QUOTE SHEET
REAL SALT LAKE 0-0 TORONTO FC
RIO TINTO STADIUM; MARCH 4, 2016
Toronto FC
Head Coach Greg Vanney
On his team’s performance:
“I thought we started really well. I thought we were unfortunate, obviously, Rimando doing what Rimando does, saves a penalty kick. I thought we had a couple other really good looks early on. That would have been nice to be playing from ahead, you know. It’s always a tough place to play as the game progresses here and in the first half we had the wind at our back and we needed to take advantage of that a little bit better. The game got I thought a little bit where we couldn’t get the ball on the ground and get into play in the latter part of that first half so it ended in a little bit of a hectic way and we’ve got to be better in that moment. Second half we came out, we were against the wind we weren’t connecting great but we stayed stingy defensively. Most of the things we gave away were from distance and Clint can clean those up and I thought we still had some chances, you know, on the counter and a couple times where we got some decent spells of possession. But it was good to get Victor on the field. I thought it was a challenging game to see seven yellow cards and to see that way the one sort of went, and my takeaway is that everyone can get better today, including both teams and the refereeing.”
Do you take away more positives than negatives from this result?
“Yeah, absolutely. This is an incredibly difficult place to play. We don’t ever talk about it, but altitude starts to kick in especially when it’s the first game of the year and everyone is trying to get ninety minutes at full, sort of, season fitness in the first match. And you know, for sure I thought, we started to feel that a little bit as the game progressed and so we stayed stingy defensively. We were, again pitched another shutout which is something that is important to us and we missed some good chances, let’s be clear. So yeah, a lot of positives to take away but we also know there are a lot of steps that we can take to improve and get better and make sure that games like this we win.”
On physical play against strikers:
“You can hope you get the calls. Jozy is a big, powerful guy and my gripe the whole game was that their centerbacks, especially Schuler had a hold of him all the time, so you know if was hard for Jozy to move, he was literally having to shake free on the hold and half those times he’s getting the call. The irony is that at the end of the day is that he gets the yellow card for persistent infringement and not the other way around. My feeling on that was that Schuler got an early yellow card for kicking a ball away and I thought he was pretty safe from then on because I didn’t think he was going to get a second yellow for much of anything unless he really got ahold of somebody, which he did. He was holding and Jozy was trying to break free and we need the game the game to be called. If both teams are going to be holding it needs to be called for it. That was supposed to be one of the things that were going to look at this year is holding especially in and around the box and it wasn’t. I was asking for it and it wasn’t happening.”
On Toronto’s attack:
“I thought we had some very good looks early on in the game. Nick had his opportunity at the penalty spot and he is known for quickly reading things. Call it what you want we all have our ideas of what happened in that moment. Nick was quick, he was low and to the spot. An opportunity lost in the moment as the game went on.”
DEFENDER STEVEN BEITASHOUR
On the game:
“I think obviously we have to clinch it on the road. That’s the first step. I think we could have capitalized on our chances and gotten three points, but overall it’s a good first start.”
On the games difficulty:
“Yeah you know it’s on the road. It’s always going to be difficult on the road. I think the first three or four matches we’ve got to get the clean sheet, which we did. We had some opportunities to get three points but at the end of the day, you go on the road, you get a clean sheet, you should be happy about it.”
On the team’s defense:
“The coaching staff does a great job preparing us for that in the system and Michael in front of us just sweeping everything away. That’s one of those things, you’re on the road you don’t want to give too many opportunities which I don’t think we did tonight and we’ll build momentum from that.”
On leaving with a point:
“I think we could have definitely walked away with three but at the end of the day to not give up a goal on the road is something to look forward too.”
Defender Drew Moor
On earning another clean sheet:
“Clean sheets are always good especially on the road. You walk away happy. At the start of the day, if you would have told us we would have gotten a clean sheet, obviously, we would have taken it of course. I just thought we lacked a little bit of sharpness and it’s a good sign that, although this was a decent result, that we’re not really satisfied with not coming away with three points at the end of the day”
On the game:
“I think it was a combination of everything. Our sharpness; there was some wind; it was a dry field. Just a bit heavy; a bit slow. But, I thought we had our chances to put them away, certainly. Give them credit; they made the stops that they needed to. But, I think as we go on this season we’ll look to build off of this and improve, really, our all-around game because I think we have more to offer than what we showed today.”
On chances created:
“It was an open game. I thought it was entertaining. Both teams really went for the full three points and the first game of the season sometimes it a bit more cagey and defensive. I thought both teams defended well. Both teams went for it which is always fun. It means us defenders have to work a little harder. But I think we could have stolen three points here today.”
Real Salt Lake
Head Coach Jeff Cassar
On the Schuler and Beltran performances:
“Yeah I had a conversation with Chris the other day, where he has to have a presence about him. He is a big, strong boy and I think he got stronger as the game went on. That is really encouraging. Him and Dave together were very solid and I thought Chris and Tony dealt with some midfield runners and the width they show. They had to deal with a lot. Nick came out big, on three occasions for us. A shutout is very important for the group, obviously we want three points at home, we want to always get three at home. This was important for our group and I couldn’t be more proud of them.”
On Schuler’s performance:
“Yeah, listen, I love Chris I think he is a fantastic man and a fantastic defender. There is going to be competition everyday. It starts over again on Tuesday on the practice field. We are going to have Justen Glad back in the mix and Aaron Maund really close. I think the competition will push the defensive group and that is when you are going to get the performances like we did today because they know they have to or they will lose their spot. When guys play with urgency like they did tonight, good things happen.”
On what it means to have Rimando:
“Well I mean it is huge. The first 20 minutes were rough for us, we were under it. When you get those big timely saves like Nick does, it can energize a group. Once we weathered the first 20 minutes, the game settled down, we accomplished a lot of the things we wanted to. His presence to our back line, to our team, just elevates us. When the fans get into it after he makes a save it just brings energy to the place and you see it really spurred us out. After he made that save, we were much better. We don’t want to have to always rely on that, but that is why he is for me. Arguably one of the best in MLS ever.”
On his satisfaction level:
“Well we created 17 shots. We are still working on the final ball, the final product. I think we created a lot of the chances that we thought we were going to have but the quality has to be there. Obviously putting the ball in the back of the net is the most difficult part. It takes fine execution from everything. I do believe the elements were very tough today. The wind was very hard, balls were against the wind hanging up, with the wind going further. So it was a difficult night on that end. But I do like how I can see where the potential is.”
On the formation:
“You can look at it that way. This is the start of this year. We went against a team who was in the final last year, where they hadn’t made one change to their roster or their starting lineup. I think we dealt with it, we had a very tough first game. Obviously at home we want to get three points. But I don’t think it was because we didn’t play with a second striker. The final ball wasn’t good enough tonight, on this occasion. But if we continue to put ourselves in those positions we will come out victorious on the other end.”
Goalkeeper Nick Rimando
On preparing to defend a PK:
“Daryl does a really good job about tape and kind of picking out who will take the PK’s for them and where they go, and go the right way this time. Hopefully next time he has a PK, it’s luck again.”
On 29 career penalty saves:
“Yeah it is, especially that one, because I caused it. Whenever you can give your team a boost and I feel like PK’s are a way that a goal keeper can give your team a boost when they need it, or a jump in the game and I think that once we made that save, we made the spark.”
On his focus during that final minutes of the match:
“For me in the dying minutes, five minutes, six minutes it’s about keeping that shutout. Of course we’re at home and we want to get the win, but keeping that zero in the back is huge and when you have guys like Giovinco and Altidore up top you can’t let them be alone and you can’t fall asleep on them in those final five minutes are very important, because we all know those points add up in the end.”
On Horst and Schuler:
“I thought the pair was great. A big presence back there when you have big forwards like Altidore and it makes it tough for those forwards, and Giovinco same thing. He’s never going to go for a ball against those two. They covered well. It wasn’t perfect, but I thought we covered well and everybody was organized and keeping the zero was our goal today, so we accomplished that.”
On Chris Schuler working through injury:
“I think he knows that he needs to be sharper. These games are quick fast. He knows he can play at this level. I think as the season goes on, and this is for everybody, everybody’s getting sharper, quicker, I’ll say it again a little bit faster and to play a team like Toronto and get a shutout and to have a first game against them, I thought we did well. And again I keep on saying this, but it’s not going to be perfect in the first game, second game, third game, but if we can continue to get better in the back four all the way up and continue to play a good team defense, the goals will come.”
On the team formation:
“I thought we did well. I think they had maybe two shots. Correct me if I’m wrong. A penalty kick, and you know at the same time we’re at home. We want to create our space too. I thought we had a lot of that time as well, maybe not the possession we wanted, but we had our chances as well, so I thought we did well in that formation.”
On focusing on Giovinco:
“Yeah he’s definitely a player that we circle and always have to know when he’s around and when that ball turns over, I know first eyes are on him and Jozy Altidore, and I think that goes with Toronto. Their first instinct when they get the ball is to play it to them, so I think we did well and finding the spaces they were in closing them down and making it difficult.”
On his first save where he slapped the ball away:
“Yeah I think it might have been a throw in, I’m not sure, but it went over Horst and Chris Schuler miss kicked it and I just tried to make myself big and Josie tried to chip it over me and I was able to get my hand to it.”
Defender Tony Beltran
On Chris Schuler:
"Crazy thing about Chris is that no matter how long he is out he doesn't seem to miss a beat. The year we went to the championship in 2013 he was out the majority of the year and he came back, I mean he always brings it back. From day one when he comes back so Chris is a game changing player for the team and I thought he was fantastic tonight."
On Rimando saving a penalty:
"First of all, it is not Nicks fault to give up the pk because there are numerous mistakes in the play. But, I'm never surprised every time a PK is given up my thought is you don't get ready for the rebound beacuse Nick is going to save it. It feels like nine out of ten times that thought is right. I mean credit to him he keeps getting better and better and he always has our backs."
On slowing Giovinco:
"Yeah, I felt that we did well obviously Giovinco was a big focus for us tonight you know and we are all happy for that tonight. Giovinco is the type of player where you have to stay mentally tuned in for ninety minutes you know he can be at a game and then one play he can hurt you I mean he had his chances tonight, but I thought our fight and focus in those situations to cover for each other was very good and we did a good job of limiting his touches. He seemed to get a little frustrated throughout the game, but still again he has so much quality he can change the game in a second."
On what to focus on for next week:
"I think first game of the year is always tough no matter how the preseason goes especially the first time you play at Rio Tinto. We have been here you know for almost as long as they have. And we get rid of those nerves and we get a little more base fitness under us and we start to sharpen them and now we go to Chicago."
On Rusnák’s debut:
"I think he did great, I mean it is not easy transitioning to a new league especially MLS, it's physical, I think Albert put himself in the right spots particularly I mean him and Joao are combining very well and he is looking for Jordan and looking for Yura and he is always a threat and I think he is going to do very well for his first year and I'm happy for him to make his debut."
On the weather conditions:
"I don't know what is going on with Rio Tinto I feel that last year especially it continues to be windy every game, but so it made it difficult especially the first half t's tough to get out, it's tough to keep the ball in the ground, but you know we battle through it first half and it is what it is for both teams."
Midfielder Albert Rusnák
On his debut:
"It was a tough game I think, but we stuck there as a team and it’s not ideal because of course we wanted to win at first, but when we look overall at the game it was a good result. I think we as a team showed a lot of potential maybe and we did exactly what we planned to do to stop them playing in the middle which worked really well and I just think we need to be a little better in the final."
On his chances created:
"Of course we would like to get more, but I think we got some pretty good chances today, but maybe not the final chances but we got there to have a really good chance you know, but we missed that final pass a little bit so yeah."
On the altitude:
"Yeah, I mean I have been training here in Salt Lake for four or five days with this altitude so I felt it a little bit especially the first half and as the game went on I felt better and better. So I mean I think a couple of more weeks training here and I be completely good."
