QUOTE SHEET
Real Salt Lake 0-2 Atlanta United FC
Mercedes-Benz Stadium; Atlanta, Georgia
September 22, 2018
Real Salt Lake
Head Coach Mike Petke
On the match:
“Listen, this is the best team in the league. This is the toughest place to play in the league. I’m proud of my guys as far as everybody working, everybody on the same page, the pressure on the sideline that we put, which was our plan. They did everything I asked of them and the work rate was phenomenal, but it is a tough place to come in. Obviously, the second goal we gave them. The first goal you could argue as well that we just didn’t have in that single moment, we didn’t have the fight that we needed, but they are a quality team. At the end of the day, it is a great learning experience for the guys, especially our young guys.”
On how this experience benefits the team in the playoffs:
“After the game talking about it, if the work rate and the movement that we had defensively –everybody committed – is there the rest of the year, we did it well in an environment like this against a team like this. So, we have to continue the momentum, especially next week on the road at Kansas City, a similar team – a very talented team – our movement and our shape has to be very close to what it was tonight.”
On using Sebastián Saucedo in the game and having him continue attacking:
“To me, there’s no difference in losing 1-0 or 5-0, to be honest with you. If you are not pushing the play, then … what are you doing here? You should always be looking to win, so that’s why I did it. We wanted three solid guys defending in the back. … Last year, we had a lot of tough losses, and if you were safe if you lost 1-0. Goal differential and maybe Nick (Rimando) is not happy with goals getting conceded when you have three in the back, but at the end of the day, I want to try to win.”
On the next match at Sporting Kansas City:
“Similar to what we did leading up to this match. I thought that (Atlanta) forced us to play faster than we have, which is great. Next week is going to be the same. The kind of press Kansas City brings, just like Atlanta, is quick, it is numbers, a lot of numbers, and it is high intensity. They force you to play quick, so (the) same stuff that we did leading up to Atlanta, we are going to have to continue against Kansas City.”
Defender Justen Glad
On the feeling in the locker room:
“We're disappointed, obviously, but credit to Atlanta. They took their chances. They’re a solid team. We weren't as sharp as we wanted to be on the night, so we're just looking forward to Kansas City.”
On the team's momentum:
“I think despite this game, despite the result, we’re still pretty confident. We’re ready to go in and go onto Sporting Kansas City and play confident. We know what we’re able to do, so all eyes ahead.”
On the team's progress this season:
“Obviously, the results at the beginning of the season, we started out slow. We went down two goals away, but we kept our heads down and tried to fight until the end, and we had some chances. They had a few more (chances), but I'm proud of how we fought today.”
Midfielder Kyle Beckerman
On the match:
“They’re a really good team, especially at home. We had to be perfect tonight and we weren’t. I think there was a lot to be proud of – a lot of hard work and something to build on. Hopefully maybe we’ll come back here later in the year.”
On moving forward:
“We’ll look at what we did today. To keep Martinez off the scoreline was one of the things we tried to do. We just weren’t good enough today. They’re a really good team and we’re a young group that’s still learning. We’ll take a lot of positives out of today and see if we can work on the negatives and keep marching and keep grinding and see if we can do better in the next game.”
On the crowd of 72,017:
“This is pretty special. You definitely didn’t see it coming. I’ve played in a lot of football stadiums, but never packed like this in the early days. It’s a credit to the ownership, to this club and to this city and state that they really took to this team. They give them a good product on the field and they show up. It’s a top-notch club here.”
