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NEW YORK RED BULLS MEDIA CONFERENCE

November 6, 2016

Jesse Marsch

Harrison, New Jersey

Impact - 2, Red Bulls - 1

JESSE MARSCH: I felt like we dominated every single statistical category. It's a weird sport that way, where I don't know how many other sports there are where you can dominate so much and not be victorious, but that's what our sport is.

Both games were under control, I thought. Obviously once it gets to be 1-0 here at home and now your aggregate is two and you're chasing the game with the road goal, then that whole thing goes haywire. But yeah, I felt good about our tactics. I felt good about our approach, and we just weren't good enough in the series to capitalize on our advantages, and we let -- if I go through the whole series and think of how many good chances we gave up until it became 2-0, there's certainly not many.

It's very disappointing. I'll tell you, I'm gutted for my team, my staff, my organization and my fan base, because everybody has poured their hearts into this. You know, I feel a big sense of disappointment in our inability to win the Cup, period. We feel like we've had two great seasons here, but in the end, we're walking away empty-handed. It's a hard feeling to swallow.

Q. Coming into the series, you had been unbeaten in 20 straight matches. What changed? What didn't you do the same, or what was the cause for it?
JESSE MARSCH: I don't know. I don't know. We dried up. I don't know why. I don't know how. We had the game under control. Again, every statistical category was in our favor. Listen, they fouled us like crazy in this series, which makes it hard to find a rhythm, I guess, but I don't know why. I don't know why.

Q. You know that there's going to be some second-guessing about the style of high press in general in playoffs and whether these teams that come in here and play as cautiously and eight behind the ball and then counter, we've been through this before; do you at all think you're going to reexamine that?
JESSE MARSCH: No, we won't reexamine that at all. In fact, both games were on our terms, and if we're sharp around the goal and finish chances in both games, this series honestly could have been handled fairly easily, and it wasn't. It wasn't. We just weren't able to capitalize on situations.

No. I mean, listen, this is who we are. This is what this club is now. I don't think there's -- it's bigger than me. It's bigger than anybody. It's not like I'm -- right now everything that's been built in this club in the last two years I think has laid a foundation for great success moving forward. You know, the ultimate reward is MLS Cup, and we haven't -- for whatever reason, this club has struggled to get over that hump, and that part is disappointing.

But we all know we're on the right path. That's for sure.

Q. Sacha takes the shot to the face and then he's on the sideline for 12 minutes. You kept looking over at him, about 12 minutes it was. How excruciating was that?
JESSE MARSCH: Well, it's a weird game where we missed the penalty, then you had 12 minutes of playing a man down and waiting to get Sacha back on the field, and then pushing the game again in the second half, and then all of a sudden one mistake and then we're chasing in a big way.

Weird night. One of the weirdest nights I've been a part of here at Red Bull Arena, that's for sure, and it just felt like we were fighting a lot of different things and weren't able to make our own history. Then again, I take responsibility. I feel a huge sense of disappointment. I'm gutted for this entire organization because there's so many good people here that have put their faith and trust in me to help lead this to somewhere new, and we're hopeful to get it there eventually, but I'm really disappointed for all these people.

Q. Do you feel the penalty that was saved on Sacha, do you think that changed the game?
JESSE MARSCH: Well, I'll tell you this: If it gets scored, it changes the game. That's the reality. If the penalty gets scored, then everything changes. I still felt like even a man down, we were waiting for Sacha to get back on the field, we still had control of the match. The biggest game-changing moment is their goal because then it means that we're just chasing in such a big way. Incredible. Incredible to walk away from this series empty-handed. Incredible.

Q. As far as your identity and knowing how you play and all that, that's going to continue. In a funny way were the Impact the worst possible team you could faced given that they play that counter-attacking style so well?
JESSE MARSCH: Well, when you go down on them -- so like let's just say we score -- let's say Brad scores his early one there, right. Then we go up a goal, and it means that now they've got to come out of their defensive shell and they've got to try to find chances and create something. Then that's the way that this series can be more put on our terms, but yeah, I mean, when we're down basically the whole series and trying to fight back and now they're just hanging on and waiting to counter, it makes it a very dangerous game. That's why -- listen, that's why our tactical approach was so cautious, was because we didn't want to put ourselves in this situation, and to be fair, I think the game plan and everything that was laid out was there for us, we just weren't able to make plays.

Q. You guys were able to hold over a lot of key pieces from this team last year. Trials and tribulations, you guys end up at the top of the Eastern Conference. All things said and done, do you think this is a successful season?
JESSE MARSCH: It's tough to judge right now. I mean, there's so many emotions that are racing through my head, based on, again, my disappointment for letting everyone down.

You know, we're going to have to get over this and figure out a way because we've got CONCACAF next year. We're going to have a good team again next year. It's just so hard when you put so much into it for a calendar season and come up empty. It makes it hard to digest at the moment. So time will heal, but it's hard for me to measure those things right now.

FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports

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