USL Post-Game Quote Sheet
Red Bulls II 2, Charlotte 3
Saturday, July 15, 2017 – MSU Soccer Park
New York Red Bulls II Coach John Wolyniec
With team’s position in standings, is there now more pressure on the team to get results, especially at home?
“Definitely. I didn’t want to harp on that in pregame but I talked about it a little bit that we need to start getting points. Obviously, this game comes at a tough time against a team that is flying right now. For us to play them in the third game in a week at home, makes these three points hard but we needed them. We need points and we got to find a way to get points. I’m more concerned with us getting better and not making mistakes, and learning as we go. I’m more concerned with a little bit of plateauing in the development than points.”
What do you see different that you can build on with the team’s resiliency fighting back?
“You can always see positives and negatives. The negative is we seem to keep making mistakes. The positive is that we keep fighting and we always seem to have better second halves. Some of that is due to us going down and the other team being content to be ahead, but we keep fighting and we saw some of that today. We really put a lot into the second half. There were a lot of loose ends. The first goal that we get, I’m not sure was something came from us dominating the game. Having said that, the reaction after the goal was pretty good and we started to get a grip on the game. They’re (Charlotte) a good team so it was a tough challenge. It was a clash of styles and their style prevailed today.”
New addition sort of in Noah Powder, what does he offer on the wings in this year’s side?
“Noah is a guy that we had last year in the academy and has the least experience with our system and how we want to play. It was a bit early to for him to throw him out there but we felt that with two games earlier in the week and the heat, we felt we needed to rotate some players. I give him credit for today and he lasted 90 minutes, even though it is his first start. He did some good things, some things to work on, so hopefully we can continue to move him forward and give us some stability at right back.”
New York Red Bulls II Player Noah Powder
Couple of thoughts on the game and first start as a professional?
“Good to be back with my home team. I’ve been with the team for a while. It’s a great family to welcome me back. In the game, I thought we started off slow. We could have played a little better on fluidity on pressing and our system. But as the game went on we, lifted our heads, fought through, made some changes and that’s it.”
Chemistry this year, how did you feel you fit in?
“Always difficult to jump in that back line with new players, especially with the system we play. I’ve been training a while and kinda know the guys and how the guys play and how they want to play the ball to me and I understood it.”
Mentality on the field to rally in the second half
“It’s always difficult when you’re down but our captain, Dan Metzger, he lifted us and said to keep going and going and subs that came on gave us great energy to come on and lift us and drive at their back line. It was just good from there.”
New York Red Bulls II Player David Najem
Thoughts on the game, first career goal, not the result you wanted, but showed reslienc in the end.
“With the system we play, we want to get after teams. I thought we did a pretty good job of that in the first half. A couple of chances didn’t go our way, and then they come back down the field and score two on us and that’s a dagger for sure but, the way we play, we have to be ready for every opportunity, even on the defensive end. We need to clean up plays, get back up the field, keep the ball away from our end, they didn’t have too many shots on goal. That’s the system that we want to play. The coaches put us in this and trust us and we have to embrace that and clean it up. If we clean it up, these results can go in our favor very quickly.”
Result isn’t what you wanted, but is it something you can build on in fighting back against Charlotte?
“Absolutely. They are a good technical team. They play well in our league. Being down 3-0, we didn’t hang our heads. Towards the end, we kept fighting and we can build on that. I think the first thing we have to do is find way not to dig ourselves into holes early in the game. If we figure that out, we definitely have the resiliency to fight back and that’s a good characteristic to have as a team.”
