QUOTE SHEET
Real Salt Lake 4-1 New England Revolution
Rio Tinto Stadium; Sandy, Utah
October 18, 2018
Real Salt Lake
Head Coach Mike Petke
On the RSL academy:
“First, I need to give a big thank you to our academy and Martin Vasquez who is somewhat of a mentor at times to me and somebody who gives it to me straight. We had them in on Friday of last week and we showed them a short film of how New England plays and we had an inter-team scrimmage and they mimicked exactly what we saw tonight, they mimicked exactly what we had to expect, and they did it unbelievably. They’re a big reason why we got this result tonight.”
On the lineup:
“I’m sure that the lineup raised a couple of eyebrows with some of the selection. We had three players coming back from international duty that flew from as far as Qatar, as Joao did, and we had two suspensions with Kyle and Sunny. The pairings I put out there were two-fold. First, all of them had experience in this league, except for Nedum (Onuoha), all of them have played a significant amount of time in this league for me this year and last year, so there was no concern with having to bring these guys on. I knew they were hungry; the pairing of Marcelo (Silva) and Nedum (Onuoha), we knew we were facing a team that was extremely athletic, extremely strong, extremely fast and aggressive and if you look at those two that’s a big part of their game. Overall these guys stepped up for us and now it’s all about Sunday.”
On Nick Besler’s goal setting a tone for the game:
“Anytime you score early like that on a great transition goal from one end to another it sets a tone. When we came in at halftime, what was written on the board was zero-zero, because it didn’t matter what happened. Nick’s was unbelievable for him to run that long and the great transition getting almost full field and the next two goals that came, but at halftime it was zero-zero. Great goal from Nick, great goal in the first half, but for me what won it for me was our dedication, discipline and playing to the game plan that we put out over the last week.”
On the RSL Homegrowns:
“Part of the reason I took this job was because I had to develop players, I had to have young players. I had the option to have young players from an academy that are here, it intrigued me, and it was something I was extremely excited about. The lessons that they’ve learned since I’ve been here from Justen (Glad) to now (Aaron Herrera), Brooks (Lennon) this year and last year, Danny Acosta, all these guys it’s valuable experience. I feel tonight that Brooks Lennon and Aaron Herrera tonight were freakin’ men! They were absolutely freakin’ men tonight! Not 21-year-old kids that are learning and to me as a coach to see the result that we got and them being a big reason for that is a prideful thing. I love this setup, I love that we have Martin (Vasquez) who is churning out the unbelievable talent from a young age that I have the option to bring on and to help get experience that could hopefully pay dividends and tonight it paid dividends.”
Forward Corey Baird
On the lineup:
“We had a lot of guys that haven’t got the minutes they wanted over the year. This gave them the chance to prove themselves and they came out hungry and it showed. We scored three minutes in and for the first half of the game we dominated. We were flying on the counter and that’s the hunger. The guys that were brought in today brought that.”
On what the win meant for RSL:
“It was huge. The week and a half between the games gave us some time to get away and think about the game, think about what we did wrong and watch the video on that. Everyone knew if we don’t respond the season is over. Everyone knew to get the job done and do well tonight.”
On if he was surprised at how fast everyone clicked:
“I’m not surprised at all. We are a team and even though some guys never play in games together, we training together everyday, we see each other every day, we even eat lunch together so no matter who comes into the line up I don’t think chemistry matters on who plays. We do a good job of getting people in. This is my first year so integrating with the team, feels like we’ve been playing together for years. I give the credit to the coaching staff and the veterans to get people into the team.”
Midfielder Damir Kreilach
On the lineup:
“Everyone showed from the beginning compliment each other’s performance. Last game against Portland everyone knows it wasn’t good and was not satisfied with our performance. We did one big step for us tonight. It was well done for the fans and our tough players. At the end of the day we have every thing in our hands and now we have to keep going and look our next game at Portland away.
On tonight’s performance:
“Our energy and our work from the beginning was excellent. We put pressure on the New England players and in the end, we created so much opportunities and we scored goals. If you’re leading you have self-confidence and we used it, so it was excellent.”
On the early goal:
“It was so important! We wanted to open the game with an early goal and we did it. The goals change the games. We scored in the 5th minute and the confidence was there to play all the balls forward and put pressure in. Now it’s behind us, because we have two days to prepare us for the next game.”
New England Revolution
Head Coach Brad Friedel
On his impressions of the match:
“The first half was awful. A lot of the players were on their vacations, all they did was outwork us. We knew they had a lot of direct balls – they do every game. Quite frankly, it has nothing to do with a tactical thing, this was a team that outran us. That’s one of our strengths, one of our good mentalities and traits but it wasn’t there. At all. The second half was a little bit better but the game was over. There were little moments where we could have gotten back in the game. Nick Rimando made a really good save off the penalty. Wilfried (Zahibo) had a chance in the first half, Kelyn (Rowe) had another in the second. Really disappointing stuff today.”
On making the change the first half:
“Could have changed any of them. We were getting overrun in the midfield and it shouldn’t have been that way because we had the extra body in the middle so I felt we need shape things up. Our passing in the first half was atrocious and the goals we conceded was equally as bad. It could’ve been one of eleven. We chose to make the change to put Diego (Fagundez) in the middle and bring Juan (Agudelo) on the field and that was it.”
On Mark Segbers’ debut:
“Mark did well when we came on. We know he has the physical capabilities and I thought he competited really well. He gave us a little bit of a boost. It also helped to get Kelyn up into the midfield to start getting on the ball a little bit more because we weren’t seeing it at all. RSL they hit the most long balls at home than any team in the league; they try to play over the top of the back four and the second balls become important and you have to get it down and play it. We didn’t do that in the first half.”
Midfielder Kelyn Rowe
On the result:
“Look back at the mistakes in the first half and the one or two in the second but you take the second half and you move forward. In the second half we played a lot better, we were more demanding of the ball. We worked a lot harder for each other and created a lot more chances going forward. We take positives in the sense that Mark Segbers made his debut and we saw Juan (Agudelo) come off the bench as well and do very well. Take the second half for the last game at home.”
On the momentum:
“There are crazier things that have happened in soccer. Getting that goal would hopefully make us fight back a little bit more but it obviously wasn’t enough. It just not good enough on the day.”
On Mark Segbers’ debut:
“I don’t think he got beat and if he did he recovered very quickly. He was very good on the ball – he attacked and got some crosses in and you can see his ability and talent that he has been working on all year. Hopefully he gets another chance. It was a great debut.”
