QUOTE SHEET
REAL MONARCHS 2-1 SWOPE PARK RANGERS
RIO TINTO STADIUM; APRIL 29, 2016
Real Monarchs
Head Coach Mark Briggs
On what he saw from the team:
“The second half, we were holding on there at the end. I’ve just said to them in there it’s a great result for us. We showed a lot of fight–a lot of character–to hang in against a very good team, but we have to start the second half a lot of better. We’re making games much more difficult than they should be.”
On the second goal before half:
“It was a great goal by [James] Moberg. He came down and he struck it well. It gives us that little cushion and also that little bit of confidence.”
On Connor Sparrow’s performance:
“Connor’s a very good keeper, you know? We’ve got a number of good goalkeepers at the club. I think you saw today he pulled off a great save at the end to keep us in the game and give us the three points. Connor’s very good. I don’t expect any different from the performance we got today.”
On James Moberg’s performance:
“James continues to perform at a very high level. I think he’s been one of our best players this season. He’s scored a couple of goals, he defends with his heart, and he plays with his heart on his sleeve, as they say. James gives everything every time he crosses that line. And his performances just seems to get better and better. He scored a goal today that I think any center-forward in the world would be happy with.”
Defender James Moberg
On his goal:
“It was a free kick and it went over my head and I kind of just sat in my position and my man kept running. So when it went over my head, oh I just look for rebound. And I was in the right place at the right time and I just tried to take it slow and easy. It kind of slow down for me, put it in the back of the net. It took me a while to run over there cause I was trying to save my energy. So I was running to the sideline to celebrate with my team. But they were giving me a little trash talk for running a little slower than I should have.”
On his cleat change
“I was training with those cleats all week, I didn’t have a problem. In the game they kept coming untied. I was tripping on them. For some reason they just kept coming untied, I scored in the untied. I just had to flip them off and put some new ones on.”
What was it like partnering with Maund:
“It was great. To be completely honest I learned a lot from him in just one training session from yesterday. His communication is a different class. Him bringing that to the team, it kind of made me up my game in that department so it was fun.”
On his health:
“Physically I feel fine. I took a little knock at the end. Nothing too serious, I’ll be fine. We have a long 10 days till our next game. Everyone will get in tomorrow, get some rehab and we’ll be good to go.”
On the final 15 minutes:
“It comes down at the end like that when there’s two good teams, when they both can play. You know, they pride themselves on playing through. Come downs to grid at the end of the day. We have guys fitting 90 minutes tonight and I couldn’t be more proud of the guys in front of me, the guys on the side of me. Especially from Sparrow and that amazing save at the end. Without that is two-two so very good job from everyone in that team.”
On the physicality of the final 15 minutes:
“Is just part of the game. In a sense is just how it goes. I didn’t get to build up into it. They were trying to bate us in a couple of their stuff. But I feel like we handle ourselves really well. Just let the ref play that one out.”
Swope Park Rangers
Forward Kharlton Belmar
On his goal in the 48th minute:
“I think there was a little bit of fortune in it. There was a forward pass that just happened to get deflected and I just happened to be in the right spot at the right time, and was able to run onto it, and put it away.“
On Rangers improved execution in the second half:
“I think we took some accountability, and decided to take control of the game, and push the temp a little bit more and start playing the way we try to play. We started executing things a lot better that we did in the first.”
On the games physicality:
“When you’re down a goal you’re going to try to fight and push for the game, and so will the other. Things got a little bit physical, but it is what it is.”
