runners, which I didn’t think they did a good job of tonight. He plays me the ball, I see him move past his defender and I just flicked it to him a little bit. That’s his shot. Bending the ball to the back post is his bread and butter. He’s been doing that for us all season; unbelievable finish.”
On Joao Plata leading the team in goals:
“He’s our best player. He is. He is our best soccer player. So, I think everyone has a different view on what that would mean but he is our best soccer player. I don’t know what else I could say.”
On Colorado scoring the first goal:
“You know we were maybe a bit unclean with some of the clearances and our passes under pressure. They won the ball and their guy hits a wonderful shot .It looked like it was going five or six yards wide and then curls back in. From that point on though, the first goal really got us into the game. Obviously, there were quite a few mistakes from them but we still created quite a few chances. I think there were some positives for sure from this game.”
On carrying the offensive momentum forward:
“We obviously want to possess and move the ball. But the final third is where it’s at. So it’s very important for us to feel confident in creating chances, which we did. I think for our group these kinds of games can be difficult when a team comes in that is injury riddled and having a really tough time getting results. So for our team to show up and really try to make a statement and be aggressive is probably the most important thing.”
Real Salt Lake MF Luke Mulholland
Thoughts on the game after Colorado’s first goal:
“I was watching the highlights. It was a great response going one-nil down. I think their goal came on a run against play. Great strike though. Great strike by the guy, and [Nick] Rimando could do nothing about it. It just reminded us of the D.C. [United] game when we just scored back-to-back – very similar to that. Momentum is such a big thing in soccer, so when one goes in, especially being 1-0 down. But when we go up 1-0 sometimes we take the foot off the gas and they come at us, so I think that helped us as we were 1-0 down tying it back up, and the flood gates just opened.”
Thoughts on Colorado’s first goal waking up the team:
“No I don’t think we started off slow or anything. I think a couple of times we lost it in dangerous positions. I think playing it around the back too slowly sometimes. Just risky plays, and they countered on us. I don’t think we started too slowly, but definitely happy with the way we responded though.”
Thoughts on scoring four goals in 13 minutes:
“If you break the goals down, like [Joao] Plata’s finished goal was a world class goal, then we score from the corner, then goal keeper drops it, and [Chris] Schuler just thrusts it in, and then the ball across by Javier [Morales] – Plata tried to help it around the goal keeper and made sure it went over the line. So at the same time you’re creating your own luck getting into those positions. I think we had a good first half and put ourselves in a good position.”
Carrying over the offensive momentum to the next game:
“Feeling confident and feeling that when we play our style of football, we dictate the game, we possess the ball. I think we are a fantastic team and I really enjoy playing for this team because it’s a good team that plays good football, and I’m looking forward to next week’s game.”
Real Salt Lake DF Carlos Salcedo
On his goal:
“Javier [Morales] just told me that on corner kicks to make sure to stop and try to get away from your mark, so I did that and didn’t even notice that I stopped. Went back to try and get off my mark and I just saw that the ball was coming and faked that I was going to go for the ball, wait for it, and as it was going down just tried to hit it as hard as I can.”
Thoughts on scoring his first goal:
“It feels good you know. Everything has been falling into place. First homegrown to score for RSL, so it feels good.”
Colorado Rapids
Colorado Rapids Head Coach Pablo Mastroeni
Overall thoughts on the match:
“I think that we got off to a good start. I think we came in and disrupted their possession a bit, and we were getting control of the game and creating some good opportunities being on the front foot. I think we played probably our best twenty-five minutes of the season, coupled with, probably our worst twenty-five minutes of the season. I think that any time you’re gifting goals the way we did tonight, it’s impossible to win. Again, teams like this, you can’t give them any chances to get in games, and I think too often tonight we helped them get in good spots and had our hands in a lot of their goals.”
On the five minute spell in which they conceded three goals:
“From an experience standpoint, you need to have a couple guys on the field that are willing to take the sting out of the game and understand what situation we are in. Being as young as we are, a bit naïve in those moments, having our hand in a lot of their goals – can’t happen. These are obviously experiences that you hope, after going through what we have in the last two months, you’d rectify. Again, that can only be done on the field. These are moments that you can train all you want, you can choreograph sessions, you put them in difficult situations, but when bolts are flying and the stadium is filled, you need characters out there that can solve these problems as they’re occurring. Tonight, we didn’t have enough of that, and the result spoke to that.”
On how he and the team recovers from back to back 4-plus goal losses:
“That has to be solved on the field. I can’t go out there and fight with them. As a player, that was my responsibility – to make sure that we didn’t end up in games like this. [I’m] still seeking, trying to find that answer. We’ll find it in and amongst that group. Someone has to stand up and put this team on their back and be the leader. Not say it, but show it. I think tonight, there were some really good performances from really young players. We need everyone to lift their game. Again, this is going to be solved on the field on Saturday. The reasons why we’re conceding goals and the reasons why we’re losing is a mentality and a mindset that occurs between the white lines for ninety minutes. We need someone to step up and really take this team by the scruff of their neck.”
On how Dillon Powers pulling out of the lineup affected the team:
“It didn’t. I think Dillon Serna went in and had a tremendous game. I think Serna showed a lot of heart. Serna exemplified the kind of character that we want on this team moving forward. Like I said, the first 25 minutes were probably the best 25 minutes we’ve played all year. To go from that to the way the game ended is inexcusable at this level, and you get punished for it. If you can do it for 25 minutes, experienced players now will be able to last for 90. I think that is our biggest void at the moment – having a lot of people that have been in these situations to be able to pull the guys. We have young guys stepping up and really doing a lot of that lead work. We’ve got to find a way, and we’ll continue working.”
Colorado Rapids MF Dillon Serna
Overall thoughts:
“I think it’s tough. We played a good thirty minutes of soccer at the beginning of the game. I think once they scored, it was all downhill from there. I think we have to learn from that. We can’t let one moment in the game decide the rest of the game for us. We have to play our game; we can’t let them take advantage of the whole game just because they scored one goal. We are going to get scored on – it’s how we react, how we bounce back. We have to keep our heads and play our game and keep pushing. We can’t get down; we can’t feel sorry for ourselves.”
On how fragile the team is right now:
“I think it’s a mentality. There’re good teams in this league, you’re going to get scored on – that’s reality. I think you just have to forget about it, you have to play your game, you have to keep going. I think we did that for the first 30 minutes, and I think we just need to react better if something’s not going our way.”
