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NEW YORK RED BULLS MEDIA CONFERENCE

October 15, 2017

Jesse Marsch

Harrison, New Jersey

New York Red Bulls - 0, Atlanta United - 0

Q. Do you feel in this match, this was the momentum you were looking for to finish up the regular season and get into the playoffs?
JESSE MARSCH: Yeah, I thought we played great. I thought we were the better team. Thought we dominated almost every aspect of the game. It was a little bit shaky in the start but once we cranked things up, we took over the game. And the shame is that, you know, they just decided that they wanted to kick us almost every time, referee doesn't want to hand out yellows, so then they are allowed to kick him more. Could have been a red card on Asad. Should have been a second yellow when he throws the ball away. Their bench is yelling to kick our guys from the bench, okay. So Martino is yelling in Spanish to kick our players.

So you know, I understand it's a good team and they are the darlings of the league right now, but I don't think that you should be able to come into a place and behave in that manner and not have some kind of recourse.

So it's a shame because our team really went after it. I want to keep this, you know -- I do want to keep this about our team, because our team played really well and went after the game in a strong way and a confident way and played great.

Q. Obviously in the first 30 minutes, the team is on the back heel a little bit, and then something changed. Was it Atlanta coming a little bit fatigued from overrunning themselves or something specific tactically?
JESSE MARSCH: I don't think that we were on the back foot. The game was open, right. There was little loose balls in the midfield and we weren't clean enough in certain moments and yet we were still creating some advantages.

And then, yeah, as the game went on, you saw our team gather courage, gather sharpness and gather momentum, and you know, it's too bad, because they deserved the win. They went after the game in a big way and played great. Played great. Especially second half. Wow, wow.

Q. With the way the results went today, it's a little up-and-down in the air who you're going to playing --
JESSE MARSCH: Yeah.

Q. -- in the play-in game but if you were to play Atlanta gain, this wasn't really two sides who kept their powder dry much. Any insight that you'll take away?
JESSE MARSCH: Yeah, I think there's little things in the game. I think that we also realized that, you know, for two teams that like to press, that we came out on top. We came out on top, and we were able to establish our way of playing more than they were.

So I think that's something we'll carry with us, and then, you know, you just hope that from some perspective, that they shouldn't be allowed to kick us for 90 minutes. Shouldn't be allowed to happen. Should not be allowed to happen.

Q. Are you committed to using Veron off the bench? It seems the last few games where he's come in, he's had a real impact.
JESSE MARSCH: Yeah, yeah. He's, I think, accepted the role in a big way. It's not that we don't think that he can start, okay, but we like the way that he plays in that role, and when he comes on the game and defenders are a little bit tired, he really goes for it.

So yeah, we're really happy with Gonzalo. Doesn't preclude him from striking. We can play with two strikers sometimes. We'll look at match-ups a little bit and figure out how we want to play. But Gonzalo is in a really good way and we're really happy with how he's playing.

Q. What goes into the decision?
JESSE MARSCH: It's a little bit the matchups; a little bit how we think we can -- if we think he can be effective from the very beginning; if we think he can be effective from coming off the bench.

You know, he's been great coming off the bench, there's no doubt. In all ways, really happy with Gonzalo and he has accepted whatever role and he has embraced it, and he has really gone after it. So that's really good to see.

Q. Next week against D.C., there's a --
JESSE MARSCH: Yeah, we're locked in. We're locked in.

Q. Do you anticipate that you're going to play the exact same kind of way as you did here, straightforward, or should we expect some resting of players?
JESSE MARSCH: I think you can expect some resting of players, okay. I think that you can expect that we will make sure that we are sharp and fit and ready to push in the playoffs.

But I think try to use it as a time to make sure that whatever the turnaround is, that we have a team in that midweek knockout game is ready to fly, ready to fly.

Q. Give us an update on Connor, if you could, please. I don't know what happened. Looked like he went straight down and you subbed him out. Was it concussion-related or --
JESSE MARSCH: It's a head injury. I'm not sure if it's been labeled as a concussion yet. They said that he seems pretty clear and that everything seems good. So they are evaluating it being it still. We'll know more in the next coming days. But Connor is in good shape.

Q. With so much focus on player development, do you think it's the role of a professional to develop your own players or is it only the role to develop your team with your dime and your guys, an d what happens after?
JESSE MARSCH: Yeah, this is an interesting time in our sport in our country, isn't it. There's a lot of opinions flying around. We all feel incredibly sickened by not being in the World Cup.

Certainly we have to take a look at, from a global perspective, how we develop talent, and then how we supplement that talent into the different levels of play, whether it's the first team, whether it's the youth national teams or whether it's the club teams.

I can talk about what we believe in here, okay. What we believe in here is that, first of all, we work as a unit. We are all together, all the time. We're all-in; we're one team; we're one voice. That is the starting point, always, always.

I don't care, you want to talk about details of player development, you want to talk about details of mentality or what it means to be on a national team or whatever else, but it starts with having unity within the organization, okay.

Then we love our young players. We love our young players, and we love to develop them. We love to teach them to play our style. We like them to be aggressive. We want them to be rewarded for their aggression, for their commitment and you see that in our system, players develop, period, period.

You could go back to the first year with Matt Miazga; you could go through Alex Muyl and Sean Davis; you could go through Aaron Long; you could go through Tyler Adams; you can look at the way that we use our second Red Bull II, you can look at the way we're forming our academy, right. And we believe in it wholeheartedly and this is our identity and we love it. We love who we are. We love committing to this all the way.

I think it helps the players to know that there's an identity in place; that they can understand how they want to play. They also know that they have a chance. If you're a young player in this organization, you have a chance. You have a chance.

So yeah, I think everybody here is excited about our identity and how we do things and I do think in the long run, we will benefit U.S. Soccer, because we will build young players, we will make them better, and ultimately then we'll put them to the test in their national stage, right. Can't wait to see Tyler Adams first cap, can't wait. Can't wait.

Q. Just on the national team subject, you've been involved in the national team in different capacities. Is that a goal of yours? Would you want to be the coach of the national team at some point, short term or long term?
JESSE MARSCH: Man, that's a loaded one (laughs). You know, listen, there's a few things about being the national team coach, all right. I learned from my time there that the responsibility to the sport in this country is massive when you're involved with the national team, and that's whether you're the equipment manager, whether you're the pr guy, whether you're the assistant captain coach and certainly whether you're the head coach.

I loved being a part of it. I loved working my tail off to do everything we could to leave no stone uncovered so that, you know, we would empower that team and ultimately empower Bob when he was the coach to be successful and then when the lights came on on the biggest stage, to feel like we did everything we could to try to be the best that we could be.

I think South Africa was a real reflection of the spirit of the team; the way that team went after things when their backs were against the wall. The Slovenia game, the Algeria game; even the Ghana game when we went down and fought back and took it to overtime. So that's the part that I love the most, right.

Now, it's important that when you're the national team coach that you're prepared to take on that role; that you're prepared for the big pressures; that you can handle big moments, all right.

Right now, I'm focused on my team, my club and my personal development. You know, if I continue to put a lot into our project here, I think that there will be a lot of people within this organization that will be rewarded in big ways, and we have to, you know, continue to push towards championships.

That's a long way of saying, you know, you never know, but I'm committed to doing whatever I can to help this sport in this country.

FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports

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