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NEW YORK RED BULLS MEDIA CONFERENCEJuly 24, 2016Jesse MarschHarrison, New Jersey Red Bulls - 4 New York City FC - 1 Q. (No microphone) during the week about the referees and that they were impacted greatly by your comments and that it wasn't fair and that he told you so at one point. Is there any -- COACH MARSCH: I mean, he never said anything to me. That's all I can say. He didn't want to shake my hand in the hallway. But I've seen this from him after the game before. So it's not a problem. I'm going to focus on us, which I think the game was decided by the players, and in every way our players put a big imprint on the game. And I thought that, from the first minute that they were, even on a hot day, very alert, very tuned in, stuck to our game plan, and deservedly got the result. Q. How were you able to adjust the high press coming from the July 3rd match? They seemed to handle it pretty well. It seemed like they really had a lot of difficulty this time around with their buildup play out of the back and that impacted a couple of performances. COACH MARSCH: Yeah, I think the weather had something to do with that. It was hot, and so they weren't able to really get a rhythm. But our pressure was very organized. We knew it had to be. We worked on it extensively this week and talked about it. And I thought that the players executed, again, the game plan according to the pressure, according to the ball movement, according to the tactics with the ball. So, again, I think that it was a well executed game for 90 minutes, which we've still -- at home we've been able to do that a lot better than on the road. Now can we take this kind of mentality and approach and make sure that on the road we can manage it the same way? Q. Jesse, another two goals for Brad in this one. It seems like he -- every time he plays against NYC FC, he has a big impact. What is it about him that allows him to rise to the occasion in these big Derby matches? COACH MARSCH: I think, more than anything, when Brad has had rest, when Sacha has had rest and they've been able to recover, they've been able to produce quality in big moments. So first full week of training that we've had in a while where we can actually rest a little bit, work on some things, get sharp in training, design a game plan, execute it, and then allow our players to play the game. So I think more than anything -- okay, Brad's a big game player. Sacha's a big game player. There's no question about that. But the more that we can, I think, control how much -- how many minutes they're putting in and what their workloads are, I think the better that they'll be. Now, that requires partly that the guys who are behind them to be able to step up when necessary. So it's both sides. We need to continue to call on the depth of our team, and we need Brad and Sacha to keep themselves sharp and going. Q. Along those lines, early on, Bradley and Sacha, you could tell they were on. Coming into the week, did you have a sense that they were -- this was coming from those two guys? And specifically, NYC, it seems like Bradley just gets up for them even more than other opponents. Do you see that? COACH MARSCH: Yeah, he does. There's no doubt. Even when I took him off, he didn't want to come off. He wanted to get the third. With the way that they pressure, we felt like we could do certain things to gain advantages in certain parts of the field, which would then lead Sacha to find gaps in their team. And then whenever Sacha is catching balls in important spots, he knows that his first option is Brad. So his ability to sort of move and see things and then slip a ball to Brad the right way that sets him up to execute around the goal, that's what makes their relationship special, and that's what makes each one of them good. I think they really work off of each other to make each other better. Q. Coach, one of your defining attributes since you've taken over has been one is master of motivation, mental games, things of that nature. This week you weren't prompted to talk about the referees, you said what you felt about the referees. Was that mind games, or did you really feel that at the time? COACH MARSCH: I would say that I've tried to always be respectful, and I've tried to communicate with the league and with the officials in a respectful way. They -- I guess they interpreted this latest opinion that I had or way of voicing my opinion as disrespectful. So then I, according to league policy, I get fined. But I look at it as I ask my players to fight for every inch, every inch. Every day on the field, I ask them to do everything they can to gain advantages and to win battles. So for me, I felt that my job this week was to voice certain things, and I felt that it was important with where we were in the season and where we were in the schedule and everything else to make sure that I was standing up for our guys and our club. Q. (No microphone)? COACH MARSCH: I thought Geiger was fantastic, and that's not just because we won and not just because I said something in the press. I think he had a very good clean game, where there really weren't many mystery calls or doubts or where things were going. There was one that maybe deflected out for a corner or maybe a foul, a little ticky tack foul here and there, but it's hard to argue with that performance. I think it's maybe the best that we've seen of the year. Listen, I know Mark's taken a lot of heat, and for him, I think, in a big game and one that he knew there were a lot of eyes on to be very poised and call the game the way he did, I thought he did a very good job. Q. You and your team this week said that you took issue with the way that NYC FC celebrated in the last game in the Instagram post. Today how did it feel to put four up on NYC FC and get the victory in front of Red Bulls fans? COACH MARSCH: We are focused on us, and we are focused on our season. We had a lot of big challenges this year. We dug a huge hole for ourselves. The last 15 games were 8-3-4. It's not the best record in the league in that stretch, but it's a very, very good record. So I think for us, we feel like we've dug ourselves out, and it's not been easy, man. We've had our backs against the wall in a lot of different weeks. We've let games slip. We haven't been as good as we'd like to be on the road. But I feel like now we're starting to really show -- not that we're turning the corner, but that we've turned the corner. And the key for us now is to keep our foot on the gas and to keep going after games, to stay concentrated and focused on what it's going to take night in and night out and to now make sure that we're getting a good performance from as many players as we possibly can. Q. You're two years, six games into this rivalry. What's your opinion how it's grown in this time? COACH MARSCH: It has grown, but it's been there since day one. I think that's what's been pretty awesome about it. I think, from the fan bases to the organizations to the players, I think that there's been a lot of energy and a lot of pride from both sides. Now that we're starting to build history and you're starting to see hatred, that's going to add to it for the next -- the upcoming games in years to come. So that's what makes rivalries. That's what makes Derby matches. It's there. It's there. Q. Jesse, last week was also a rivalry game, more from Philadelphia's side than our side, but they were able to take advantage of the pressing late in the game because that's what you continued to do. But NY FC did not seem able to do that. Was that more about adjustments you made, the weather? From just last week to this week, what was the changes you made there? COACH MARSCH: Well, I think last week there was a big issue with heavy legs, having to play a midweek and then a team that's fresh. So we're demanding a lot of our guys and asking them to produce quality performances time and time again. So we're always trying to get that balance right. But it was on the road. Their crowd got into the game. And to be fair, we hung on. We weren't happy that we didn't walk out of there with three points, but to still hang on and get a point and move ourselves forward, there's still momentum, right? So I think we maybe have five games where we haven't lost. So we're starting to get ourselves going, and we know we could be better off than where we're at, but we've just got to keep focused on moving forward and getting stronger. Q. Jess, can you talk about the corner kicks this year and how successful you've been. And also Sacha's game today, how he kind of controlled the game for you. COACH MARSCH: Yeah, with what we do on our set pieces, we try to build in a lot of creativity and a lot of different options and ways of unbalancing a team. But that also means that, when we get direct service and we get good runs, they're still trying to calculate what might be next, and if it's just a simple ball and a service and a run and we bury the header, then that means we've done our job by also creating a lot of questions for what might come next. So it still comes down to all the guys embracing what we do on set pieces and then executing and sticking to the game plan and knowing their roles, right? Then Sacha on the day, again, I think because Sacha's just now a little bit fresher and a little bit -- has his legs and he's clear and we have -- we create options for him from how we play in the back and put him in a lot of positions and put him in situations to succeed and make final plays, you see the best of Sacha. So he's had a great year. He's had a great year, and he's going to get better. Q. Jack Harrison's played a key role for NYC FC since he's been integrated in their lineup. How important was it, do you think, for Connor to get into him early on to throw off his game? COACH MARSCH: Jack made two big plays last time we played in New York City, but they were both when Connor wasn't around him. I think that we really like that matchup. We like Connor, he's our best one v. one defender. It's partly his low center of gravity, but it's partly he takes so much pride in it. He wills himself to win some of these battles. So I encouraged him coming into this week and said he did a really good job with Harrison last game and that he's a tricky guy, but that we were going to call on him again, and a lot of times it was going to be in one v. one situations, and I think he won that battle today. Q. Jesse, all things considered, you mentioned before you're 8-3-4 and that you're a different team at home as opposed to being on the road. You're at Chicago next week. The next two or three games are on the road. How do you avoid that complacency and falling into the same trap that many other Eastern Conference teams, where you guys have been very good, even though, as you said, 8-3-4 is not great, but you've got a much better leg up on everybody with some games in hand as well? COACH MARSCH: The complacency part was a talking point earlier this season, but the hole we dug and the challenges we've been through this year have meant that is no longer a factor. There's not complacency, and there's only drive to get better. And the key is now just to go on the road and have a little bit more confidence. Be a little bit sharper. Be a little bit more focused and concentration on what the game plan is, how to establish things, and then if we get leads, which we've managed to do a lot on the road, manage the game properly. So we'll get better for these moments, we will, and we'll figure out ways to get more results on the road. Q. Jesse, the action on the field besides the goals, a lot of chippiness out there, a lot of pushing, a lot of shoving. Mike thought he got fouled in the area, thought he got a penalty, then wasn't awarded, then was bumping against his defender. Like you said, it's already becoming now a big rivalry. Are we going to see all of a sudden it's going to break out into maybe fisticuffs one day? COACH MARSCH: I think our team has enough discipline to understand to stick to the game, but a big part of playing in big games -- (no video). Right? And that's tactically, that's with the ball, but certainly that's in 50-50s, in aerials, in tackles. Setting the tone in that manner becomes as important as anything in a Derby match. Our ability to do that this time was at a high level. If I were to look back at what we -- one thing we talked about after being in New York City was we felt that they established an edge better than we did on that day, and they were awarded with the win. Q. Just to pick up on that, you said that New York City established an edge today, but did you see anything from New York City when they first came out today which led to why they were so far pinned back in their own half and they seemed like they couldn't even relieve any pressure that was sustained by your team? COACH MARSCH: Well, we wanted to press them. We wanted to go after them. We didn't want to sit back. We wanted to tempt them to play through us. They've shown that that's what they're sticking to, and we were going to make sure that in all ways, that they were going to be on top of the game. And we knew that they like to pass in their own end and we like to pass in our opponent's end. So that meant that a lot of the game was going to be played in that end of the field. But the key was, when there were breakdowns, not to let ourselves be exposed behind us. And, again, I think on the day we did a really good job with that. FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports   |
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