Quote Sheet
Real Monarchs 0-2 St. Louis City 2
Zions Bank Stadium, Herriman, UT
April 29, 2022
Midfielder Tyrone Mondi
On the players’ exhaustion level:
“All credit to the guys, it was a good effort and we gave it our all. As the game panned out, we started moving the ball a little bit better, but there are some spaces we could’ve closed a little bit better. Overall, I’m happy with the guys and I think we created a good amount of chances, there were two or three chances we could have at least put away, so, with that said, we could’ve potentially changed the game. It wasn’t the perfect result, but every week, we've been getting stronger and stronger. All credit to the guys and all credit to the coaches, the guys come and work their socks off, that’s all we want. At the end of the day, that’s all we want–we want to leave the pitch with no regrets, and I think that’s what the guys did today.”
On the difficulty of finding space on the field tonight:
“As the game turned into a transition game, they had more possession of the ball and it became a little harder to close them down, and I think that’s where they got their spaces and kind of made the gaps a little bit bigger. But I think we can work on that in training and we can look at the video, there’s always room for improvement. That’s the best part, you know? We can always get better. I think there were moments of brilliance from individual players, and that’s also one of the things that changed the game for them.”
On how the team’s gelling:
“I think the team is getting better since the first game against Tacoma, we’ve made a lot of improvement, and that’s credited to the players coming in. There’s a lot of players moving in and out of the first team, some guys in the academy, so we’re still looking for a lot of moments to gel. With more and more training, and working together collectively with guys coming and going, I think it will get better as we gel and have a more cohesive team that can understand each others’ movements and have more players in training. That’s no excuse though, at the end of the day, we come on the field and it’s 11 versus 11. Being one of the older guys, when the young guys come in, you want to show more effort. From that, we can always get better, there’s always room for continuous improvement. We can only get better, it’s not the end of the world. We’re only a few games in, so we just need to keep our heads up, be positive, and believe in ourselves. It’s rough in the beginning, but the rewards will start flowing as the season goes on.”
Head Coach Jamison Olave
On the team getting more cohesive:
“I am still saying the same thing. The team is getting better. But at times, it’s creation and experience that make the difference. It made the difference in certain moments of the game. Today, we ended up losing. We had 60 minutes that we played really well, the first 45 and the first 15 minutes of the second half before Yekeson [Subah] came out. Then after that the game changed. I was pretty happy with what the team was doing. We need to score, we need to stop conceding. Of course that is going to make an impact on the team but we tried to play and we tried to get better and play better.”
On the team morale:
“I think at the moment the players are great. They’re happy to be here. The academy guys, they’re happy to be here. The new guys like Pedro [Fonseca], [Tyrone] Mondi and Jack [Imperato], they are pretty happy to be here. They understand the situation that we are in right now. Young guys, guys from the first team, know that the team is playing good and getting better. Maybe when we have some more players, the team is going to perform better. But everyone is in the right place, everyone is happy, and the mentality is high. We can see it on the field. They never stopped running, they never stopped fighting.”
On difficulty managing lots of players coming in and out of the team:
“Sometimes it is a difficult situation, but it is who we are. We have to do the best we can. I have to motivate the players the best I can. But they know that being a part of this organization is a privilege. That being a Monarch is a privilege, that being a part of the academy is a privilege. Going from the academy to Monarchs to the first team, Bobby [Pierre] and Pierre [Reedy] they had the chance to be there. They had to be motivated because they needed to be ready for the chance. You never know when the chance is coming, even if the result is not in our favor, be there. Be there and show up every day.”
