QUOTE SHEET
REAL SALT LAKE 0-0 FC DALLAS
RIO TINTO STADIUM; September 24, 2016
Real Salt Lake
Head Coach Jeff Cassar
Thoughts on outcome of the game:
“We’re never pleased with a point at home, but given the circumstances and the team that we’re playing against I do love that we got a shutout. There are a lot of positives to take from it. But, as you get closer to the playoffs the games are going tighter and tighter it’s going to be small margins that push you over the top. We were searching for them, we didn’t get them and we got a tie. We kept a dangerous team on the counter attack, some very dangerous players pretty well in check the rest of the game.”
On Olmes Garcia’s performance:
"I thought Olmes put in a hard shift. Obviously with his physical attributes, you saw that one breakaway that he had. Can we get more of those, can we find him in more of those positions and try to really, really play to his strengths. But you could see flashes of it, but he worked extremely hard, he challenged for a lot of balls in the air, and I was really pleased with that. Then Pedro came in and did a little bit of the same."
Concerns on being shut out three games in a row:
"That. It just seems like we haven't created as many chances as we were before. When we get shut out and we are creating a bunch of chances that one you can say, okay we need to sharpen up a little bit. But, now it seems like we are creating a little bit less. I think we need everyone at 100% to be playing exactly how we want to. And also teams are starting to sit back deeper and deeper. It gets harder to penetrate them so you have to figure out ways, final balls have to be sharper, movement has to be sharper, everything has got to be a little bit sharper and tonight we were not sharp enough."
On Javi and Plata minutes:
"Javi worked extremely hard to get himself available, and what I didn't want was for him to reinjure it when it got to a fatigue point. Joao was, we were going to use you if we needed you, and if we didn't you wouldn't have played. But he worked hard this week to put himself into a position. He felt comfortable and at a high enough percentage to help us out and he did. He brought a spark into the game, he got a couple of shots off, was dangerous, and at the end of the day kept their back line deep."
About standings:
"I mean I wouldn't say it could go either way, obviously teams got to catch us right. So I don't think it’s necessarily either way. But we did have to make sure that we stamp our authority on this at some point. Some results went our way today, but that's not how we want to get into the playoffs, we want to make sure we are going in on our note. But again we haven't had many shutouts this year. Our fifth shut out so that's positive especially for a group coming into the playoffs. Now can we wrap it up in the offensive end, and be able to play defense the correct way."
Thoughts on changing strategies at halftime:
“I thought we played negative too much in the first half. It was up, back, back, up, back, back. The second half I thought we talked about just making sure that whoever was on the ball had options forward, not just one option but options. And then choose the one that would be beneficial for our team. I thought you could see that there were more options forward. Our movement was more aggressive, there was urgency. I thought we had good play in the first half it was just slow. Dallas was behind the ball every single time, hard to breakdown and we didn’t play quick enough and positive enough. But second half was a lot better.”
Thoughts on playing Luke instead of Sunny:
“Myself, and the staff played a lot of practice games this week, and the flow of our game was just better with Luke in it to be fair, this week. That could change; it’s all about dynamics of the players. Kyle and Sunny are really too holding. Luke and Kyle are a little bit different. If Javier starts to drop we have someone who is looking into that space. So I think it is just the combination of players, it’s a home game. But I felt Luke was just a tad bit sharper than Sunny this week. Especially in the attack and our ball movement. But Sunny did a great job, and he is always closing up gaps and breaking up plays. I just wanted a touch more going forward.”
Thoughts on playing Yura next week:
“I think we will have a much better idea on Tuesday, he was just still painful. His shot was going to help but with the window before getting the shot and entering the game it’s not enough time to get us a good reading. So we decided just to do what is best for Yura. Hopefully he can have a full week of training to play at the right level.”
Defender Tony Beltran
On limiting Dallas’ chances:
“I thought our team was fantastic and we know they are very dangerous in defensive play and we had to be proactive tonight. Making spots and that's what the back four was doing really well.”
On staying in fourth place:
“We are not as high as we want to be when playoff position. We just need to keep going for every game for playoffs.”
Forward Jordan Allen
Overall thoughts:
“It was alright, I mean it wasn't great and it wasn't terrible, but I need to finish my chances that I have. I think we let them get away today.”
On staying in fourth place:
“That's the most important thing, we need to keep getting points. We wanted three and we needed three, but it was better than nothing.”
Impressions on the 0-0 score line:
“We as a team have got to put our chances away, but me in specific, I had two good chances today and I know that could've made a difference for us today. I wasn't able to convert.”
On FC Dallas:
“They are good in the counter and are good if you give them space so we had to be aware at all times. The one positive we can take, we got a shutout against a very good team today, but at home we are looking to get three points.”
On the feeling of a playoff game:
“Yeah, we looked at this as a playoff game, they are a good team, and the intensity was there for the first minute. So all these games going into the playoffs are going to be real tough.”
FC Dallas
Head Coach Oscar Pareja
Overall thoughts on the game:
“Two different halves for us, we wanted it more than what we were playing. We understand that it was going to be a difficult game. We couldn’t get a point the last time we were here, but the first half we played much better. We had more options built in, more the way we do it, the way we play. I like it a lot. The second half we were more defensive. Real Salt Lake reacted well and they started just pushing the game. We looked tactically at the zero and believe it or not I thought we had great options at the end. We had opportunities, where we could have walk home with the three points.”
Thoughts on the Seitz and Gruezo performance:
“Good performance, did a great job today when we needed and good for Seitz. He came up when we need him the most.”
Thoughts on priorities for the club:
“Difficult for me to put priorities in big competitions, we are already committed with this group. They have been competing in all of these competitions. We just won the US open cup, we are fighting for the first spot in the show and we don’t want to give up that. And at the same time for the club, it is important to qualify in the CONCACAF, where we lead in that. So it’s impossible to have preference, we just go and see if we can make it happen.”
Defender Matt Hedges
Overall thoughts:
“I mean we’ll take the point. Kind of disappointing I thought we had chances where we maybe could’ve gotten three points out of it. I mean the other teams in the Supporter’s Shield race tied as well.”
On the back fours performance:
“I think everybody was very solid. I mean we kind of saw what Salt Lake had done to us in the past against us kind of overloading the left side so we knew what to expect. I thought that we did well limiting their chances as a back four.”
On Chris Seitz’s performance:
“He was great tonight. He made the saves we needed him to make tonight. He came out and claimed the crosses that we needed him to do. No mistakes from him and I feel like he was a big part of our shutout tonight.”
Looking forward:
“The LA game is a huge one for us. Their obviously right behind us in the standings and they’re one of the best teams in the league so it’s good that we have this game at home and we need to get three points out of it.”
Goalkeeper Chris Seitz
Overall thoughts:
“We knew it was going to take a whole team performance to get behind the ball and keep Salt Lake at bay. We knew coming into this game it had been a long time since we kept a clean sheet, for us that was our main priority tonight. We’re a talented team going forward but as long as we kept things steady in the back that we would create opportunities and hopefully get one and tonight we were a little bit unlucky not to.”
On the back four’s performance:
“They’ve been great all year. Our center-back tandem as well as our outside-backs have been huge for us this year. Just limiting players and putting them in bad spots and making it easy on me and everyone else and credit to them they were great tonight.”
On his performance:
“You know it’s about time I make a couple saves. It’s been a while since I had a couple and obviously you prefer the no shots on goal and all that stuff, but sometimes they need a performance from their keeper and I was happy to give one tonight.”
Looking forward:
“The game against LA is huge for us and obviously a big game for them. We’ve got three games left this year so we’ve got to take advantage of them. We’re were we want to be but at the same time there are people that can catch us and want what we have. So we have to keep pressing forward.”
