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NEW YORK RED BULLS MEDIA CONFERENCE

June 6, 2018

Jesse Marsch

Harrison, New Jersey

New York Red Bulls - 4, NYC FC - 0

Q. We were just asking Patrick, and kind of a correlation with your team, as well, where their young players don't have an opportunity to, they don't have a second team to be -- to be able to get regular minutes. You clearly do. How much of -- does that help in a tournament like this where you know you've got a big game on the weekend and some guys need to get the rest and you can still come out, give those guys the minutes because they have played and get the result you want?
JESSE MARSCH: Yeah, that's part of it. That's part of it.

Certainly having a second team is good and it's a good way to develop players but it's the overall package of what we do. It's not one thing. It's everything. I even challenged the team before the game to use us stylistically, whether it's a derby and a chance for us to showcase our team and showcase our club and showcase what we do here and no doubt our players went out and did that.

So big sense of pride from performances and a result and a big sense of pride to see guys like Hassan, Ethan, do really well and show that -- that they can handle a game like this. So yeah, I've said it a lot, I'll say it again, we are at the forefront of prayer development in this country. There's no question, there's no question that's where we sit. We're very proud. It's another night where we have a good night and we're very proud of our team and our club.

Q. Nothing much since the first Champions League game this year until he broke out on the road and now he has two at home. How good to see Daniel converting finally?
JESSE MARSCH: Yeah, it's obviously one of the big positives on the night is Danny gets two good goals and -- and some confidence and keeps building into the season but Danny is a big player for us here and although he has not scored at the rate he has last year, he will. He's going to, he's going to keep putting -- putting goals together and putting plays together and keep rewarding him is he on the team.

But from a confidence level, when goal scorers start getting goals, it's a really good feeling, but I'm really happy to see Danny get two at the end.

Q. Scoring first in both halves early, first, two or three minutes of both halves, how happy were you thinking that, maybe here we go again, from the league match a month ago?
JESSE MARSCH: Yes, well, you know, in the first half we score the goal and then we're -- you know, our pressing's off, our passing's off and for 20 minutes, we were doing a lot of dirty running.

And that's what we said to him at half time is like, listen, these are the things we need to tighten up tactically and then we need to have guys that want to get the ball when we win it back otherwise we're going to do a lot of running, and so that was a big key is -- is tactically rearranging a couple things, making sure that we were understanding what they were trying to achieve and then trying to encourage our guys to have more confidence on the ball and that they want the ball and that they have more time than they thought. The combination of those two things I felt like helped us in the second half to have pretty good control of the game.

Q. You had mentioned both Cutler and Ndam. Can you talk about putting them into the starting 11 and then just mention a little more on their play tonight?
JESSE MARSCH: Yeah, you know, it's a big -- it's a tough stretch for us right now because we're missing a lot of guys, and you know, we have to find a way to prioritize certain things and certain games but also do it in a way where we're not risking injury, right, because when -- when I look overall, we -- we know -- we were disappointed in New England that we didn't perform better. But we know we have a good team, and we know that with our best group that we're really good.

So and one of the ways that you can start to put the season under a little bit of pressure is if you start getting injuries on key guys. So we're happy for the international guys to go away.

Hopefully they will come back in good shape and in good -- in one piece, and then, you know, making sure that we go after results in this stretch but we do it in a way where we are not risking guys getting long-term injuries.

So that's a little bit of the balance that we're going through right now. I think now looking to, we'll try to -- we have an idea what have we'll put on the field on Saturday but we have to evaluate with guys are at physically. Getting Aaron and Kemar off the field early was certainly big and then, you know, we'll find a way to really go after Columbus and do it again at home against Seattle.

Q. Can you talk about Rzatkowski's performance tonight.
JESSE MARSCH: Yeah, I think specifically second half, he was very good, and when we talk about, when I've been talking about guys wanting the ball and to command the game a little bit more with possession, that, you know, I challenge Marc in that because he's really -- he's a great footballer, and he's really philosophically a good player and in every way he's -- he's a very good player that has big potential here.

But I'm trying to encourage him to have more personality to make more charge of things that are happening on the field to now insert himself in the ways that he should.

So that was the challenge a little bit at half time, I thought in the second half he came out and was very good and so overall, really happy to give him 90 minutes and he's gone through injuries and up-and-downs with us and so we have to make sure we don't push things and jeopardize some momentum with him.

Q. You went with two forwards in the game against New England last week and it seems like the mid feel was just a little bit -- lost a little bit more than usual in that game. Did that play anything until you going with one forward today and moving forward is that something that maybe you'll try differently?
JESSE MARSCH: Yeah, we went with two strikers a little bit because we thought that would test their back line and with the diamond in the midfield we could compress the field and win little duels in there.

I thought the first half the tactics of the game plan in New England were very good if we can get into half time, if we don't give up the last play in the half, and we get into halftime I think we have a very different game.

I'm always challenging these guys to understand tactically what we are trying to achieve and then be able to execute and for the most part that game down to little things and down to us throwing and little battles and plays, but still, you know, the comment afterwards wasn't good enough and still feel that way.

And then yeah, I mean, could we have played with one striker? Could we -- you know, we could have possibly -- we wound up changing in the game eventually once we put Danny on but I'm still trying to get this team to work through the ability to really be flexible and we've done a really good job of that.

In the last year, we've created that. But tonight was good I thought with the tactics and formation.

Q. You touched on you guys being at the forefront of player development. An example of that is Aaron. What did you think of his performance today and how did you and he get to develop him from being a player that went from USL?
JESSE MARSCH: First, really good performance from Aaron and he's about being a big player around here. In nights where it's not the full team, you know, Sean Davis wears the armband and then Aaron has to become a big leader.

So the -- it's always important to use these moments to help galvanize confidence and belief and for guys to put to practice some of the lessons that we're trying to team them. So it's not just about Hassan and Ethan; it's about Sean's role as captain and it's about Ryan continuing to build and Aaron being a big leader back there and you know, Derrick continuing to grow.

So you have to use every moment as a test to try to challenge people to get better and to grow.

And ultimately, that feeds into Aaron. When Aaron first came here, he was -- we knew he was talented and gifted, right, and we believe firmly that if we can get those kind of guys and their mentality is right -- the mentality is a big key to a player's ability to fit in here.

But if we find talented players that have the right mentality, we feel strongly that we can with put them into our system, teach them the tactics of how we play, ingrain the habits and reactions of what we want of how we want them to play and turn them into Red Bull players, help them think, eat, breathe, Red Bull, okay.

And I don't know if I should even say this, but sometimes I call it brainwashing, right, because when you come here, you have to believe that this is the way to play the game, you have to.

If you have any doubts or you want to play but you have game and you want to pass the ball around and you want to think all about possessions, this is not your place and it won't work. You have to buy into who we are and how we do things, and if you do, you are rewarded. We could give countless examples, and that was a little bit of even what I said to Hassan and Ethan tonight with the team is believing in the system, believing in the people, believing in the development program, and believing in the way we play.

And if you do that, you will you can seed, and we've seen is over and over again and Aaron has now turned into a very special player for us, one that we are very proud of.

Q. Another report out of Germany going to Leipzig at the end of the month--
JESSE MARSCH: I am not commenting on that, period.

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