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NEW YORK RED BULLS MEDIA CONFERENCE

September 11, 2016

Jesse Marsch

Harrison, New Jersey

New York Red Bull - 2, D.C. United - 2

THE MODERATOR: Questions.

Q. Understanding of course that all your unbeaten streaks are intact, you've never blown a two-goal lead in this building.
COACH MARSCH: Yeah.

Q. Does this feel like a pretty crushing defeat?
COACH MARSCH: Listen, I'm gutted for our guys. I think in all ways they established themselves in this game as a good team. Could have been three. Could have obviously helped ourselves by getting a third goal.

It's been frustrating how many points we've given away late in games. When you add them all up and you look at it, you shake your head and go, How in the world does that happen? They seem to come in different fashions.

The game I thought was totally under control. It came down to some scrambles in front of the box. Wind up coming in second on a couple plays.

I'm still very 'glass half full'. This is a good team. I know what I'm looking at. The frustration of giving some late leads away, we'll continue to reinforce certain things with the mentality, look tactically at what we do, personnel choices, the whole bit.

But this is a good team. We're making it hard on ourselves and we're going to get there the hard way, but we're going to get to where we need to go. We're going to get there.

Q. Three starters before the match, then a fourth starter in Ronald Zubar. How much did that impact what you had to do? Update on Ronald?
COACH MARSCH: No update on Ronald yet. Seems like it's maybe a little bit of a groin. We're hopeful it's not too bad. We've had a few groin injuries this week, so we have to look at what we're doing, what we can do better.

Yeah, it does handcuff you a little bit when your options aren't what they normally are off the bench. But we should have been able to take care of that game with whoever, especially at 2-0.

I think there's two ways to take care of it. One way is to make it three. But at the same time we shouldn't have to make it three. Should have been able to close it out. But when you keep it at two, there's these late moments where they're throwing Birnbaum forward, they're launching balls in the box, it sets up for some difficult scrambles and moments. At home we've always managed to survive those; on the road not as much.

We'll continue to push this thing forward. Again, not concerned.

Q. Jesse, obviously they were throwing things at you late trying to get goals. Seemed like you also were pushing numbers forward, 85th minute on with a 2-0 lead. Is that something to look at as far as trying to keep the ball a bit more or that's your style of play?
COACH MARSCH: There's always some moments where, Can we find a way to keep the ball? Sacha goes in the corner, gets fouled, but they don't give it to us. Maybe there's a moment on the corner kick where we can hold it down there a bit more. Maybe if in some of these transitions you put a couple extra plays together, then maybe you can slow it down.

But we got some corner kicks, we played in their end. They weren't dangerous really. I can't really think of a chance until the 89th minute.

For me that game was totally under control. We've tried to not just come back into a shell because it invites pressure into your box. So we've tried to still play up the field and win balls up there, keep them under pressure. By doing that we create a bunch of opportunities for the third goal, but can't quite finish one off.

Another day this is different. On another day it's different. Today we have to swallow it.

Q. You had to switch up a couple of starters due to yellow cards. You brought in Gonzalo, Danny Royer.
COACH MARSCH: I thought it was great for Gonzalo to get a goal. We've been working on our outside midfielders joining in on the back post, being available to score goals like that. That part was really good.

I thought Danny Royer was very good, fantastic. Thought he fit into the team really well, understood the tactics. Dangerous. Set up the second goal. Also maybe could have had a third. Getting himself going with game fitness. I think he showed in all ways he's a guy we're going to be able to count on. That was a real bright aspect of today. So, yeah, good.

Q. Obviously Bill Hamid is a very good keeper in this league. How not so much upset but concerned were you at Sacha's both posts?
COACH MARSCH: Again, on another day I think both those go in. I thought Sacha was very good at setting up so many plays, setting guys up for chances. Could have had some goals, could have had some assists. He continues to play like that, we'll be in good shape. Brad continues to score goals.

There's so many positives to take away from this game. The one positive you can't take away is the result. Honestly, let's all be honest and look at that game. How am I going to be frustrated or disappointed, other than now the result? There's a lot there where we're totally in command of the game.

I'm not being positive for the sake of being positive. I'm being positive because I know what I'm looking at. This is a good team and we're going to continue to get better.

Q. As well as you've played at home, you haven't lost here since April, does that underscore how important it is to win the conference and get that home-field advantage?
COACH MARSCH: I mean, it's important to get the top two seeds, right? Then what the home-field advantage is after that, I'm not really sure. So the one thing it means, if you get to MLS Cup, the right to potentially host it, I think that's where it really becomes important. We're going to keep pushing for those top two seeds.

Obviously it would have been nice to get the result tonight, to go to Toronto and have us both tied, now know that everything's on the line. But it's still everything on the line for that game in Toronto. We've been looking at that game on the schedule for a while. Really excited. Really excited to go up there.

I think Toronto's done a really good job this year. They've done a great job on the road. They've been good at home. We're going to put our unbeaten streak to a test when we go up there. I know we're going to go up there and throw everything we have at them and I know we're going to play well.

Q. When you walked in, as an example, you said you shake your head and you wonder how you can end up dropping so many points late. If you ask yourself that question, what kind of answer do you have?
COACH MARSCH: One that sends us to the looney bin (laughter).

Yeah, I mean, some of it's been hard to pinpoint because it's come in different ways. Obviously when you're on the road and now teams start throwing things at you, it's important to find ways to just grind and survive.

They threw their goalie in on the last play in the corner kick in Vancouver. It was a big scramble. We looked at it, talked about how we wanted to deal with it. Luis and I discussed it. Luis said he wanted to keep a guy in the post. I said, Let's get a guy in the matchup. If we wind up leaving Felipe on the back post, maybe it's a moment where he can just clear it. Maybe I made the wrong decision by doing that.

Those are important details. We'll look at them, we'll think about them. More than anything we're going to keep pushing because this team has been on track and we're going to keep going.

Q. The organization had a beautiful ceremony to begin the game. They decided to use not only a person in law enforcement but a black woman. During the climate of the country right now, how important is that?
COACH MARSCH: Well, I would say that this organization tries in every way to be reflective of our fan base and our community. Certainly even a lot of the 9/11 honoring I thought was fantastic. Having that big flag out there was important. I thought the young lady who sang the national anthem was fantastic.

I thought overall the vibe of the day was just awesome. Having D.C. and us play in this kind of a game on this day I thought was really important for our league.

So in all ways I'm proud of our club. I'm proud to be here. I'm proud to represent it as the head coach. Everything I do, I try to make sure I represent what we want to be and who we are in a big way, so...

Q. Going back to your late leads. Ben said just before you came in, We know how they play, we know you'll get your chances late. Does that give you pause when you get a lead that you can't put a team away because you can't break their spirit, they know they'll get their late chances?
COACH MARSCH: That's fair enough. They also know they're going to be under the gun for 90 minutes, they could have been down 3, 4, 5-0. I appreciate the fact that he's aware of that. I think he should also include in there that we're very, very, very difficult to beat.

THE MODERATOR: Thank you, Jesse.

FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports

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