New England Revolution head coach Jay Heaps:
Opening Statement:
“It was a good start for us and I thought they started well. They came into the game in a good form, good shape and it took us a little while to get control of the game, but once we did I thought we were moving really well and created a lot of chances.”
On how the team created so many chances:
“We wanted to work on our spacing and continue to get the spacing right. I thought we had a good chemistry going. I thought Lee (Nguyen) was finding some nice pockets. But we were defending well. We weren’t giving a ton away so we weren’t retreating a lot. We were finding balls in good areas and that’s the most important, when you win that real estate, where you’re keeping possession and where you’re getting the attack, that’s the most important part.”
On Scott Caldwell’s performance:
“I was real excited about Scotty (Caldwell) tonight. He puts in such a great effort every training session, every day and every game. So, when he gets out there and he does all the hard work, he’s just one of those people you want to just have on the field and do well and when he does and scores a goal like that, that was special because it was his first goal, so we were all excited.”
On how New England’s forwards are performing and if he’s settled on a front three:
“There’s no settling. I thought Diego (Fagundez) and Kelyn (Rowe) came in and for me there’s never going to be a settle. It’s going to be who can push who to play and not only that but, what does the matchup look like. Tonight, the idea was we thought we needed the pace out wide with Teal (Bunbury) and we wanted the strength of Juan (Agudelo) on the left side and next week is going to be different. We are going to go into the week with who we think is playing the best but also what the best matchup for us is.”
On three local players (Scott Caldwell, Charlie Davies and Chris Tierney) getting on the scoresheet:
“It’s a special night. Tonight was a great team effort, so when you talk about New England and New Englanders, it’s a special feeling. But, also I thought front to back, I thought Jermaine (Jones) was excellent, I thought Farrell was excellent, I thought London Woodberry had another excellent game. So, when you put your back four, obviously Chris (Tierney) had a great game. So when you have your back four playing the way they are connecting with the midfield and the other one I want to mention is Andy Dorman had a really quiet night. When I say quiet night, he was just clean everywhere. He made every play he needed to make, got the ball off his foot and created a lot. So it’s New England getting on the scoresheet but I think it was an entire team effort.”
On beating a Real Salt Lake team that the Revolution have struggled against in recent years:
It was good. I think they’ve had our number. I told the guys I think the last time we beat them I was on the field, so that’s not a good thing. The guys came out and there was a little extra energy and a little extra effort to make sure we got control of the game. I think that was the most important, we knew Salt Lake, they control games. That’s what they do. They limit possessions, they control the tempo of the game and we needed to take that from them. It took a little while. You saw the first 10 minutes they had the tempo but, we took it from them and that is what we needed to do.
On the structure of the team’s attack and how goals are coming from different places:
That’s how we want to be built. I don’t think we’re a team that’s going to have that 25 goal scorer, like teams in the past. I think we’re a balanced attack. I’ve talked about it from the beginning. I think that’s the way we need to function, where we have different players scoring different ways and for me, that’s the most difficult. When I was playing and there was a player, that if you shut one guy down you felt like you could win the game. I hope the teams that come in and play against us feel that they have to stop two or three or four guys because if they try to stop just those guys, someone else is going to beat you.
On Chris Tierney scoring with his right foot and if he practices it in training:
“No. Then he (Tierney) got greedy and tried to get a second one. Chris is great and I think that’s the key because he has such a great left foot, you have to overplay it. So for him to pull back, he sensed that he was going to get a little bit of space and he hit that right foot perfectly and that was a great time to do it. I think he’s so good with that left foot that people have to respect it and over-commit and when he takes advantage that’s going to give him a little space as well.”
On team’s focusing on shutting down Lee Nguyen:
“I think whenever he touches the ball there’s an instant urgency to get him. Tonight the same thing with Jermaine (Jones), the moment he touched the ball they put someone on him. But the great players play through that and I thought Lee (Nguyen) may not have scored tonight but he hit the crossbar, he created a ton. He had the assist on a goal. I think Lee’s playing well. You can’t just put what the scoresheet says – it’s what’s he doing to build and what’s he doing for our attack. He released Charlie (Davies) a few times, he released Teal (Bunbury) a few times. For me, it’s about what he’s doing in the build-up and the goals and the assists, those will all come once we’re playing like we know how to play.”
On if the team will get complacent after going six games unbeaten:
“That’s not going to happen. We’re one game at a time, it’s as simple as that. We can’t go too far ahead, can’t go too far back. It’s short memory and it’s on to the next game. We don’t talk about New York until it’s time to face New York. That’s how we keep our approach – the same process every week so we don’t get ahead of ourselves.”
New England Revolution forward Charlie Davies
On the offensive pressure throughout the game:
“We just came out with good intentions. We wanted to attack. We wanted to create chances for each other. We knew that they were a little bit vulnerable tonight missing their two starting center backs so that’s new guys on the back line and we did a great job of moving the ball and exploiting those new center backs that they had and we found good spaces and I think once we got rolling it was very tough for them to handle and we just kept feeding off the chances we were creating and the energy was right and the chemistry was coming together. So like I told everyone before I think we’re not there yet and I think when we are there, it’s going to be scary. We’re all excited, we’re all hungry, and we want to continue to have success like we had tonight.”
On how the club can take it to the next level:
“The sky is the limit with this team. We’re so talented, we’re so deep, and it’s such a joy to play. I think as you saw tonight everyone had smiles on their faces. We’re all enjoying playing with each other and we’re enjoying playing well and I think it’s still early in the season, I think we still haven’t obviously hit our peak performance yet and I think that’s what ‘s driving us. We have a bad taste in our mouth from last year’s MLS Cup Final and we know what it takes to get there and we want to this time bring the trophy home.”
On the team’s chemistry on and off the field:
“We all genuinely like each other. We’re always hanging out together off the field which is rare for a team when you have so many guys hanging out together on off days. A night like tonight where things are going well, you’re scoring goals, everyone’s having fun, and everyone wants each other to score I think that’s the beauty of this team there’s not many selfish people on this team. I think everyone wants everyone to have success and that’s what makes it so much fun to play with this team.”
On his goal:
“Scotty (Caldwell) played an amazing cross in and I just rose up to it to finish it with my head. Tonight I couldn’t score with my feet so I thought it would be nice to score with the head.”
On three of the four goal scorers being from New England:
“Of course, I think it’s special to have guys from New England on this team and guys playing from New England on this team and we’re all doing well. It’s great for the youth as well in the area knowing that one day they can make their dreams come true and play for this team just like I had this same dream. To be able to have success for the hometown team it’s priceless, it’s something that I’ve always dreamed of and I’m living my dream as we speak. It’s something that when I’m eighty years old I’ll be able to look back and think what a special opportunity this was for me.”
On his ability to create scoring chances with Teal Bunbury and Juan Agudelo:
“I think tonight, you know, it’s the first time Teal (Bunbury), Juan (Agudelo) and I played together as the three forwards and we clicked right away. We found each other, we knew exactly where to exploit them and which space was open for me to find and everyone else filled the open spaces that I left, and so I think it’s great when the first time we play together and we have so much chemistry on the first game and it’s crazy to think of how we’ll be come the end of the season with us playing together.”
New England Revolution defender Chris Tierney
On New England’s game plan:
“Attack and keep the ball and play in their end. I think we did that really well tonight. We put them under a whole bunch of pressure. When we’re playing in and around their 18-yard box, we’re not going to concede many goals. Again, we’re really happy with the way we played. Good game plan and we executed it well so we’re really excited.”
On London Woodberry’s performance:
“London (Woodberry) has been great for us. These last two games he’s stepped in and he really hasn’t put a foot wrong. The thing about London is he’s good on the ball but he’s rock solid defensively, which as a full back that’s the most important thing. So we’re really excited about the depth of this team this year. We had a guy like London who hadn’t played any minutes up until Philadelphia and he’s really, really played well. We’re excited to have guys that can step up when players go down. There’s opportunities there and it’s a long season so there’s plenty of guys who are going to get to play, and we train hard every day to make sure everyone’s ready.”
On the team’s past struggles against Salt Lake:
“RSL is always a really tough matchup for us. I don’t know that I’ve ever beaten them, so it felt good. They’ve stuck it to us a couple times. I remember my rookie year or maybe my second year, we lost 6-0 at their place, so it felt good to turn that around on them, but we’re looking forward. We played really well tonight and it didn’t really matter the opponent. I think we were going to win tonight no matter what. So if we bring the game that we brought tonight, we’re going to keep moving forward and picking up points.”
On Scott Caldwell scoring his first professional goal:
“It’s been such a long time coming. Scott (Caldwell) is such an underrated player, in my opinion. He does so much for the team. He’s really stepped into a role on this team where a lot of guys look to him and really respect him. He brings it every day, he’s phenomenal in training, he’s even better in games. We’re really lucky to have him and it’s great to see him get on the scoresheet, long overdue, so we’re excited for him.”
On Salt Lake’s tactical spacing:
“Salt Lake plays narrow. They play that diamond midfield, their wide guys tuck in so there’s space to play on the flanks if you can get it there. They press really well which is typical of a Salt Lake team, but if you’re good on the ball and good in possession and have confidence rolling the ball forward then there’s gaps, and we found those gaps tonight.”
On playing in front of the biggest home crowd of the season:
“The support was great tonight and we’re really happy that we put in the performance we did tonight to reward all the fans that came out.”
Real Salt Lake head coach Jeff Cassar
On the difficulty of playing with an injury-depleted roster:
“We’re not going to use that as an excuse at all. We always say we have a deep team and tonight wasn’t our night. We got beat in every aspect: coaching, performance on the field. We got to take this one on the chin and prepare for San Jose.”
On the effect of New England’s third goal early in the second half:
“We talked at halftime about coming out and just taking it one goal at a time. When they got the first one that kind of really reverses everything and I think we lost our way. It’s something we can’t allow to happen but we did and like I said we’re going to take this one on the chin and move forward.”
On what was going wrong with Real Salt Lake in the game:
“There was a lot of things that were going wrong: poor giveaways, losing the second balls, getting ourselves in bad positions and not getting close enough. There was multiple things that went wrong tonight.”
On defender Aaron Maund playing in Foxborough, being from Dorchester, Massachusetts:
“It was an opportunity for Aaron (Maund) to get minutes and for Elias (Vasquez) as well and you know I thought they did a formidable job until the floodgates started opening up and then we never gained control of the game.”
On the performance of goalkeeper Jeff Attinella:
“He really was outstanding tonight – for me, the man of the match on both teams; just multiple big saves and what I can’t get over is that we didn’t have people in positions to help him after he made big saves. The ball’s bouncing around in the box, it’s just unacceptable but Jeff (Attinella) was fantastic.”
On what he told his team at halftime:
“It was gain control of the ball, be aggressive with our thoughts and just take it one goal at a time, make sure we don’t expose ourselves and get open because they have a good attacking core.”
Real Salt Lake midfielder Kyle Beckerman
On if playing without Javier Morales and Nick Rimando affected the result:
“Of course it was going to make the game harder for us because they’re important players for us. But New England played a great game. They’re a really good team, they’re flying high right now and we’re not, and that was what happened tonight.”
On the difficulty of having so many players out through injury:
“Well I think it’s an opportunity for guys to get minutes that maybe won’t, so (there’s) a couple ways to look at it. I think, as many teams will do, they’re going to look at it positively, and that’s what we tried to do – look at is as a chance to get a good result with maybe not all our guys that usually play, and we just weren’t able to do it tonight.”
On Salt Lake’s bright start before New England took control:
“It seemed like we did okay in the beginning. It was about a five minute span where they finished two good goals and we didn’t. And that sort of set the tone for the rest of the game.”
On the Revolution’s level of play:
“They’re a solid team. I think they’ve been together now for a while – a lot of familiar guys. They got a nice front three with some guys coming off the bench that could be starters on other teams, and they’re a good team.”
Real Salt Lake defender Aaron Maund
On his thoughts leading up to the game being from Dorchester, Massachusetts:
“We thought we were going to come in here and get a result and it doesn’t matter where we’re playing we try to come in here and at least get a result.”
On moving on from this result:
“I mean obviously we’ve got to get this past us and look ahead to the next week. San Jose is a tough opponent so we need to get back to the drawing board and figure it all out.”
