New York City FC climbed to the top spot of the Eastern Conference table after defeating New England Revolution at home in The Bronx. Read what Doménec Torrent and your Boys in Blue had to say about the match.
Doménec Torrent
Thoughts on today’s match and Jesus Medina’s performance...
“We’ve said many times that soccer belongs to the players and I believe in that. It’s not the manager, it’s not the coach, it’s about the players. Right now they work very hard in the facilities and it’s important that every single player is ready to play. We lose Heber, we have another player. I’m very happy, especially for Jesus [Medina] because before the game I said you have to be ready against New England.”
On the tactical changes at halftime…
“I don’t remember today how many times I changed the shape to try to score a goal. Even, Keaton played in the center back the last 15 minutes. That happened because right now they have confidence.”
On the penalty decision for Jesus…
“When I say soccer belongs to the players, it’s about that…If you have confidence in the moment, take the ball and shoot the ball."
Jesus Medina
On the decision to take the penalty…
“Maxi, asked me if I was confident and I told him I was. I needed it and I think he knows that, and so he gave me the opportunity and I’m happy I was able to get the winning goal.”
On what the result means…
“It was a very important victory. We’re conscious we can finish in first. We had to win at home, and we were able to do it. It was a hard-fought victory, but we’re a few games away from our goal which is to finish in first place.”
On the team’s winning streak…
“We’re aware we’re playing well. We have a few games at home that are very important, so we have to continue to work hard and stay focused.”
Alex Ring
On grinding out results…
“I think we’ve come back a couple of times and won the game or draw the games at least, it’s just the kind of confidence knowing we have done that a couple of times that you have the quality to do it, just need to stay patient and believe in yourself.”
On if he felt they would find the two goals…
“We slept once and got punished and I believe that was their only good chance on target, but luckily it was early, then we changed positions. We stayed patient, especially after red card a little bit, people think yeah they're going to win, but it’s not that easy when you have seven bodies coming at you when you have the ball and shoot on target, but I am happy with the results.”
New England Revolution Head Coach Bruce Arena
On the team’s defensive performance…
“We did fine. Obviously, Matt Turner did well. We conceded some good chances and all, but we were put behind the eight ball. We were put in a difficult situation with the red card."
On whether the game was taken away from them or not…
“I don’t know if you can say it was taken away, give NYCFC credit they worked really hard… they worked harder to win the game.”
New England Revolution Goalkeeper Matt Turner
On having a good personal game today…
“We lost so it doesn’t really make anything better. No silver linings. Had the chance to get three, had the chance to get a point, and we gave it all away. No silver linings really.”
On the team playing down a man for so long
“We have been building performance after performance, we have been really growing as a group and really holding each other accountable on the field. Andrew Farrell, Jalil (Anibaba), (Michael) Mancienne when he came on, DeJuan (Jones), and Brandon (Bye) they put in an absolute shift, Willie (Zahibo), Carles (Gil), everyone that played just did an excellent job tonight. It’s just really unfortunate that we came away with nothing."
On the end of NE unbeaten streak and playoff implications…
“We will see what the results around the league are, I know we were probably the first game this weekend. It is about the next one, we can’t really dwell on this too much. We learned a lot about ourselves, and now we’ll go to Orlando and expect ourselves to get three points."
