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NEW YORK RED BULLS MEDIA CONFERENCE

July 10, 2016

Jesse Marsch

Harrison, New Jersey

New York Red Bulls, 0 - Portland Timbers, 0

Q. Can you give us an update on Gideon Baah, what his injury is and an assessment on Damien Perrinelle playing a little longer than you had imagined?
COACH MARSCH: Gideon, it's the same leg he injured in Columbus. He felt something. We're not sure exactly what it is. We're evaluating that as we go. And then, yeah, Damien had to come on earlier. When we put Damien on the roster we said there's a chance that if something happens in the tenth minute then you have to be prepared to put Damien on the field for 80 minutes.

It wasn't the 10th, it was the 20th. But I think, first of all, that him getting to play some major minutes against Club America meant that he was closer to full fitness and game speed. And so overall the man came in and did really well. Did really well. To go against those attackers and to deal with Adi and on a day where it's a good attacking team, was really happy for him and now he starts to look like himself. So that was really great.

Q. With the Lloyd Sam trade does it seem to be a big opportunity for Veron today? How do you think he did?
COACH MARSCH: You know, he was dangerous at moments. So I mean I thought he helped put a play together in the second half. He had a couple of plays in the first half where he's now on the move and going at guys and creating some danger. We switched from a three to two to try to give him a little bit more clarity up there as to how to move around.

That's just the challenge. Just continuing to fine tune tactics with him on how to move and I felt that moving from the three to the two helped us a little bit with our press because with our three we weren't -- Ridgewell was able to get his head up and start playing balls forward and playing through us. So but all that being said, overall on the day we have a lot of sort of half chances. We have a lot of chances.

We kind of create a lot of advantages and opportunities and we're just not quite good enough on the day. So talking with some of the guys afterwards, do we think it's a little bit of confidence or do we think it's a little about bit of sharpness, is it a little bit of both.

So we've got to still now have a real belief in our team that even when things aren't perfect we can push hard to at the end of the game get a result. And overall I thought the last five, ten minutes did that thought we could made a bigger push earlier on in this second half than we did.

Q. With that previous question you talked about confidence. How much are you fearing that it's a loss of confidence and how do you bring that back? And second part, what do you think about the quality of play of the game, your side and Portland as well?
COACH MARSCH: Okay, the first part, you know, after we had some tough results, we came home and we had a game against Chicago. And we played really tight. And it was kind of like that. And we wanted to be cautious because we didn't want to, when you play some of these teams that they're attacking players cheat a little bit and they're very explosive, we can't think about attacking without thinking about also if the ball turns over how to defend. So it means we have a little bit, tactically, a little bit more cautious of an approach. And then it means that maybe we don't get going in the game with enough movement and ideas with the ball and aggressiveness.

The game overall, a little sloppy. Not sure why -- the field was a little heavier and a lot of times when we play at night the ball moves a little bit more so the field was a little dry, and so there wasn't -- the connections weren't quite there like they normally are. But again I think for us to get a shutout in a game like this was really important. To play against a good team and get Damien back on the field and now for that to be still -- can that be a starting point and a hallmark of what we do as a team from here on forward is just not giving up goals. So that part was good.

Q. You sort of alluded to this and talked about it already, when you only score two goals in the last four or five games, how concerned are you about that trend right now and about the offense as a whole?
COACH MARSCH: Yeah, you know, in different games it's for different reasons. Tonight we certainly, I think, created enough moments where there's something that is really close to coming off and just don't pull off the final play. Whether that's the pass or the finish. You know, to be this point in the season and not have that quite firing is not what we would expect. But we're not going to get anxious about it because I know that we've got really good attacking players that on any given day can make a lot of plays. So just trying to get this thing going again and get this thing back on track and we've got to use tonight and Wednesday as a way to get our season going again.

Q. How frustrating is it to go into the Copa America break red hot, and then just hit a wall for goal scoring?
COACH MARSCH: Yeah, you know I said at the Copa America break that our team needed a break physically and we did. But then the season picked up and it was just game after game after game. The summer days can seem really long sometimes and the heat can hit and then we're -- but today I thought we actually had our legs and just couldn't quite get the final play right. So we'll get this thing going again. We'll get this going again. I'm not concerned about that.

Q. With regards to Lloyd Sam that got traded and Alex Muyl seems more in his line with speed as opposed to Gonzalo, who is more of a ball control, and you said you were happy with Gonzalo, but is there any look at maybe getting Alex in there to see if that replaces Lloyd's --
COACH MARSCH: We feel really good about Alex, and also we think Gonzalo is an important guy around here. We're trying to get him going. Listen, when Alex came in the game he helped. No doubt. I thought the game really started getting going and he found good moments and he was aggressive around the box.

So we know what we have with Alex. And, yeah, it's for me to try to get the balance of who to play when, what matchups we like, how to get the most out of each guy and then how it fits within the overall group. So was it discussion on Gonzalo or Alex? We like both of them and I think both can be good off the start or off the bench.

Q. Why has Gonzalo had such a tough time getting going here? If you look at his numbers they haven't been very productive. And going into the formation at the beginning of the year you said that's something you guys wanted to do to evolve as a team going into this year, where do you guys stand in that process?
COACH MARSCH: Yeah. Well, with Gonzalo on the field, there's a better ability to have flexibility with our tactics and if we play with two or three up front. You know we started with three. Then we switched to two and I thought actually that got us going a little bit at the end of the half. And then as -- then the first half you're trying to see if we can put a little play together. And also went back to three to try and get Sacha a little bit more underneath and Alex on the move to look at matchups to tactically make little adjustments so it can help the game and have us get better and ultimately unbalance the other team.

Q. What was the thought process with subbing out Gonzalo in the 70th minute? Was that preplanned or something that you had already arranged? And secondly Lloyd Sam was very popular player, not only with the fans but within the locker room. Do you think it's going to take time emotionally and tactically to make up for his loss?
COACH MARSCH: No. It wasn't preplanned with Gonzalo. We just felt that that minute that's what the game required. You know with Lloyd, yeah, it may take some time. I mean, I've said publicly that I really liked my relationship with Lloyd.

And he is a great personality and a guy that served this club in a big way. And so I'm hopeful that -- I think the group understands why the move was made and now it's up to us to take it forward from here. So wish Lloyd good luck in DC. Was watching last night, was actually hoping he would get into the game.

And he didn't. Saw his No. 8 -- some weird feelings about seeing him in DC United jersey. But overall, we wish Lloyd the best.

THE MODERATOR: Thank you.

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