New York Red Bulls head coach Jesse Marsch
THE MODERATOR: Questions.
Q. Understanding of course that all your unbeaten streaks are intact, you've never blown a two-goal lead in this building.
COACH MARSCH: Yeah.
Q. Does this feel like a pretty crushing defeat?
COACH MARSCH: Listen, I'm gutted for our guys. I think in all ways they established themselves in this game as a good team. Could have been three. Could have obviously helped ourselves by getting a third goal.
It's been frustrating how many points we've given away late in games. When you add them all up and you look at it, you shake your head and go, How in the world does that happen? They seem to come in different fashions.
The game I thought was totally under control. It came down to some scrambles in front of the box. Wind up coming in second on a couple plays.
I'm still very 'glass half full'. This is a good team. I know what I'm looking at. The frustration of giving some late leads away, we'll continue to reinforce certain things with the mentality, look tactically at what we do, personnel choices, the whole bit.
But this is a good team. We're making it hard on ourselves and we're going to get there the hard way, but we're going to get to where we need to go. We're going to get there.
Q. Three starters before the match, then a fourth starter in Ronald Zubar. How much did that impact what you had to do? Update on Ronald?
COACH MARSCH: No update on Ronald yet. Seems like it's maybe a little bit of a groin. We're hopeful it's not too bad. We've had a few groin injuries this week, so we have to look at what we're doing, what we can do better.
Yeah, it does handcuff you a little bit when your options aren't what they normally are off the bench. But we should have been able to take care of that game with whoever, especially at 2-0.
I think there's two ways to take care of it. One way is to make it three. But at the same time we shouldn't have to make it three. Should have been able to close it out. But when you keep it at two, there's these late moments where they're throwing Birnbaum forward, they're launching balls in the box, it sets up for some difficult scrambles and moments. At home we've always managed to survive those; on the road not as much.
We'll continue to push this thing forward. Again, not concerned.
Q. Jesse, obviously they were throwing things at you late trying to get goals. Seemed like you also were pushing numbers forward, 85th minute on with a 2-0 lead. Is that something to look at as far as trying to keep the ball a bit more or that's your style of play?
COACH MARSCH: There's always some moments where, can we find a way to keep the ball? Sacha goes in the corner, gets fouled, but they don't give it to us. Maybe there's a moment on the corner kick where we can hold it down there a bit more. Maybe if in some of these transitions you put a couple extra plays together, then maybe you can slow it down.
But we got some corner kicks, we played in their end. They weren't dangerous really. I can't really think of a chance until the 89th minute.
For me that game was totally under control. We've tried to not just come back into a shell because it invites pressure into your box. So we've tried to still play up the field and win balls up there, keep them under pressure. By doing that we create a bunch of opportunities for the third goal, but can't quite finish one off.
Another day this is different. On another day it's different. Today we have to swallow it.
Q. You had to switch up a couple of starters due to yellow cards. You brought in Gonzalo, Danny Royer.
COACH MARSCH: I thought it was great for Gonzalo to get a goal. We've been working on our outside midfielders joining in on the back post, being available to score goals like that. That part was really good.
I thought Danny Royer was very good, fantastic. Thought he fit into the team really well, understood the tactics. Dangerous. Set up the second goal. Also maybe could have had a third. Getting himself going with game fitness. I think he showed in all ways he's a guy we're going to be able to count on. That was a real bright aspect of today. So, yeah, good.
Q. Obviously Bill Hamid is a very good keeper in this league. How, not so much upset, but concerned were you at Sacha's both posts?
COACH MARSCH: Again, on another day I think both those go in. I thought Sacha was very good at setting up so many plays, setting guys up for chances. Could have had some goals, could have had some assists. He continues to play like that, we'll be in good shape. Brad continues to score goals.
There's so many positives to take away from this game. The one positive you can't take away is the result. Honestly, let's all be honest and look at that game. How am I going to be frustrated or disappointed, other than now the result? There's a lot there where we're totally in command of the game.
I'm not being positive for the sake of being positive. I'm being positive because I know what I'm looking at. This is a good team and we're going to continue to get better.
Q. As well as you've played at home, you haven't lost here since April, does that underscore how important it is to win the conference and get that home-field advantage?
COACH MARSCH: I mean, it's important to get the top two seeds, right? Then what the home-field advantage is after that, I'm not really sure. So the one thing it means, if you get to MLS Cup, the right to potentially host it, I think that's where it really becomes important. We're going to keep pushing for those top two seeds.
Obviously it would have been nice to get the result tonight, to go to Toronto and have us both tied, now know that everything's on the line. But it's still everything on the line for that game in Toronto. We've been looking at that game on the schedule for a while. Really excited. Really excited to go up there.
I think Toronto's done a really good job this year. They've done a great job on the road. They've been good at home. We're going to put our unbeaten streak to a test when we go up there. I know we're going to go up there and throw everything we have at them and I know we're going to play well.
Q. When you walked in, as an example, you said you shake your head and you wonder how you can end up dropping so many points late. If you ask yourself that question, what kind of answer do you have?
COACH MARSCH: One that sends us to the looney bin (laughter).
Yeah, I mean, some of it's been hard to pinpoint because it's come in different ways. Obviously when you're on the road and now teams start throwing things at you, it's important to find ways to just grind and survive.
They threw their goalie in on the last play in the corner kick in Vancouver. It was a big scramble. We looked at it, talked about how we wanted to deal with it. Luis and I discussed it. Luis said he wanted to keep a guy in the post. I said, Let's get a guy in the matchup. If we wind up leaving Felipe on the back post, maybe it's a moment where he can just clear it. Maybe I made the wrong decision by doing that.
Those are important details. We'll look at them, we'll think about them. More than anything we're going to keep pushing because this team has been on track and we're going to keep going.
Q. The organization had a beautiful ceremony to begin the game. They decided to use not only a person in law enforcement but a black woman. During the climate of the country right now, how important is that?
COACH MARSCH: Well, I would say that this organization tries in every way to be reflective of our fan base and our community. Certainly even a lot of the 9/11 honoring I thought was fantastic. Having that big flag out there was important. I thought the young lady who sang the national anthem was fantastic.
I thought overall the vibe of the day was just awesome. Having D.C. and us play in this kind of a game on this day I thought was really important for our league.
So in all ways I'm proud of our club. I'm proud to be here. I'm proud to represent it as the head coach. Everything I do, I try to make sure I represent what we want to be and who we are in a big way, so...
Q. Going back to your late leads. Ben said just before you came in, We know how they play, we know you'll get your chances late. Does that give you pause when you get a lead that you can't put a team away because you can't break their spirit, they know they'll get their late chances?
COACH MARSCH: That's fair enough. They also know they're going to be under the gun for 90 minutes, they could have been down 3, 4, 5-0. I appreciate the fact that he's aware of that. I think he should also include in there that we're very, very, very difficult to beat.
New York Red Bulls Forward Bradley Wright-Phillips
Do you see a pattern on how these results keep happening?
I don’t see a pattern, it’s unacceptable, it’s rubbish. We keep doing this, we had a chance to go on top, obviously being top right now isn’t everything but come on man. As a team we got to sort it out, it’s embarrassing man. You saw the game, this team, they didn’t have nothing. They had Lloyd’s chance. Great save by Luis, but other than that they had nothing. This was the only way they were going to score, something along those lines.
On being on top for almost the entire game:
We were cool, like I said they were never going to cause us any trouble apart from situations like that. We let that happen, we let them score by a schoolboy error, two schoolboy errors.
On pushing forward when it was 2-0:
No but that’s just the way they play, you know. We find that’s the way we play, we’re always trying to attack. We don’t plan to like that but if they are going to give us the room we are going to attack. At that point when we were, it was still 2-0. These are the corners we got to deal with. We spend too much time on these to be conceding those kinds.
On another 2-0 comeback by D.C. but this time at home:
Yeah what’s weird is that at Red Bull Arena that doesn’t happen. This is what’s the most frustrating thing. At the end of the day when you play at RFK, you can say, okay yeah an away point, but you can’t say that here. We were better than this team, we played better but didn’t win the game.
New York Red Bulls midfielder Sacha Kljestan
On if the result feels different because it’s a rival:
I don’t really care that it’s D.C., I’m just a little bit more upset that this is maybe the fourth or fifth time it’s happened this year. This game is different than the other ones where maybe we got our foot off the pedal, this one feels a little bit more unlucky and a little bit more unjust because we were really on top of the game. I hit the post a couple of times this game and on a different day it easily could have been 6-0 maybe. That’s soccer and sometimes the ball doesn’t bounce your way and I feel like in the end you just lost a few little battles in the last five minutes of the game that directly led to some scrappy goals. I’m not too upset with the way things have been going with the team because I’m still very high on the team, a lot of confidence in the group and I think we’re still in a very good way but just a disappointing result and it will go away in a day or so.
On not capitalizing on chances today:
Yeah that bothers me of course because I had two chances to bury the ball and unfortunately it missed by a couple of inches both times. Hamid made a couple of good saves, one on Sal Zizzo’s deflected shot and one on Bradley Wright’s shot earlier, so he had himself a decent game but I had him beat two times, it’s just unfortunate they didn’t find the back of the net.
On preparing for next week:
Well first and foremost we have a big Champions League game on Thursday so we’ve got to focus on that and then it’ll be a quick turnaround for Toronto. We know we’ve got Toronto with first place on the line and probably the biggest game of the season up to this point, against a very good team whose gotten some big results at home and on the road lately. It’s going to be a big challenge but it’s going to be a big test for us, we’ll see where we’re at.
On playing on September 11 and the pregame ceremony:
Whenever I think about 9/11 it’s pretty emotional for me. We had an opportunity to go to the 9/11 memorial earlier this season, it was pretty touching for me, meant a lot for me. To be able to play in this stadium means a lot.
D.C. United Head Coach Ben Olsen
THE MODERATOR: Questions.
Q. The way your season has been going, to get that late equalizer, what does this do even though there's not much time left?
COACH OLSEN: I think for most of the night it was pretty discouraging, right? They were better in a lot of facets of the game. But what I don't doubt with my group is courage and belief. To be able to salvage something on a day when we weren't that great, things were a little bit against us. I thought the first goal, thought it could have been a foul. We give them the second with a square ball. In some ways we played into their hands. We miss a breakaway. Again, things didn't go our way.
The second half, now we have to chase the game. When you do that against Sacha and Bradley Wright, you're in for it. They're as good as anybody in this league when you start to get exposed. We rode our luck a little bit. We have a good goalkeeper. We found a way to get something out of it.
This helps. A point in the East right now goes a long way 'cause there's a lot of ties, and it's very tight, and every point counts.
Q. Urgency or desperation the last few minutes or do you think something changed?
COACH OLSEN: There's certainly an urgency, right, at 2-0. We've got to throw the sink at them. It's not the first time they've kind of buckled late. I think our guys understand that. Start throwing Steve Birnbaum up there to get his head on some things. Getting your outside backs as high as possible. Stuff happens.
Give those guys a lot of credit.
Q. (No microphone.)
COACH OLSEN: In the first half, there's always space against them behind, right? The way they play, you always are going to have chances. Even in the first half, there's four or five chances. If the soccer is a little bit better or the decision is right from our end, we're in on two-v-ones or three-v-twos. That's the way they play. They're very successful in it. I give them a lot of credit.
Again, over the course of the night, there just wasn't enough soccer from us. We didn't connect on very simple plays that you have to do against this team in this building, right? The little things compound here if you don't do it well because you now defend and defend, then you can't get out to the ball. That's a problem against them.
Q. Not saying there would have been any doubt before, but what happened three weeks ago, did that add anything?
COACH OLSEN: Maybe. Maybe. I think you have to go poll the players. Usually belief isn't an issue with my group. But this will go a long way. We felt like we gave some points up last week. To go down and lose that game last week, have a response like this, it shows that we've got some character.
Q. How much, if at all, did Lloyd help with inspiration?
COACH OLSEN: He helps. Maybe a touch with some real minor details. But we know who they are. We watch them every week. We've been playing Jesse for a while. A lot of their cast of characters is the same.
In this building, they're not going to deviate from what they do. If you're not prepared for them coming in here and what they're going to do, there's not really any excuse for that.
Q. You mentioned the way they play. Even when they have a two-goal lead, are you surprised they're playing the way they did?
COACH OLSEN: We said at halftime, You don't have to throw the sink too early against teams that play this way because you'll still get chances. They'll at times leave themselves exposed.
But, look, they were very good tonight. They could have had two, three in the second half. Two posts. I'm under no illusions. They're a good team. That's the reality.
Q. (No microphone.)
COACH OLSEN: Yeah, goals are a big deal, right? But he'll be his toughest critic. He's always going to make a few saves that keep us in the game. He'll consistently do that for us, so...
Yeah, again, it's another chance to respond. We talk about making good choices in how we respond, tough moments throughout a long season, and we're constantly challenged to do that.
Q. Frank is an ankle?
COACH OLSEN: I hope it's his ankle. We're not sure. We've got to evaluate. It could be soft tissue. Something we'll have to look at.
D.C. United Defender Steve Birnbaum
On D.C.’s overall performance:
Yeah, you know, they were pressuring — kind of got lucky to hit the post a couple of times, Bill [Hamid] hits it. You know, obviously, it wasn’t a great game from us but credit to our team for staying in it and we ended up pulling out a tie so we’re not satisfied but we’re happy we got a tie playing like that.
On how his goal changed the game:
We scored I think 88th, 89th and you know, I think we were like “alright, let’s go, we can do this.” We got a little bit of belief, they were on their heels, and our team is pushing, We always think that if we’re in the game, we’re going to push. So credit to our guys.
On the team’s mentality after the game:
Yeah, it gives us a ton of confidence, knowing that we can come here, a tough place to play, and pull out a result playing the way that we did. Hopefully we can take some momentum going into Chicago.
D.C. United midfielder Lamar Neagle
On his late goal:
I mean it was obviously chaotic on the second corner we had there. I was just trying to be in the middle, you know try to get to it before the goalie could possibly come out. I think Bill was up for the header and got smashed back across to Luke and then obviously I’m just trying to be in front of the goal for any knock downs or anything like that. Luckily there was some spin on it and I was just trying to get in front of the post wherever I could and luckily I ended up getting a knee to it. I mean I didn’t really know what to, I didn’t know if I should try to get it before it went in the goal, I thought it might have been going in, I thought it might have been going out. I was just trying to stand my ground and not handball it or hit it wide. It’s probably the toughest, easy goal I’ve ever had.
On another draw from two goals down:
Obviously that shows good character, that we can come back and fight back towards the end of games and score goals. Obviously we don’t want to be down in the first place. You know everyone believes we could have had a much better game. They could have finished it a few more times, but you know to our credit we battled back. We ended up getting the goals, we just need to take the next step. We have that in our character that we can battle back, but hopefully we don’t have to.
On getting a point in the Eastern Conference:
Yeah, it’s huge, we don’t want to lose to anyone. We don’t want to lose momentum most of all, we want to keep going on and into every game as undefeated, but yeah like you said every point at this point of the season is crucial. Hopefully we can get some wins, especially when it comes to these next few games.
D.C. United Defender Steve Birnbaum
On D.C.’s overall performance:
Yeah, you know, they were pressuring — kind of got lucky to hit the post a couple of times, Bill [Hamid] hits it. You know, obviously, it wasn’t a great game from us but credit to our team for staying in it and we ended up pulling out a tie so we’re not satisfied but we’re happy we got a tie playing like that.
On how his goal changed the game:
We scored I think 88th, 89th and you know, I think we were like “alright, let’s go, we can do this.” We got a little bit of belief, they were on their heels, and our team is pushing, We always think that if we’re in the game, we’re going to push. So credit to our guys.
On the team’s mentality after the game:
Yeah, it gives us a ton of confidence, knowing that we can come here, a tough place to play, and pull out a result playing the way that we did. Hopefully we can take some momentum going into Chicago.
