QUOTE SHEET
Real Monarchs SLC 0-0 El Paso Locomotive FC
Zions Bank Stadium; Herriman, Utah
March 16, 2019
Real Monarchs SLC
Head Coach Martín Vasquez
On the home opener:
“We were excited. During the week, the training was very high-energy and intense. We all were looking forward to starting our season at home, having this opportunity to play at home. The feeling was great, the energy was great during the week coming into this game.”
On the first half:
“We put ourselves in that situation, in a bad situation. First, we started out flat, because we were too anxious to go forward and play and pass, a lot of turnovers and we didn’t have control of the first 15-20 minutes and we wanted to score the first goal off the bat. Then, in a play where we get caught on a clearance pass from El Paso, with the new rule. Kalen’s red card I think it was a soft foul, but it was a foul. We put ourselves in that situation.”
On the response after the red card:
“In the second half I think we responded with some very good performances by some of our guys. Collectively, to go for 55-58 minutes down a man it’s not easy, so we’ll take that positive. Creating a couple of chances in the second half we have to rely on that, we take that positive and keeping the zero for 92 minutes and mainly for 58 minutes without a man. We proved in the last two games that defensively, I think we can do the job. Now offensively that’s something to work on this week for our next game.”
On David Ochoa’s performance:
“Outstanding. Outstanding not only today, but outstanding in our last game against Sacramento. You know, for an 18-year-old senior in high school, to have performances like the one against Sacramento and today shows a lot of maturity and shows a lot of composure. I think if you take a few positives from last game and from this game, definitely you’ll know David. We'll take it. El Paso had shots and had crosses that didn’t count but they had 16, and the way David handle all of them all of them were outstanding. He made two excellent saves for us and kept us in the game, and at one point in the long run when we're down the road, in the middle of the season maybe it's huge.”
Midfielder Jack Blake
On returning to Zions Bank Stadium:
“It feels great. Great to be in front of the home fans. Everyone was very excited for the game. Obviously, during the game things changed. Every game is different. I thought as a team we dealt with it well. 60 minutes of being down a man, you struggle to come out with a win but to get the tie and keep a clean sheet was good.”
On the red card:
“I think the tackle on Luis [Palma] should have been a red card for them. There were things that happened that didn’t go our way. I don’t believe Kalen’s incident from seeing it on the field was a red either. All you can do is react. The refferee has the final decision but I have to say I think we reacted well.”
On keeping morale after the red:
“I think just constant communication and organization. It was difficult in the middle for me partly because they had three in the middle and we had two so I guess it’s just constant organization. I’m really proud of the players and the effort they put in to grind out the result.”
On what to take away from the game:
“In the first two games of the season we’ve proved that defensively we’re very strong and that’s a big positive to take from it. We’ll work on things like attacking, that’s the fun part of the game. First and foremost, to the team you want to make sure that the defense is strong, and then you can build off that. We look forward to this week’s training and hopefully get the goals at home with 11 men next week.”
