Monarchs fall to Vancouver in first home match since April 26

Real Monarchs fall to Vancouver Whitecaps FC
2-1 at Rio Tinto

Real Monarchs (5-8-4) 1-2 Vancouver Whitecaps FC 2 (8-2-5)
2016 USL Regular Season
July 2, 2016 – Rio Tinto Stadium, Sandy, Utah
Attendance: 3,619

• First game back at Rio Tinto Stadium for the Monarchs since April 26.
• Second goal of the season for Monarchs MF Tyler Arnone
• Second assist for MF Amass Amankona for the season.

QUOTES:

Real Monarchs Head Coach, Freddy Juarez
            “I think the guys showed they’re fatigued. If you watch the first half, it’s obvious. It’s hard to get to the loose balls, we don’t close down, we don’t anticipate, the sharpness isn’t there. It was a poor first half. I think fatigue kicked in. We try to get in some fresh legs and the fresh legs weren’t fresh for us. We challenged them a little bit in the second half. There was a change in mentality but again the quality wasn’t there. We do a good job at getting at least putting ourselves in a position to get a point, and then just poor defending. When the guy dribbles through three or four guys it’s bad. Guys started poor, responded, put themselves in a good position to at least get a point and then we loose focus.
            “Great atmosphere. I apologize to the fans. They came out and it’s sad to give a performance like the, especially in the first and there was a decent crowd too. You think the guys would be a little bit more excited after being gone for so long. It was a good atmosphere, good weather, great pitch, good fans and it’s disappointing.”
            “It wasn’t horrible, it was just slow. It was slow and it was poor. I don’t think they did a good job coming in. They were just a little bit quicker than us. I think it was just a lack of effort and again, not necessarily that the guys weren’t committed but they are fatigued. They have been traveling a lot in the last three weeks and we’re asking a lot from them and it just wasn’t enough.”
            “We challenge them to run a little harder and they do. But, you could see guys still cramping up and that wasn’t even happening in Colorado last week. I think they finally hit a wall.”
            “They responded. So, we got a response from them, it’s just that fatigue doesn’t allow you to do quality when you’re tired. I think Wednesday’s game took a lot out of them mentally and we loose a game because something doesn’t go in our favor. You’re dealing with the mental part along with the physical part. There was a lot of uphill from the beginning. It’s asking a lot from the guys and they responded but it just wasn’t good enough in the last couple of minutes.”

Vancouver Whitecaps FC 2 Head Coach Alan Koch
            “Good game, tough battle, I think we expected it to be a tough battle. We also already played them twice at our place, they are a good team. We are obviously very happy with the result.”
            “Every game we've played this season so far, we played to get the three points, and I think it was the exact same way tonight. If we could've taken our chances we created, then the game would've been over before we allowed them to, obviously come back and tie it up. Having said that, when they tied it up, all the momentum was with them and I give credit to our players they showed the character to hang on and obviously go down the score break goal to win it.”
            “We won the game, so that's obviously a positive. I think we showed the right character to deal with them obviously coming at us and trying to hang on and try manage the game as well as possible, obviously disappointed that we conceded a goal, but coming here and playing a game in altitude is not easy. You know they know that, they were feeding off their crowd, their crowd were excellent and got them going, but I think the most important part of the game were the last five minutes when our guys didn't wilt. When they scored to tie it up and show the character come down and get the three points.”

Goals by Half

Scoring Summary

Misconduct Summary

Box Score

Real Monarchs lineup: Lalo Fernandez; Boyd Okwuonu (James Moberg 85’), Phanuel Kavita, Emilio Orozco, Jonathan Caparelli (Amass Amankona 62’); Omar Holness, Elder Torres (Alec Sundly 70’), Ricardo Velazco (Eti Tavares 70’), Tyler Arnone; Olmes Garcia, Kevaughn Frater (Colin Rolfe 44’)
Unused Substitutes: Connor Sparrow, Darion Copeland

Vancouver Whitecaps FC 2 lineup: Sean Melvin, Kadin Chung, Sem De Wit, Jackson Farmer, Brett Levis; Kianz Froese (Giuliano Frano 46’), Debyi Flores (Matthew Baldisimo 90’), Will Seymore, Fatawu Safiu (Jordan Haynes 75’); Kyle Greig (Thomas Sanner 72’), Daniel Haber (Sahil Sandhu 83’)
Unused Substitutes: Spencer Richey, Elliot Green

Head Referee: Tyler Ploeger
Assistant Referees: TJ Zablocki, Karsten Gillwald
Fourth Official: Jeffrey Gaston