Real Salt Lake
Head Coach Mike
Petke
On what was clicking late in the match:
“It was a bit of confidence and we had a great week of training, we really focused on off ball movement and keeping the ball.
On Nick Besler’s MLS debut:
“Nick (Besler) had a good showing for himself. He was confident. He’s calm on the ball and I never thought the moment would phase him. Looking back, I think he had one errant pass maybe there were more, but that really stood out to me. I was very happy for Nick (Besler), he deserved to get the start.”
On Damir Kreilach
“I think Damir is playing fine. He’s going through what a lot of people coming over from a foreign league go through. It takes time to adjust to this league, to everything, to the culture, the travel, different style of play. I don’t think we’ve seen anything close to the best of Damir yet.”
Midfielder Damir Kreilach
On first goal for RSL:
“I’m very happy about my first goal, but we need to keep fighting and concentrate for the next game against Vancouver. Today was a great night and in the end we deserved this win.”
On the difficulty of playing up a man:
“It was not easier, because they did two blocks and then they make it very difficult to create some chances. But we created a lot of chances also in the first half, and the second half, and on the end as I said, we deserved a win and need to stay positive.”
On Albert Rusnák’s goal:
“He’s amazing. It was a good shot and free kick from Albert.”
Colorado Rapids
Head Coach Anthony Hudson
On team dealing with red card:
“This season so far, I have not seen a more one-sided opening to a game. I thought with eleven players on the pitch we were incredibly dominant, maybe a couple of times they countered on us, but we were incredibly strong up until they sent him [Howard] off. With ten men, I think the players deserve a lot of credit because they stayed in the game for a long time. They were organized, they were disciplined, they showed a lot of character. Obviously after the penalty, we tried and chased it and opened up a little bit.”
On Zac MacMath’s performance:
“Zac was good. When we went to ten men, everyone stepped up. With 11 men, again, I have not played a game this season where it’s been so one-sided at the start of the game. So we leave here disappointed because we didn’t get the points, disappointed with the situation but with a huge amount of confidence. It’s not a real result in the sense that it’s more a reflection of the first 20 minutes of the game. So we just have to move on quickly and get back to things next week.”
On the handballs affecting the game:
“We’ve got a real honest group of players there, in football sometimes these things happens. I haven’t felt this confident all season in a game. Even with ten men, I felt we could get a result. I’m proud of the players, they’ve given everything, they’ve prepared well, their attitudes have been first class. We’ve shown qualities that we are together as a team. This is not a reflection of our team in terms of the performance, in terms of the result. It’s one of those days, next week we need to get back to working how we work.”
Midfielder Jack Price
On dealing with the red card
“I think we dealt very well with it. Up until the VAR decision and the penalty, I think we were winning the game. I don’t think they were going to score. Obviously leading up to the red card, I think we were the best team. We started out of the blocks—the first 10 or 15 minutes, we were the only team that was going to win. I just looked back at the Tim Howard red card and I still think it’s harsh. I got my chest over it and he couldn’t put his hand anywhere else. It was a little hard, but it’s one of those where you take up the chin and move on for next week.”
On Zac MacMath’s performance
“I think he was brilliant. Especially in the first half, he made a couple of good saves when we needed him. And in the second half he made a couple of good saves. We know Zac is a good keeper, so we have no worries with him filling in anywhere.”
On the midfielders’ concentration in the second half
“We were just concentrating on staying with your runner. Keeping guys out of the box, trying to block shots. Just working hard, doing it for the team. It’s hard for 70 minutes, but the lads did well—not just the midfield, but the striker, the only one up top, he did well. Badji obviously came on, and Gashi came on. The lads dug in, and it’s a hard one to take.”
Goalkeeper Zac MacMath
On the red card:
“It was tough. I think we had a really good start to the game, we had a couple of good chances, and then obviously the red card changes the game, momentum shifts, everything like that. I thought we did pretty well to finish the half off at zero-zero. Went into halftime, had to make some adjustments and I thought we did pretty well. The guys in front of me gave it their all. Then unfortunately, one PK call, and the game unraveled from there.”
On his own performance:
“I just wanted to give the guys a chance. I didn’t get much of a warm up before going in, so I really wanted to just play it safe, keep balls out of the net and kick balls long. It worked out for the most part, until the PK.”
On the focus:
“Just making sure we were making up for the lost man. Our whole game plan had to shift, we had to drop deeper and kind of makeup for them throwing a lot at us. We had to kind of shift defensively and make sure guys were getting the right spots to really make cover. Once we got to half time, we kind of really figured it out. We were going to let them make the big long ball across the field and then defend 1-on-1. We did a pretty good job, they didn’t get many good chances, a couple good corners, but the guys did a really good job. Then obviously, they just got tired and had an unfortunate play in the box.”
