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NEW YORK RED BULLS MEDIA CONFERENCEMarch 6, 2016Jesse MarschLuis RoblesHarrison, New Jersey New York - 0, Toronto FC - 2 Q. Sometimes I guess this game you can't tell because you were dominating possession. You had several fantastic chances and the penalty was called and that's the only thing that was probably the negative today for your side? JESSE MARSCH: Yeah, I mean, with the first game of the season you know we're not going to be our sharpest, so we had certain moments where normally you'd see us either create better chances out of certain plays or finish plays off and we don't quite do it. I mean, I'm not discouraged by that. I knew that today wasn't going to be our sharpest day just because it's the start of the year. But we also, you know, I guess the disappointing part from our end is we knew what this game was going to look like and we knew it was important to execute our game plan versus theirs, and in the end they came in with a game plan and executed better than we did and they wind up winning. So congratulations to Toronto, and you know, we just have to be a little bit sharper at moments and understand this is often what games look like when we play here. Q. You always have to give some amount of credit to the opponent, but when you have the ball as much as you did, maybe near two-thirds of the game and it's hard to finish dangerous chances, the few dangerous chances that you got. How frustrating is that or irritating is that? JESSE MARSCH: Yeah, like I said, it's an easy talking point for the game because normally you feel like the chance that Brad has, the chance that Mike has, the chance that Lloyd has, those wind up going in. But they don't tonight, and that's going to happen occasionally. So I'm not overly concerned about that. I still thought there were a lot of really good moments and I thought we had a lot of good moments where we managed the game well, and then you have two or three plays. Literally in the whole game, there are two or three plays that get away from us, and two of them lead to goals. So this is going to happen sometimes. We need to, again, be better in those moments. But overall I thought there was a lot of good. Q. Was this at all an example of what perhaps we were talking about a few days ago of another team coming in sort of with the plan against your specific style? Would there be a need for plan B of some sorts? Is this at all like that? JESSE MARSCH: Yeah, I mean, it is like that. I mean, there's been plenty of games here that have looked like what today looked like. And listen, there were little adjustments being made within the game to see if we can find a way to create advantages. But you know, I mean, again, lot of good, okay. Lot of good out of today, lot of good performances. Not our sharpest, which is normal at this time of year. I think we have to expect these kinds of games at some times, this kind of approach, and we've just got to try to be better at making sure we don't let the game slip away. Q. Obviously, like you've said, given that it is the first game of the season it's kind of difficult to gauge where your team's at, but Gideon Baah looked comfortable in the back in his debut. How would you assess his performance? JESSE MARSCH: I thought he was very good. Clearly on the ball he was fantastic. I think him and Ronald cut out a lot of plays and made it very hard on Giovinco. He didn't touch the ball much, but every time he does, it's dangerous. It's not an easy task on the day. It was good. I think he fit into the team seamlessly. So, yeah, that was a big positive. Him and Ronald both were big positives on the day. I actually thought then the way that Zach and Felipe controlled the mid field for a lot, won a lot of balls, tried to set plays up ahead of them. Toronto made things tight and we weren't sharp enough at creating concrete advantages and finishing the ones we had off. Q. Coach, in the Columbus series it was one of the things that we kind of noticed was that they were trying to press you a little bit and trying to go at your back line and keeping the team from building up. Can you notice that a little bit today with Toronto that they were trying to speed up the build up, if you will, more long balls out of your back line? JESSE MARSCH: I would actually go the other way. I would say they tried to stop the game and slow it down at almost every point including goal kicks, throw-ins, fouls, at any moment, and then when we have the ball and we're starting to initiate the way we play, there were very few times where they pressed us and it caused us trouble. Almost every time they pressed us, we were able to get by that and start to find possession in the midfield. The major issue was going from the midfield into the final third and trying to create advantages there. But even then when we lose it, we go and try to counter press them right away and get the ball right back again. So, you know, that's why I say, there's a lot of good today in terms of what we want to play like and just on another day and later in the season where we're sharper. I think it adds up more. Q. What did you think of the ball that led to the penalty kick? LUIS ROBLES: Well, I mean, Giovinco played a great ball. I believes he's the one that played it in with his left foot, made a streaking run. From that angle it's always tough for a defender. Kemar did his best to get back and hustle. As far as the way I saw it, it looked like a tough call. But when we watched the video maybe it's going to be a little more clear. Regardless of the situation we have to be aware not only of what's going on behind us and the runs that are coming in from the weak side, but we got to see today why Giovinco was last year's MVP. Just like Jesse mentioned previously, whenever he got a touch, it looked like he was going to do something dangerous. So in a game like today where we had possession and they were doing their best to break them down and we were playing the counter, I thought for the most part we'd eliminate their opportunities, but the few opportunities they had they were able to capitalize on a huge part because of the quality of Giovinco. Q. Talked a lot about the tactical flexibility of this team throughout preseason. For both of you on the field through the sidelines, what did you see from the way you were able to switch things up and move people around today? LUIS ROBLES: We switched from two strikers to three midway through the first half because we felt like they were really clogging the middle and it was hard to find space. It helped us create advantages and gain a grasp on the game. Later in the game we push back to two thinking that having Abang up there gives us one more presence in the box. They're back for the most part on a lot of their aerial challenges and little plays that he had to make defensively did pretty well, and we weren't quite good enough. You know, I mean, when you're looking at the game, you're trying to figure out ways to help it. So I think the fact that we have the flexibility is good. But in the end, even with some of the little changes we tried to make, we just weren't sharp enough. Q. Toronto sat deep and really tried to frustrate and block you guys off. Is that something you expect this year to see more from other teams, a lot of seeing deep, letting you have the ball, have possession and putting the onus on your team to try to break them down? LUIS ROBLES: Well, I mean, listen, it's partly an a approach other teams have, and it's partly a reality of what it's like to play against us. Okay? But that's we try to build in a lot of different things to make sure we don't, even when games look like today, we don't let them get away. But a lot of it requires us to score a goal and get a lead. But even if we don't give the lead, the part that's frustrating is that the penalty, just literally it was like one play that we let slip away and it cost us. So, you know, we've seen this in the past, so it's not new. Q. Luis, at what point did you feel with the missed chances and possession that it might come down to a game of mental attrition, one mistake? Did you get that sense in the game? LUIS ROBLES: I think right from the beginning I felt that. Just the way they approached the game tactically. They did a good job of staying compact and making it very difficult for us, and we understand that at that point they were just going to spring Giovinco. So for us defensively, if we could not only detract him and see where he's at and not let him make plays, we're going to be in a good position. Unfortunately in the second half we just lacked a little bit of that mental toughness that's required to shut a player of that quality down, and we paid for it. But it's not necessarily something that we don't have. It's something that's part of the process, and as we continue to find our groove, get more comfortable with the way teams are going to play against us, it's not a matter of if, but when that mental toughness prevails for us. Q. Jesse, in the 15th minute after the first quarter of the game, I overheard you look to your staff and say that's going to be dangerous for us. What makes you confident that you guys would be able to score from the air going forward? LUIS ROBLES: We were good on set pieces last year, and I expect us to be effective in unset pieces again this year. Yeah, so I think we'll continue to be dangerous in some of those moments. Q. You guys didn't have to deal with this losing field and suddenly 7 offer 8 games of the season. Now first one off the bat, you're in the hole. How do you bounce back and what is the mental make-up of this team going forward? LUIS ROBLES: For me, there's going to be very few talking points about last season. This is a new season. It's a new group. It's a new movement, right? Reality is that I'm not -- today's result doesn't change my opinion of anything. I feel like we have a good group. I feel like we have a good way of playing. I feel like we're on top of games a lot. I feel like there's more to our team now than ever before, and it's just a matter of having it continue to move forward in a really positive way. And we have a really strong group of men in that locker room who I know can handle any moment that's thrown at us. So it's a good reminder that it's never easy and we're going to have to earn everything. Q. Has it maybe frustrated the team also? And I saw at the end of the game, the game was finished and one of the refs pulled a yellow card to Phillip Wright. What was that? LUIS ROBLES: Yeah, I didn't see -- someone had told me that Bradley got a yellow, but I don't know about that. Yeah, I mean, I just tried to communicate with the fourth official that, again, it's his job to sort of understand what's happening in the game and there's one team that's trying to slow the game down at all moments and there is another team that's trying to get it going. That tactic for me, the slowing-down tactic, has to be mitigated by the referee by either handing out yellows or doing something to try to speed the game up. Not just to help us, but because the game is supposed to operate in a way that moves along. So didn't feel like he did a great job of that, but that wasn't why we lost tonight. FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports   |
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