New York Red Bulls Head Coach Jesse Marsch
On five Homegrown Players seeing time:
I thought overall some good performances from our young guys. Another proud moment for our club I think to, to call on our Homegrown Players and some of our young guys and have them step up in a very meaningful game, very meaningful game. And I'll say this, against a good team. Even when Antigua went down a man they still pressed they still stayed organized they still got after the game, so it wasn't an easy match and I think I think we know that when we go down there we're in for a, a real tough game.
On putting together the lineup for tonight's match:
In all honesty the plan was a little bit different for this match. It was to play a few first [team], regular guys but a bunch of guys picked up little knocks and obviously Dax goes down in the in the Chicago game so then we kind of had to audible a little bit this week and now think about how we wanted to use our full roster and what player complements we wanted to use on the field to make sure that we ensure a good performance tonight.
So overall I thought the balance of a lot of different guys being on the field and I even think having Felipe as the captain was great to see, and so real happy with a lot of different guys on the night and again in a tough game they stepped up and delivered big.
On the physicality of the game:
It started out they came after us, we knew that they were a pressing team. I thought that at moments they made it hard on us to play out of the back and pressured us. Once they got the red card, ok, so there were a couple fouls in there before that and actually I thought the ref was smart to put two yellow cards out there quickly but once they got the red card, my message to the team out on the field was don't do anything to allow the game to be evened up. Make sure that we keep disciplined, that we keep focus and make sure that we keep the man advantage and as time, we think we will be able to wear the match down. So, the one hairy moment was the foul with Shaun Wright-Phillips and everyone's hoping at that point that it doesn't draw a second yellow but the fact that it didn't meant that we could keep going after the game.
On Gonzalo Veron's role going forward after the Red Bulls recent acquisitions:
Well I think Gonzalo can play any of the three spots. He can tilt wide, he can play up high and when we play with two strikers he can compliment that, either with Bradley, the right way. So, that's one of the nice things about Gonzalo is some of the flexibility. You know his comment after the game was 'I needed a goal, man', you know, like he wants, kind of, a goal to get him going so, it's a little unfortunate he wasn't able to get one but at the same time I thought he was really effective, I thought he was really aggressive. He helped stretch their team, which also created space underneath, so on the day, I think, what we were hoping he would give to us, he gave and he's a little unlucky not to reward himself. So, good night for Gonzalo.
New York Red Bulls Goalkeeper Ryan Meara
On the match overall:
Yeah, it was great. We knew they were going to be a hard team to play against, they've got some good players, very dangerous on the counter, and they tested us the first, probably 30 minutes. Then we get the goal, we go a man up, and we do a great job of just kind of killing the game off from there with just being solid at the back and getting the two insurance goals to make it three-nothing. So it was a good overall performance.
On how the game changed after the Red Bulls went up a man:
I think we played it perfectly. Sometimes when you're playing up a man you can get a little overconfident, but one of our big things at halftime was to make sure we just kept doing the right things, kept doing the same things we did throughout the first half that, got us the one-nothing lead. And just be solid at the back and play out as much as you can, and I think it showed - we could have had probably five or six goals. We hit the post, the crossbar, so just a good night overall.
New York Red Bulls Midfielder Sean Davis
On tonight's performance:
90 minutes, so that's great, and match fitness is really important for any player. So I felt really comfortable out there, really confident. I thought the group had a really good match and I think this, again, builds momentum going into a big game on Sunday.
On the physicality of the game:
I think the refs did a great job, you know it's a thankless job out there for referees these days, but I thought he did a good job of controlling the match and taking care of it early on. So I think he did a great job and you know there were some chippy challenges but that's to be expected in this competition and I think we were all prepared for that and I think we handled it well.
