Read up on all of the soundbites from the home locker room following New York City FC and Red Bull's draw Wednesday night.
Domènec Torrent
Considering you lost two men, how do you feel with the result...
“Today we’re very happy with the result because you know what happens when you play against this team. They’re a tough team, Red Bulls. And especially in the second half, we played with 9 against 11. And I want to thank my players for their effort. I’m very proud of them. In the end, we played 11v11 because we had two more in the stands. Our fans were amazing and I say it many times. When we have our fans, like today, like every single day, we can win the game even when we play with nine players.
On the team’s mentality and performance after Saturday’s game...
“I am very happy with them because in the second half we were able to recover many things, things that are very good for us. We were able to convince ourselves that this is football and that we had to fight and not give up to the point that we could have even won the game. We could not give up at home, in the Yankee Stadium, not in a derby with our fans. You can lose, but you have to change the attitude because we had a plan that was not the one we saw in the first half. We had the plan that if they pressure we would play on the other side, but in the first half we only played long balls and you make a bigger effort. I am very happy and proud of them. I cannot say anything other than thank you and thank you for their effort.”
On the second half message...
“Believe me when you are losing the talk becomes much easier. I told them we are losing 1-0 but we could be losing 3-0. We have to keep the ball. We have to pass the ball and if at the end we lose 3-0, I’m going to defend you at the press conference because you have given all you had. It could go right or wrong, but with the attitude they showed I was very happy.”
What made you come out in the 4-3-2 for the second half...
“Yes, sometimes when you play with 10 players, normally the coaches play for one, me as well sometimes, but I can prove, with Manchester City and Bayern Munich, that when you play a 4-3-2, it’s not a bad idea because you have two players and a fixed three players. [When] you have three players in the middle and you can play footballl. You can play football well. When you decide to play one [forward], it is not a bad idea, but you only have one player up top and they can attack all the time. That is the reason why I prefer to play. My experience in my last ten to fifteen years, it’s like that. It’s more open when you play with two strikers up. That is the reason why. But believe me, sometimes you decide to play this way and you lose the game 4-0. That is the game. It’s football.”
David Villa
On his goal...
“We talked at halftime that we needed a lot of effort from the two strikers because we had one player out. We needed to be the majority of time closer to their box and not close to our box, because with one player less if we are close to our box they can score because they have good players in the attacking side. And we can do it, the first few minutes we start like this with Joe. Maxi put the ball to Joe, he set [it up], and I can score.”
On the team's spirit today...
“It was amazing but not just today. The other day we had a tough game in Philadelphia and in Toronto as well because they are a great team, but the team after these games is doing well and they're doing well again today. We are happy because we had injuries today and Mattarita [red card] and Alex [Callens, injury] which are very, very important for us in the defense, but they [the team] did well so we are happy.”
On the team fans...
“Yes, since the first day I arrived whether it’s been in the bad times, which we’ve had some, or in the good times, they’ve always been there. Tonight, I think the fans were the first to believe in a comeback and we simply followed them. We are very proud to have the fans we have, we know they’ll be there in the good times as well as the bad times. I think they’ll be happy with the team effort today. Obviously they wanted all three points like we did, but again I think they’ll be very happy with the team effort.
Sean Johnson
On tonight’s effort…
“Yeah, I’m definitely proud of the effort. It’s kind of crazy. It kind of symbolizes our season at that. Even down two men, every guy on the pitch was still pushing through. On a game like that, we understood what it meant and everybody’s just hungry to win. Whether it’s nine men, we could have played the game with seven, it didn’t matter how many men we had out there, we still would have pressed on to try and win the game. The mentality we had, Dome [Torrent] challenged us before the game to really dig down and find a way to come out. It wasn’t our tactics that were going to win us the game today. It was our fight and our drive.”
Clearly there was no drop in intensity tonight...
“No, I thought our intensity was incredible. Being down one man isn’t easy. Being down two men isn’t easy. We talked about after the first half that it’s not over. We have 45 minutes. The silver lining is that we have a whole half to play. So we came out and fought for every second ball that we were picking up in the midfield. For me, we got a result because of our midfield. I thought Maxi [Moralez] was excellent. I thought [David] Villa did an excellent job finishing. But Maxi and Alex Ring put in a good shift today.”
How do you prepare for a game like this...
“Honestly, we just have a collective discussion. We’ve been given everything as far as a tactical approach, but we just want to make sure that we dealt with their key players. [Bradley] Wright-Phillips came up with a goal. But, you know, it happens. We have to limit opportunities and I thought we did a pretty good job at keeping them in areas that were facing away from a certain kind of in and around. And our back line held strong.”
Maxi Moralez
General view of the game...
“I think it was a tough game, we didn’t have much space, defensively we did what we were supposed to. With two men down, we had to decrease the number of players up top. At the second half we positioned ourselves better than them and we didn’t let them feel like they had one extra player. We got the tie, having 9 players only make things more difficult, they had two more players, much more space but objectively we did a very good job.
On the fans supporting the team throughout the year.
“I think throughout the season they have accompanied us very well, with a lot of effort we have tried to give them a lot of satisfactions. I think it is very important to continue having their support for the rest of the season and keep the adrenaline up. Thank you and we hope we can get in good shape to the playoffs.”
Anton Tinnerholm
What did you think of the result...
“It was one of the craziest games I’ve ever played. It was a tied game after 25-30 minutes and then they scored a goal. And the whole time, we thought it was going to be a tough one, cause we know they’re a good team. But, we had a good talk in halftime saying that we have nothing to lose and we said that we were going to give it a try, give us a chance, and give the fans some hope. And in the start of the first ten minutes, it was incredible by us. We should score even earlier than we did. And then we got a second red card. And then it’s even tougher for us. It’s not anything you train on, 9 against 11. Especially against a good team like this. So, it was more about fighting spirit than it was courage today and we got some energy from the fans today. I think it was some great energy at the stadium today. The best since I have been here, so we got energy from the fans.”
Alexander Ring
On today’s tough derby match…
“I think we showed character today, in a derby where it counts. I’m proud of the team, we showed discipline today. We showed our true side today, the one we’ve had most of the season. Maybe we lost our intensity a few games back, but we showed up today… and it was a deserved point for us.”
On the team’s energy and intensity…
“The last couple of games we’ve been missing some of the traits we’ve had all season. I told the guys, if we don’t bring it every match we’re going to get lost in this league, because the quality of the other teams is good enough to punish us. Even though we won, we weren’t that good against Toronto with a man advantage, and the Philadelphia game wasn’t our best… I think this was a great response from the team.”
