QUOTE SHEET
Real Salt Lake 1-1 Minnesota United
Rio Tinto Stadium; Sandy, Utah
Saturday, July 20, 2019
Real Salt Lake
Head Coach Mike Petke
On the lackluster performance:
“It starts with me and I feel like pushed them a little too hard this week. Looking at this game tonight, it was clear that I did, trying to capitalize off of last week's performance. This is really the first week that it was a hundred degrees, at least where we were in Herriman. We moved practice a little early, and I pushed them a little too hard. I take fault for a bit of the lackluster because it was lackluster, it was a bit uninspiring. I know it wasn't because my players don't care, or my players didn't want to put in the work. One thing that I could pinpoint - and I thought about it towards the end of the week on Thursday and Friday - is that I pushed them a bit too hard. Then that contributes to certain things including lack of off-the-ball movement, lack of running in behind. That's what I'm chalking it up to. We did have our opportunities to get the three points. Even though, a couple of weeks ago against Atlanta, we won in the last minute and I came in here and I said, I don't feel that we deserve this game. We deserved it. Tonight, I feel that we could have won it. But looking back on it and I have to look at it again. Perhaps one-one draw is a correct outcome.”
On getting the tie:
“Minnesota, to their credit, is a very good team compared to last year. Adrian has done a phenomenal job with that team. They’re seven or eight games unbeaten now, I believe. We talked all week about statistics - I put a lot of stock, but not a ton of stock on statistics - but they are the fourth poorest passing team in the league. Sloppy giving balls away. They did give a lot of balls away tonight, and we just didn't capitalize on it. It's a tale of two weeks from last week to this week. I have to go back and look at myself first, and I firmly believe that I pushed it a little too hard this week and that contributed to the lackluster performance at times.”
On two games this week:
“This upcoming week training, because we have three games this week, is basically nonexistent. It's walkthrough just to get their legs going. I'm not worried about Monday and Tuesday’s practice as we prepare and then Thursday and Friday pushing too hard it's not going to happen. I will say that this organization is putting a lot of stock into this tournament that we’re starting Wednesday so I'm not even looking at Dallas right now. I'm looking at Tigres. Assessment tomorrow of who's healthy and who's feeling alright. Then Monday and Tuesday make some decisions.”
On the tactical switch with the subs:
“We felt that Albert wasn't getting the ball enough, for a lot of reasons. We weren't threatening behind. Damir is not a threat behind guy, Damir does excellent in his role. If I had to point to a couple of players tonight, I’d point to Kyle, Everton, Savarino and Damir with guys along the back too. We weren't threatening behind and Albert was not finding the pockets to get the ball. We felt moving him out wide, would get Albert the ball more and we felt that moving Corey up top would stretch them a little bit. That was the reason behind that.”
On Silva’s performance:
“Marcelo is somebody who I can relate to because he's cut from the same cloth as me. He's a no-nonsense, hard-working, hard-tackling type of defender who knows what he's good at and knows what he's not good at. He cleans up the ball, gets the ball to somebody who can make a difference. I thought over the last couple of games, he's definitely been patient with getting back in the lineup. When he has been in the lineup, I think that he's done well, very well to the point that when Nedum comes back from injury and visa things over in England and everybody's healthy, it will give me a lot to think about. There's no guaranteed two centerbacks right now, because of the way Marcelo came back in.”
Defender Brooks Lennon
On the game:
“I think it’s a tough result for us. I think we needed the three points at home. I thought they sat back pretty well and countered us, that was their game plan from minute one. We were too sloppy on the ball tonight, not enough movement from everyone. Just a frustrating result overall, but it’s better to take one point than zero, so you’ve got to look at the positives.”
On playing up higher tonight:
“As a natural winger playing fullback, my tendencies are to go forward and support the attack in any way I can. I had that shot in the first couple minutes of the game, I thought I whipped in a couple dangerous balls throughout the game, but it’s just unlucky not to finish one of them. You’ve got to look at the positives and take those into Wednesday against Tigres and Saturday against Dallas.”
On the first half being “disjointed” and the second half being better:
“First and second half, I thought the passing wasn’t sharp. You saw us last week against Philly, everyone was moving, showing, playing balls in behind, checking to the ball. All of the passes were sharp and crisp. Tonight, it just wasn’t good enough in terms of the passing and our movement. We had a good goal, Marcelo had a good finish. Thought we had a couple more chances, Beckerman had a good look at a header in the second half, Damir had a good look as well from a great cross from Savarino. We were unlucky not to finish one of those two to get the win.”
On Marcelo Silva’s goal:
“I could feel something coming. We were putting a lot of pressure on them and we were getting crosses from myself, from Savarino and from Donny on the left side. We were putting a lot of pressure on them. I think we had a couple corners in that span. I knew we were on the front foot, and then luckily, Marcelo put one in for us to level it, and then we were pushing for the second one to get the win. We all know in the locker room that we let points slip tonight. I thought we could have taken a win, but it’s behind us now and we’ve got to look forward.”
On the lack of urgency in the final third in the first half:
“I’m going to go back to the lack of movement from everyone — from the back line, to the midfield, to the strikers. I think if you look at the game film from last week, when we played Philadelphia, I think that everyone was buzzing around, getting into dangerous pockets to threaten their back line. I thought in the second half tonight, I just felt like we kind of ran out of energy. We just didn’t have that killer instinct to put the ball in the back of the net. We did have a couple chances, but just didn’t have that killer instinct to kill the game off and get three points.”
Defender Marcelo Silva (Through a translator)
On his goal:
“They were marking a zone and the first shot in the box looked a little long. Minnesota started to get closer to the goal and I had the position to be alongside him and was able to score the goal. It was a good position that I had with Savarino. He gave me the pass that gave me the opportunity to score.”
On over-extension throughout the week:
“We have the advantage of the altitude here. When most teams come here they feel that. We also feel the same thing because of the stress, physical demands, the heat and the altitude. It all affects us as well.”
On facing Tigres UANL:
“We like to do the best we can. I don’t know what kind of rotation that Mike Petke will do. I’m thankful that I’m able to start right now, but as a professional player, I will always respect what the coach will do in terms of rotation. It’s a good opportunity and I hope that we will do the best because Tigres is a great team that has won some competitions in Mexico.”
Minnesota United FC
Head Coach Adrian Heath
On performance tonight:
“I thought we did very well and showed good quality in attacking areas. We've restricted a really good attacking team, threats out wide a little bit of craftiness with Rusnák underneath. Kreilach gives them good experience in the box. Defensively, I thought we were outstanding, restricted them to a few long-range efforts. Certainly, in the first half, I thought if we got a little bit more quality on the final ball, we would have caused more problems.”
On missed passes:
“Obviously we spoke to the players about the ball travelling a little bit further and goes a bit quicker here with the air. On the whole, we’ve settled for a point, it’s a difficult place to play, it always is, but the way the game panned out, I thought if we showed a little bit more craftiness, a little bit more guile, a little bit more quality, we might have pinched the three points.”
On nearly getting the win:
“We had a great effort from Jan late on but, wasn't meant to be and probably a fair result. I feel as though we might have nicked the three points tonight if we were a little bit more clinical.”
On the attack:
“I thought the shape was very, very good. I thought we broke quite well. I think it was just the final ball. Final ball in the first half, especially. We must have had three occasions on the counter attack where we've missed it and it’s gone out for a goal kick. Which is disappointing, because the one thing about our play as of late has been that we scored 26 goals. It's not been our quality. Today, our quality wasn't quite what it's been of late.”
On how you feel about the performance tonight:
“I was pleased with their efforts, Especially our defensive shape was very, very good.”
On Marcelo’s challenge:
“Well, it's the first time I've seen Ethan go for a ball and then get bundled over, the ball doesn't move. I thought it was worth a look, but it's a long way from where I was, so I couldn't see really. Certainly, Ethan thought there was contact.”
On Kevin Molino's injury:
“He’s fine, he’s got a tight hamstring and he didn’t want it getting worse. We don’t think it’s too bad for him."
On playing in Salt Lake:
“The games have always been tight. We've had a couple of big wins over at home but here generally, the games are always a bit lively here. I thought it was a fiercely contested game, at times I thought the quality was a bit lacking tonight from both teams. For us, it’s another good point on the road and now it’s eight games in all competitions now without a defeat, we’re just going to keep it going now.”
On getting more time to prepare:
“It will be nice to do some work. It just feels as though it's been regeneration the next day and then the day before preparation. So it'll be nice to get some work done on the training ground.”
Midfielder Jan Gregus
On his shot off the post.
“I was surprised that it didn't go in but what can I do that's football and we have to take one point.”
On how he felt the team performed.
“I feel that we played a really good defensive match. We did really well and we had a few chances and I think we could have scored one more, but that's football. They had some pressure on us in the end and we wanted to take three points, but we'll take one.”
