QUOTE SHEET
Real Salt Lake 1-1 Eintracht Frankfurt
Rio Tinto Stadium; Sandy, Utah
July 10, 2018
International Friendly
Real Salt Lake
Head Coach Mike Petke
On the match:
“I thought the guys who went out there did an excellent job. You guys know me well enough that I talk a lot about doing the things that we talk about. Tonight they did it for a large chunk of it. It’s a good team we played against in both halves. The one thing I liked was the times that we lost it a little bit and they gained momentum, we got the momentum back eventually. There were a lot of very good individual performances. As a whole, to be honest with you, I think we moved well together. We counter-attacked well together. We possessed the ball together. I’m pleased. I’m very pleased with the performances tonight.”
On Shawn Barry’s return to action:
“Barry was 30 minutes planned. He hasn’t played competitively in four months so we built him back to get him to training full time and it doesn’t matter how much you train in a practice, it’s very different movement and very different situation when you play on a full field in a competitive game. So it was a predetermined 30 minutes.”
On Monarchs playing fitting in:
“Brody got the start tonight and he did excellent getting the goal. Brody is a bundle of energy, nonstop, and he has quality about him. And again, there’s a reason why Mark, Jamison, Matt and I met a lot in the preseason and went over what this club wants to be and play. You can see that when they come up they fit right in. Gallagher coming on at 30 minutes, I thought he did an excellent job. Moberg and Rhys Williams fitting in nicely and plugging some stuff at the end. Then you take it a step further and look at guys like Taylor Peay and Nick Besler who came from the Monarchs last year, they all know the way that we want to play and it was great to see tonight.”
On Plata’s play:
“I thought Plata did very well. We saw a lot of things that we’ve been demanding of him. We saw a lot of it come out tonight. Plata’s quality on the ball is never in question. I thought he had a great attitude tonight. Along with guys like Luis who at one point were in, but through a combination of a lot of things they’ve been coming off the bench recently but they’re still a huge part of this team and they’re big players. They led this team not only by their attitude but by their example on the field.”
Defender Taylor Peay
On a physical match:
“It was a physical battle with a good time. It was an opportunity for guys to get minutes and show what guys can do. I think we did that. We played well and I think we got out of it what we wanted. A little unlucky in the end on the result. But it was a good game, good minutes and no injuries.”
On international friendlies:
“When you bring in teams like this team, a Bundesliga team, and Manchester United last year, it’s exciting for us to play against competition like that. It’s exciting for our fans to see good games like that as well.”
On Eintracht Frankfurt:
“They’re a great team. It’s a great league, one of the best in the world. Anytime you get a chance to play against competition like that you’ve got to take it in and enjoy it. It was fun and I think we enjoyed it.”
On playing in his hometown:
“I can’t even describe it. One of my goals growing up was to always make it back to my hometown team. To be able to play here at Rio Tinto for a team that I’ve always supported is fun. It’s very enjoyable for me.”
Forward Andrew Brody
On his goal:
“I saw the ball get switched out to Plata and I knew with time and space, he is dangerous so my instinct was to get in the box and be an option for him. He put a perfect ball in, just an easy side of the foot finish. It was just a good goal all around.”
On the opportunity to play on RSL against Frankfurt:
“It’s always an honor to get called up. The biggest thing for me, being a part of the second team, is to always be ready when called upon. They called me up, I made sure I was ready, prepared right and got rewarded with a goal.”
On confidence and moving forward:
“I’m pretty confident right now. I’ve scored a couple of goals in the last few weeks. There is a huge stretch coming up. A couple of tough games, we’ve got Phoenix within a few weeks, so a lot of pressure on us to get some results.”
