Quote Sheet
Real Salt Lake 1-1 Houston Dynamo
Rio Tinto Stadium; Sandy, Utah
Saturday, June 26, 2021
Head Coach Freddy Juarez
On if he would make different adjustments during halftime:
“No, I wouldn’t go back because they didn’t change anything; we were actually spot on. I thought we started off the second half right, and then we gave up that goal that’s just a little bit too innocent, I believe. On one end, we have the opportunity to score and that turns into a break, we have an opportunity to foul and end it and good teams do that. The good teams do that: you watch Seattle. It’s so hard to transition on them, because you’re going down. You’re going down or the pressure comes so quick. And then we don’t step out to the shot. So you just basically take that play out of the game and we shouldn’t even be in that situation. I think that the next phase of the team developing and learning is that we should be up 2-0, 3-0 at half with the clear opportunities that we created. Now, that said, their goalkeeper had a very good game so credit to their goalkeeper but we have to punish. We have to be ruthless and then you win that game. That effort was fantastic from the guys by the way we started the game, the way we finished the game for being a third game in a week after having three weeks off. I thought our attitude, the positivity of us attacking them was fantastic. We just have to be more ruthless and that’s a phase that we have to develop.”
On ways to kill off the game:
“What I’m referring to is 21 shots, 13 corner kicks, and some point blank opportunities you have to take advantage of. Because there are some games, for example, we went on the road and played Seattle - who is fantastic - who keep coming at us and we control those moments. I was watching the Seattle game again today, and they really didn’t have a clear opportunity until the 37th minute. This game I don’t think they had amazing opportunities unless it was when we were finally getting desperate at the end and then that goal. When you watch the first half you’re just like, ‘How do we not have the second one?’ And that’s definitely something that we’ll get better at. But you’re right, there are other ways to do it. You’ve got to foul that transition and really foul, not allow him to continue to push through. Not get casual on the other end when we could have maybe laid it off to Maikel Chang, and that resulted in them running our way then being a little bit sharper in possession. The possession was a tricky one. You guys saw their tendencies; any backwards pass, any square ball was setting up a press for them. So possession and movement off the ball had to be ahead of the ball. I thought we dealt with it very well in the first half. When they pressed us we played in behind them then ran on them to put them on their heels. And in the moments that we decided to play back to our goalkeeper or really do a lot of exchanging from center back to center back was trouble for us. But the team will grow. It’s tough to play three games in a week, especially after being off for three weeks. It’s a tough league. We have to learn how to kill the games. We definitely could have the opportunity to score two goals, but the group knows there’s still some goals that we can not concede and some of them have been a little too innocent.”
On corner kick improvements:
“I think it comes down to Albert having some fantastic service, you can even look back to the Seattle game where he had fantastic service in that game as well. I remember there was a run where Nick Besler flicked on and it went back to the back stick and we just weren't aware of it. But he’s been hitting it well and that’s what we’ve talked about. He took it upon himself that the service needed to improve and you say that today, we gave ourselves an opportunity to score maybe off of a second set piece. It was fantastic and it is something that we will continue to work on. Because if you get a set piece opportunity you want to give yourself a chance to get to the end of it and it all comes down to the service and I think Albert has really picked it up. He’s putting it in spots that cause the opponent a lot of danger and he got a fantastic assist from it today.”
Defender Justen Glad
On the draw:
“We’ve obviously been in that situation before. I feel like we were on top of them the whole game and then they got one half chance and they put it away. It’s just kind of soft. We’ll have to figure it out. We either have to get a second goal or shut it down in the back completely because we need to start dropping points at home.”
On reversing the draw trend:
“I think a lot of the emphasis is just on staying focused throughout the 90 minutes. At this level it just takes one mistake or one play and the other team will capitalize. We’ve been harping on that. Obviously something’s not going right, we're letting in soft goals so I’m sure we’ll talk about more.”
On frustration over draws:
“Obviously when it happens over and over again, it’s going to be more and more frustrating. I think what it comes down to is, everyone knows it's one point that separates teams from making the playoffs and not making the playoffs. You have to take your opportunities early. You have to take advantage of every point you can get. It feels like we’ve been letting ourselves down especially with home games. We know you have to win your home games. I think just the fact that it’s happened a couple of times now, it definitely stings a little more.”
Forward Bobby Wood
On his home debut:
“I thought the first half we did well, we controlled the game. We had a lot of chances, but we didn't kill them and we paid the price in the second half. It felt like their first shot on goal and they scored so that's very disappointing. It hurts and we just have to try and learn from these mistakes.”
On his development in this system:
“I think it's always, the more I play the better it'll get. The team chemistry would get better for myself so, like I said, I'm just kind of still pissed off right now. How we kind of conceded that goal it's disappointing. I think we just have to learn from it. There's no excuses. I think the team is very disappointed. But for myself, it's always good getting back and having I guess you could say half chances, having fun. We just have to kill them.”
On finishing the game:
“When I say kill them today for example, we have to finish our chances. We had some good chances. We didn't finish it off and we kind of just played soft. In these types of 1-0 games, anything can happen and when you don't finish it up. When you don't score that second goal. You can get scored on out of nothing and that's what happened today. I think we just have to make better decisions going forward and it's just too many little mistakes. I thought that was just unnecessary where it was dangerous. We just have to be a little bit more concentrated, and that's something we for sure have to work on going forward.”
On any chances they missed in the game:
“We have to be a little bit harder, I think sometimes we’ve got to be a little bit, I wouldn't want to say dirty, but just a little bit more aggressive coming out. Sometimes we're a little bit too soft, we just kind of let things flow. We don't have to score two goals and win 2-0, but if we keep it 1-0 and we're concentrated, we're aggressive and we kind of make them feel mentally they have no chance, that's how you kill it off too. I think mentally we have to be a little bit harder on ourselves and we have to kind of push each other to keep the mentality going and build off that first half and that's just how it is. That's how I see it and that's something we for sure have to work on.”
