QUOTE SHEET
REAL SALT LAKE 1-3 ORLANDO CITY SC
ORLANDO CITY STADIUM; MAY 6, 2018
Real Salt Lake
Head Coach Mike Petke
On the performance:
“Up until the 65th, 70th minute I thought we were walking out of here with points, whether it’s one or three. The guys did close to exactly what we wanted when we talked about the gameplan. I thought we got behind them a bit. Corey [Baird] had two or three one-on-ones. He converted one but the other two, [Joe] Bendik came up big, and he hit the post twice. And I thought our possession through the midfield was very good. We had the chances but they have, maybe, a little more experience, and they held on and put the game away.”
On Orlando City’s experience:
“You know, they had won, what, five in a row coming into this? You don’t win five in a row in this league unless you have some quality and unless you have smart players and some experience. So, they showed it, they hung in there down 1-0 for a while, and then they took their opportunities. They had a lot in the first half but we did well enough to force them into chances that were tough for them to score on. They got some shots, couple of crosses into the box, but like I said, they converted on their opportunities in the second half.”
On the counter-attack strategy:
“The gameplan wasn’t necessarily a counter-attack. We talked about it, of course, and that’s what it turns into. You look at last weekend’s game in Vancouver when we had all the possession and we never threatened them behind. And tonight that’s what we wanted to do. We wanted to come out, we came out early, we pressed them first 10 minutes. I think we had a bit of good form, and we got an opportunity off of that and then it was waves. It got a little hot, we sat back a little bit and then we looked to counter. And I think [Joao] Plata, [Jefferson] Savarino, Corey [Baird], Albert [Rusnák] did very well on that transition.”
On what he says to Corey Baird after hitting the post twice:
"I don’t know yet. I'll figure that out when I meet with him one-on-one later or tomorrow, to be honest with you. He’s a young kid. He put himself in good positions to get there, but that’s part of the learning curve."
Forward Corey Baird
On the game:
"I think it's a good performance from the team, definitely building off the Vancouver game. Despite two losses, I think we've played really well and created lots of chances, but goals change games. Pretty sure after I missed that chance in the second half that I should have put away, they went straight down and scored so we’ve got to do better on the attacking side when we have our chances. I’ve personally got to do better in front of the net. You're not going to get many of those chances. They put theirs away and we didn't put ours away and that was the difference."
On whether they created enough opportunities to put the game away in the first half:
"Definitely. First half we had some more, second half we started the first 15 minutes flying really getting after them. Lots of chances, lots of shots on goal, but we’ve got to put them all away. From me leading the line, I’ve got to be getting more chances. I’ve got to be putting away the chances I get.”
On what he has taken away from the last few games to move forward:
"I think we're heading in the right direction. We're playing a lot better soccer than we were at the beginning of the season. We’ve got to take the positives. Orlando's on a hot streak, but I think we should have come out of here with three points. We can compete with the best of them and that's some confidence we can take back to Salt Lake for next week against DC."
Defender Justen Glad
On moving forward:
“It’s all building blocks. The same thing happened in Vancouver last week when we were playing good and we couldn’t finish. That will come with time. As long as we keep putting these performances together and get back to our style of play, which I thought we did well here, the goals will come.”
Orlando City SC
Head Coach Jason Kreis
Opening Statement:
“Obviously another afternoon or evening that I’m really, really pleased. Really pleased with the players’ mentality and their character. It says a lot that we can continue to come back from difficult situations, being a goal down in the first half after I thought we started so incredibly brightly. It was difficult for the guys. In the beginning of the second half there were some difficulties again, but we continued to push, we continued to believe, we continued to stay together and we get the result I think in the end we deserved.”
On biggest difference between first and second halves:
“For me the opening 15 minutes, again, was really, really bright. It reminded me a lot of the opening 15 minutes of our last home game. But we don’t take the chance that I think really rewards ourselves and puts us in a great spot to have our foot very much forward. To allow the counter attacking goal against us really hurt. It took us a bit to come back from that, but the guys continued to believe, continued to push and then I think the difference was just the finishing touch, what happened in and around the penalty box.”
On team’s character to keep coming from behind:
“For me it starts with leadership. It starts with the very high number of players that we have that have been there and done that before in our league. We have the experience to draw from. They’ve been in many, many difficult situations, in difficult places to play, in front of a lot of people and in big matches. it’s those types of players that do a terrific job of leading the rest and continuing to push the rest to believe and continue to work.”
On the team’s response in the second half:
“Absolutely. As a coach you probably much prefer not having to come back so many times, not to be suffering the first goal in so many matches, but at the end of the day it doesn’t matter because it’s about 90 minutes. Over the 90 minutes our guys continued to work and stay together and get the result. As I said, we deserve that result and we got it.”
On if this team has similar character as 2009 MLS Cup champion Real Salt Lake team:
“Yes. The one biggest parallel I would say has everything to do with team chemistry, and team camaraderie, and togetherness, and character. Those are the things that are nearly impossible to really coach. We’ve got the right people in the room here. Now it’s about, as I said before, it’s about not becoming complacent at all. It’s about trying to improve week by week. It’s also about staying hungry, because the truth of the matter is we’ve won six games in a row but we haven’t won anything at all.”
Goalkeeper Joe Bendik
On Real Salt Lake pressure on counter attack:
“Yeah anytime you go down at home you’re going to have to start taking chances. They’re good on the counter attack. A lot of the chances came from angles or distance. I thought overall it was a pretty good night.”
On how much he appreciates his goalposts:
“Yeah, that was like the fourth one this year. It was nice.”
On the importance of the winning streak:
“Yeah. It’s awesome. I think more importantly in the last two years I’ve been here we’ve never come from behind to actually win a game and we’ve done that four or five times. That’s incredible.”
On Chris Schuler's performance:
"I think he did really well. I've said this before, I think it's a really positive thing for this team to have so many different pairings. It's very unlikely that you'll go through the whole year and see the same two center backs. We've gotten a lot of guys minutes and I think that's gonna come back to really help us in the end"
Defender Lamine Sané
On scoring first goal:
“Yeah. Happy for the team, for us, for the crowd and for me. It was a good goal and I hope to have another goal on the season.”
On bouncing back after Real Salt Lake’s goal:
“We had been playing hard. It was a little bit late in the duel, in the reaction. But our power is character. The team has good character. In the second half we did the job to win the game.”
On winning six in a row:
“Sure. For me I think at home we have to win every game. Today was a special game because it was six straight. I am so happy for the supporters and the Club. And if we can make more, we have to do.”
