	products recent interviews FastScripts archive about ASAP Sports

Our Clients:

Browse by Sport

Find us on

Subscribe to RSS

Click to go to
Asaptext.com

View our
e-Brochure

NEW YORK RED BULLS MEDIA CONFERENCE

October 16, 2016

Jesse Marsch

Harrison, New Jersey

NY Red Bulls - 3, Columbus - 2

Q. You talk a lot about that slow start and now here you are at the top of the Eastern Conference with a game to play. Did you honestly think after that slow start you would be in this position?
JESSE MARSCH: I wasn't sure. I think I said a lot publically that I wasn't very concerned at 1-X, but I just started to wonder at what point, 1-whatever, was going to start to hurt us at the end of the year. Looks like 1-6 was about the threshold.

In some ways, I think that was the best thing that happened to us. It knocked any complacency out. It put us on our toes. It made us look carefully at things. It made us push hard every day and I think that's what's gotten us here.

So this group is on a remarkable run. I think that the confident within the group is big. Obviously it's another one of these games where we're up three and we let two back in, but you know, at 3-2, I was fairly confident that we had things under control and just trying to encourage the right kind of behavior and play to make sure that we could see the game out, so that part was good.

Q. Mike Grella endured a long personal scoring drought. What did you do to try to work with him mentally and perhaps physically to get him back on that wave, because we're talking almost four months without scoring a goal, which is a very long time.
JESSE MARSCH: Yeah, I think with Mike, listen, obviously when he scores goals, that's a big part of being an attacking player. And I think all attacking players, it helps with confidence if they are now on a streak of scoring goals, if, for example, you look at Brad.

But with Mike, just tried to encourage him to let him know that it's so many things that make him good, so many things that make our team good other than just scoring goals; and to keep him pushing hard.

Sometimes I think Mike's really hard on himself. As things maybe don't start coming his way from a scoring perspective, he starts to think too much. And so even he and I talked a little bit about the zone and players who talk about in the zone, and Michael Jordan is one of those players, right, where he said actually when I was in the zone, I wasn't even thinking.

And in some ways, you know, it's not like I wanted him to start thinking but I wanted him to stop putting so much pressure on himself and I wanted him to just go out and enjoy playing.

I said in a lot of our lead-ups to games lately that Mike has been really good at training and we've seen his form pick up and he's looked really good. And I'll say that to just about all our guys, our group is fired on all cylinders and we're excited for the next couple months.

Q. I wanted to know if there was a turning point in the season after the 1-6 start?
JESSE MARSCH: I think there were several. The 1-6 start, I think we had a leadership council meeting where we talked in-depth about how we needed to pick things up. And to be fair those guys on the leadership counsel took a lot on their own shoulders and they said, we have to play better, and if we don't play better, then this team is not going to be any good. I think they all took responsibility.

I think after the loss to D.C., the 2-0 loss in D.C., that was another moment where we had to look carefully and challenge each other to do more. And I feel like that was probably the biggest point in the season where we kind of had a break and said, all right, it's now or never.

So I think -- and it's never been about our guys's commitment or their belief. It's just about little reminders to encourage the kind of behavior from a mentality perspective and a soccer perspective to make sure that each guy is very clear with what makes him good and how to make him good within our group. The more we do that and the clearer we are with that, then I think the more I think that you see it come together.

Q. Have you identified any reasons for the late-game collapses? And how concerning is it to you heading into the Playoffs where you're not going to be playing in Columbus; you'll be playing NYC or Colorado?
JESSE MARSCH: Yeah, in some ways I think it was good for us to go through that tonight; for us to experience almost giving it away but not quite.

We've talked a lot about the tactical things we want to achieve. We've talked a lot about the mentality. We've talked about a lot of the little details.

I mean, in some ways, maybe that was the best thing we could have done was gone through that exercise of hanging on in the last few minutes and making sure that we close the game out.

Obviously it means that I have to feel questions here about that, and it means that everybody in the crowd is a little anxious when the game moves on. But I'm trying to encourage our team to understand what it's going to take in some of those moments and to not be afraid of them.

So it will be the same kind of message on that front.

Q. When Sasha took the penalty that was stopped, did you feel maybe that was a negative towards the guys, because I know they were trying to score the first half, but what did you see to them in the locker room before the second half started?
JESSE MARSCH: I didn't even discuss the missed penalty. And these moments when we experience hardship, I kind of like to see what our team is going to do and how are they going to respond and what's going to be the next response.

I mean, things happen in a game. Even this week, we talked about, all right, when things are tough and when things don't go our way and when we don't get the calls or when we make a mistake, like how good are we going to be at that moment to now making sure that we have this thing totally under control.

So you know, I looked at that as an opportunity to express some of the things we've talked about.

Q. And with this win, not only do you clinch the regular season Eastern Conference, you go back to the CONCACAF Championship for the next edition, how rewarding is that for a team that's never gone back-to-back in the championship?
JESSE MARSCH: Yeah, that's a big accomplishment. I think that tournament has been really good for us. I think it's challenged us in big ways from a scheduling perspective and like being in that tournament, what games are like and what travel is like and playing in difficult places. I think that tournament's made us better.

So I think it's another opportunity. We'll be in the quarterfinals, and it will be another hectic year next year. But that's what big clubs are about, right. Big clubs are about playing in big tournaments, winning games, winning big games, using the whole roster. Challenging our best players to be the best that they can be and to be real leaders, and so on all these levels, I feel like we've learned a lot about each other and gotten better.

The other thing I'll throw out, I don't even know what the scores are, but there's potential that coming out of today, we could be in the shield hunt. So we'll see what happens in the afternoon results.

Q. Sorry to return to the theme, but it's kind of been the story of the season. Obviously after the seven-game start, you said you had the leadership council met and were able to solve what was a fairly glaring situation. Was it more difficult in a way to address points beginning to slip during the summer?
JESSE MARSCH: I've been adamant about, I don't talk much about the table. I showed them the table once this whole season, and that was when we were 1-6. I gave us one reboot in terms of resetting our goals, our season goals, and now starting fresh. And I told them, this is last time we're doing this. So if we continue to slip, we're not going back here.

But I think that reboot, that moment, that time period where we had to really now dig deep, again, was hugely important for us. So we'll find out in the end how much we learned from all these moments and we'll find out how good we can be. But I like where our team's at right now.

Q. You've been in this position before now, back-to-back Eastern Conference champions, and you just addressed the crowd about bringing home the MLS Cup and how much it would mean to them. How do you balance the top-down message from you guys down to the players, and how important it is, without maybe putting too much pressure on them taking it home?
JESSE MARSCH: That is the pressure. That's the reality. Our goal is to win the MLS Cup, period. So we're not afraid of that. We're not afraid of challenging ourselves to that. We're not afraid of what these games are going to look like. And in the end, it will come down to performance and come down to execution and it will come down to our ability to now push as hard as we can down the stretch.

I think we have now set ourselves up with the two years that this group has been together; that we've learned a lot, we've been through adverse situations, and we've come out on the topside many, many moments. We've played more big games than any team in the League between rivalries with New York City, Philadelphia, D.C., New England. You go down the list, right, and it feels like every week, we're in a big game and that's made us stronger and it's made us better and it's prepared us for where we're going to go.

FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports

ASAP Sports, Inc. | T: 1.212 385 0297