New York Red Bulls head coach Jesse Marsch
On the state of the team right now:
Yeah, obviously very different than the beginning of the year. Truly feel like we've put that behind us now, and we've made a great push in the last seven games, getting a lot of good performances. Starting to really feel and look like us. So I think we use the hard times to make us better. So obviously very happy with the last couple months.
On Bradley Wright-Phillips:
Everyone wanted to talk so much about how Brad wasn't scoring in the beginning of the year and where was he at, and all I just kept saying is our belief in him is at the highest level. And that's not just me talking, that's our entire group.
We see him every day. We see all the quality he has, and it's only a matter of time before he gets himself going. When he does, then the goals start to come in bunches. So here he is now. He's leading the league in scoring. Right? I mean, that says it all.
On getting an early goal:
It now makes them have to think about coming out more, and they can't just sit back and stay compact and then make it hard on us. Then obviously when Giovinco goes out, that also throws out their game plan.
So the combination of their early lead and then losing Giovinco meant that the game was then going to be played at our terms at even a higher level. Obviously the red card changed everything. So then we had to now fight our way through the second half specifically.
But what I loved as much as Bradley scoring the three goals and getting the win was some of the efforts in the back to block shots, flying around to do whatever it take to now make sure that we weren't going to give up a goal and we were going to ensure another shutout. I think you'd start with Ronald and Aurelien, and talk about the effort that they put in. And Aurelien had a major impact on the team not just from a playing perspective, but from a mentality perspective. I think he's really given confidence because he's so aggressive, and he takes so much pride in his job and making sure that we don't give up goals. So he's been fantastic.
It's great to see our back line coming together, and this will be important for us moving forward.
On better results and being atop the East at the break:
I told them for right now we're at least in first place the East, which it's remarkable, remarkable. Given how rough our start was. It felt like a long period of time like where we were just in a dark moment. But we continue to try to reinforce important things, and continue to try to push and know that we were going to use that to make us better and to see now where we're at, it's very validating. But we have to use the time to get some rest, but continue to push it always.
On game management in the second half:
It's a hot day. Both teams are going after it. Toronto's frustrated, so they're trying to throw some things at it. We're not going to back down. I think that's kind of where that came from. But overall I thought our concentration and focus on the game to do what was necessary was at a really high level.
On the Veron red card:
Yeah, it's frustrating. Those fouls are pretty consistent with what's been called, so I don't think I can really point at that too much. Sometimes when guys from other leagues come to our league they have to understand we've gone through that with Ronald a little bit. And now Gonzalo's going to have to know those tackles are going to get red cards almost every time. I know he got all ball, but the refs have been instructed to throw guys out of the game for that.
It's consistent with what we've seen. And for Gonzalo, yeah, it's frustrating. It's frustrating for him; it's frustrating for us. I feel like he was struggling a little bit with fitness, and that probably led to him breaking down in some decision-making and doing that. So that's very uncharacteristic like. We don't see that in training at all. It was just a weird moment and a moment that cost him and cost us.
On Luis Robles’ play:
I think Luis wanted the shut out in a big, big way. Obviously now they encroach and he gets another chance at it, and I think the second one they encroach too. But what a great save.
At that point it's a little bit of a mind game and Luis wins it, and he makes a great save. So it's great to see Luis being rewarded, because even when we gave up, I don't know, 17 goals, 20 goals, where are we? 17, 20? I honestly don't think Luis was at fault in one of them. So that's just phenomenal. It almost doesn't make sense, right?
So for him to now reward himself more with shutouts and great performances and obviously a big save, I think it's good for the team, but it's also great for him.
On the on-pitch discussion at the start of halftime:
I just wanted to say to them that, you know, to have the right mentality in the second half. Like we're down a man, but we can still do everything that was required to win that game. And if we were a little bit better on the ball, we still felt like we could maintain possession even a man down. Just wanted to make sure their heads were straight going into halftime.
On the better defensive play of late:
Yeah, I think, like I said, we're going to use the break for some rest. Then we're also going to build up a little bit of fitness. And then we've got a big stretch coming up where we have game after game after game after game. That includes Open Cup. So now it's going to be partly keep the momentum going, but it's also going to require us to call on some of our depth.
In that, we'll get Damien Perrinelle back in training, so that will be a big plus. So now you start to feel like the momentum, which was building against us, a lot of the beginning of the year is now working toward us.
So it's key to get some rest and now push forward. But it's key to get some rest, but also very key that coming out of the break that we're stronger and better than ever.
New York Red Bulls forward Bradley Wright-Phillips
On the slow start to the season and finding himself at the top of the scoring charts:
Is that so? It was tough in the beginning, we weren’t hitting great form. I don’t want to get excited really, we’ve hit a nice run of form and it’s good, you know? It was important after the NYCFC game to try and emulate that work rate and clean sheet and be clinical and we did it, it was good.
On being on top of the east heading into the break:
We always believed that we were going to hit a good run of form. But yeah it’s kind of weird being top of the league with how we felt just a few weeks ago. But you know, that’s football.
On what has changed in the last seven games:
Just a little bit of luck, I said that at the beginning of the season. I was getting chances and some of them were bad finishes and some of them were getting lucky. You get these little streaks and they go and in two weeks you guys could be asking me what’s gone wrong. It’s just how it goes, you know? For us strikers especially.
On if the goals seem bigger because of his previous form:
Not really, I feel like today it did. I felt like everything I was hitting went in. A game ago against New York City it felt different, I didn’t feel like I would get a goal in that game and I thought it was going to be one of those games where you just fight. For some reason they’re going in, let’s not get too happy though.
On what has been the biggest change for the team:
The defense. They’re on fire right now, and the midfield, they were unbelievable today. What’s different, I feel like the midfield has been amazing and when they play well we win games. We’ve got Dax, Felipe, and Sacha, and when they’re in there they’re hard for any team to deal with. When they’re in there we don’t concede too many goals and we score a lot more.
New York Red Bulls midfielder Sacha Kljestan
On recent results after a tough start:
A lot of it has come down to mentality and confidence. So I think the group now is getting pretty confident. We have been sticking to game plans that Jesse has laid out. The guys have had a great mentality about that part of the game and the goals seem to be rolling right now. The defense seems to be pitching shutouts, which is great.
On improved set pieces:
Yeah, we have been working. We always work on set pieces so much. We are always more prepared than other teams. Now we have got a guy like Aurelien who draws a lot of attention, who can get up and challenge and always wants to score on every set piece. He draws attention. Dax is great in there. You know it kind of left Bradley unmarked today and he got up above everybody and tapped that one in. were are always dangerous on set pieces, something we work on a lot.
On continuing momentum from last weekend:
We wanted to have a similar game plan and that was to play in their end and to put them under pressure early, not just pass the ball around a lot. Not be content with square passes, backward passes but more playing in their end and putting them under pressure. So an early goal always helps but it started by Felipe winning a ball, dribbling down the field and getting fouled. Not cutting the ball back and playing backwards and keeping passes but going right at them but the game plan worked perfectly.
On solidifying the defense:
You know Aurelien has come in and done a great job. He has a lot of character about him, he’s a leader so guys have kind of rallied around him and you can’t forget Connor Lade has come in for three games now and done great. Sal Zizzo has been strong all season and then you have got a couple of different guys who have played next to Aurelien but the whole team effort defensive-wise has been great. We’ve talked about when the ball turns over, when the other team has a chance on us, our standard of sprinting back and double-teaming and helping guys out and having each other’s back is at our highest level.
On being atop the east:
It’s a little bit crazy that we’re up there now having started so poorly but it is what it is and were happy about being where we are at this point in the season after having that kind of start. So I think we can be happy with where we are at. It’s difficult to take a couple of weeks away now when your kind of on a roll but its also a good time especially when its hot like this to get a couple days away, recharge the batteries. You know recharge mentally and physically
New York Red Bulls forward Mike Grella
On building off of recent success:
I think we’ve been building now since we’ve won the last two home games and then we went away to Orlando and got a point there. I feel those two homes games is when we turned the corner so this was the last of that segment since we have a couple weeks off so we really wanted to push ourselves tonight and build on it and push ourselves into first place temporarily. It was a really hot day and it was going to come down to who wanted it more and we were prepared to do whatever it takes to win the game and we did that tonight.
On how he was defended in the match:
It was a difficult one, I didn’t get so much of the ball and when I got it, I was very deep and away from the goal. Their whole group and system was designed to sit back against us and make it slow and take their time and they wanted to do what they did the first time but we got an early goal and that changed everything but I didn’t get the ball in too many dangerous positions and to see the red card ruin the flow of the game and it became difficult for us to get on the ball in the second half.
Toronto FC head coach Greg Vanney
GREG VANNEY: (No audio) coming off of their last game, and we had prepared ourselves and talked as a group and worked this week on the start to the game and the importance to the start to the game and what we wanted to do.
We were left with some choices in the beginning of the game, and I thought we made the wrong choice. We tried to slip a ball underneath when the space was actually behind the back line early on. We turned that one over, and within one or two passes, it's a free kick just outside of our box. All week, it's again, working through and talking about set piece defending. Obviously they drop three, I think, in the previous game on set pieces.
So it's something that their service is very good, and guys get to good spots. We were flat footed, I thought, when the service came in, so we found ourselves down quickly. With that, I think we compounded it with more sort of tentative, if you will, play, in terms of getting ourselves out of our half of the field and actually playing when there was time to play.
We kept ourselves under pressure, and eventually it was more mistakes and 3-0 and now you're really in an uphill battle. After that, we go up a man or they go down a man, however you want to look at it, and getting into the half, we have the penalty kick and to me that was a very decisive moment. If we score that penalty kick, and it was so early in the second half, if we don't make what appeared to be a silly error again where a guy gets into the box too soon and now we have to retake it after we make it. It's just a silly, silly error, and we don't capitalize on it the second time.
I just think you're going to have either a ton of belief and think you really have a chance to go fight this one out. Or when that happens, maybe it's a little bit of a feel like this isn't going to be our night, so there's that.
But having said that, I thought the guys competed for the rest of the half. I thought we still got ourselves into some pretty dangerous situations and some chances, but unable to capitalize, and that's been a little bit of the season, a little bit.
If it's not Sebastian, then who is going to step up and put the ball in the back of the net? And the one, I guess, the one thing to take away in this game was we had a number of guys who had opportunities get out there and play and to try to get their chance to put one in the back of the net, and we weren't able to do it.
On trying to defend Bradley Wright-Phillips
Yeah, our mistakes is a big part of it. Obviously they're a good team and they move the ball. And Bradley Wright-Phillips is a crafty forward and finds his spaces. Then set pieces.
So that's a big part of it. If you turn over the ball in your half of the field frequently, then that's what they live on with the pressure that they put on, and we did. We gave the ball away a couple times or a handful of times early in the second half and got pinned in our half. So it's just giving them repetition after repetition to attack our box and our goal.
To their credit, they're a good team and he's a good forward. But you can't just keep giving them opportunities by turning the ball over in your half of the field. You've got to be able to play through the pressure or play beyond the pressure and move the game into their half of the field, and we didn't do that well enough, and we didn't defend well enough on set pieces.
On the status of Sebastian Giovinco:
I would say it doesn't look like anything significant in terms of amount of time. We'll see as we assess over the next 24 hours. But I think he felt it coming on, and whatever it exactly is, I'm not sure. But I think he felt it coming on, and was able to probably catch himself at an appropriate time to hopefully salvage some time off.
On recent results after a strong start:
I think it's critical errors, really. Tonight, again, set piece defending was an issue. Then I think also we can't make a couple mistakes. The one that Bradley Wright-Phillips gets and gets into the box. Drew does a pretty good job of standing up. We've got to get support to him faster.
Drew was a little unfortunate because I think he went to block the shot and it actually hit his heel and went between his legs. But we've got to make plays. The other side of it is we've got to be able to relieve our defensive repetitions by keeping the ball a little bit by not making errors and possession and turning over the ball on our half of the field. We've got to be better with the ball.
Part of it is also that we've got to be able to score goals because that puts a lot of pressure on the defenders if we're not putting the ball in the back of the net.
By and large, I didn't think, and obviously they played a fair amount of the game a man down, so it's not totally fair to say. But I think they scored on the chances that they had by and large. Even when we were defending in the first part of the first half, it wasn't like chance after chance. It wasn't one of those situations. We were in our half, but we were protecting our goal pretty well, and that's that.
On Giovinco leaving the match early:
Well, of course I'm concerned. He's, as voted by most, last year the best player in the league. Obviously a guy who not only scores goals, but he creates goals and he creates opportunities and he draws attention. But it's not just Seba, Jozy's also out. Seba's out. We've got, you know, that's a fair portion of the attack when you live in a world that we live in in MLS and two of your best players are your forwards and unfortunately we don't have access to them right now. So that's going to affect our attack.
After that, we have some younger players who are showing potential, but showing potential and scoring in Major League Soccer doesn't necessarily happen overnight. So, yeah, I mean, in terms of concern, yeah. Sure of course we have concern when, like I said, two of our Designated Players and two of our big guys on the attack are unavailable right now.
On a tough stretch of games after the Copa break:
Get healthy. I think our record is like 4-1-1 when we're healthy, so that's a big part of it. Again, that's not many games, by the way, when we're healthy. That's only six games, because Jozy missed a fair chunk of the beginning of the season and then he was out again recently, and we missed some guys over the last week.
But we've got to get healthy. That's the number one thing and get ourselves a little bit sharper in the final third and around the goal, obviously, tighten up a few things that, again, we saw tonight and over last week in terms of our set piece defending and things like that.
But it's not we don't need to reinvent ourselves. We don't need to do anything new and exciting. All we need to do is get healthy, and again, tighten up some things that are a little bit loose and be a little sharper in front of the goal.
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