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NEW YORK RED BULLS MEDIA CONFERENCE

July 14, 2018

Chris Armas

Harrison, New Jersey

New York Red Bulls - 3, Sporting Kansas City - 2

Q. Marc had been getting some time under Jesse but not that much. You made a fairly early sub in this game. What led you to put Marc in that spot and take Kaku out?
CHRIS ARMAS: Marc, he had a great week of training. In every session, he brought energy and he always has quality, but he showed a lot of life this week. Going into the game, we thought that he would be a guy we'd rely on in some capacity.

Q. In your transition to head coach, did you talk to some players on the fringe of the starting 11, players on the bench?
CHRIS ARMAS: Yeah, I've spoken with all the players about where they stand and where I see them and how they fit in. Marc and I had a conversation, as well.

Q. Congratulations on your very first win as an MLS head coach.
CHRIS ARMAS: Thanks, Dan.

Q. Two questions for you. After the goals that were scored in the first half, what happened after that, because it seemed a little haphazard back and forth?
CHRIS ARMAS: Yeah, I think even if you took the goals out of the first half, we got stretched a bit and we were late to some plays. Obviously they are a good passing team, best in the League. Best at switching fields and if we are late to plays, it costs us a lot of running on a really hot and humid day. We had to address that at half time.

But yeah, we had a lot of dirty running the first half.

Q. I've asked this question to Jesse a lot. What makes Bradley Wright-Phillips such a dynamic player, because he had that opportunity to put you on the score sheet first. What was it about Bradley that makes him such a special player?
CHRIS ARMAS: I think what makes Bradley Wright-Phillips a special player is that he's a special person. You know, he's an outlier in terms of -- I just don't think you see attackers and goal scorers with the same work rate and commitment to the team, and he puts the team first. You know, No. 9s and humble, does it go together? With him, he's so for the team.

And he's a winner. He's just a winner. So you can see, he can will himself to goals. He can will the team to victory. He drives this team.

Q. Since everyone else is asking two questions, I'll ask two questions, too. Last week, the substitution came in a little late and this week you used all three. Was that about heat, humidity, conditions, what the match called for? And can you talk about Sean Davis, his impact. He's a little overlooked this year, what he's been doing on the field and just what he means to this team.
CHRIS ARMAS: Yeah, I think Sean Davis continues to grow; as a soccer player, understanding how to play the six and what the game needs, and he grows as a leader. You can see that he's the guy, when you scour video after the games, he's the guy pointing, organizing and controlling things out there. Over the course of these years, he continues to grow in all ways and be a big piece, big player here.

In terms of the substitutions, listen, tonight's demands were different from last time and the next game will be different from this one. As a staff, we'll always look at what does the game need. We'll do our best to try to figure out what it needs and who it needs and when it is needed.

So if we're just talking about this game, on a hot night -- and that's only part of it. But I think that we knew there was guys that had great weeks of training and we knew come into it, would help the game tonight. It was what the game needed, and it needed it earlier than later.

Q. You guys obviously went against Peter Vermes tonight with Kansas City, who is the longest-tenured coach in the League. How do you approach that battle as someone that's fairly new to the job?
CHRIS ARMAS: Yeah, look, I'm not new to the League, and I'm not new to the sport and I'm not new to, you know, understanding how teams -- other teams play.

With Peter, specifically, I've said it in the build-up this week: He's got a good team; it has a clear identity. They understand their roles with the ball, against the ball, in transition. We could see in preparation, it was difficult, because there's a lot to his team.

We knew it would test us. Very conflicting styles where they space the field where we compress things, and I thought, yeah, in the first half, they imposed themselves on us, and in the second half, we pushed in a good way.

Q. What was it from Kaku's end that you didn't see that you pulled him out in the 60th minute?
CHRIS ARMAS: We thought the game needed a different look in the middle of the field. It was someone, when you start to think about who to bring in and take out, you don't have a lot of options. There's one spot there.

Again, you look the game. You feel the game. We said we would be aggressive with our substitutions. We knew it would be a hot night.

Yeah, Marc has had plenty of great games for this club. So you hit the first goal like that, and all of a sudden you can see that almost every possession, every play, it just was a lot of confidence, and we know that players grow in those moments.

Q. The lineup has stayed mostly the same between you and Jesse, but Tyler, we saw him today a little further up the field, especially when you were pushing for the equalizer and then the winner. Was that what the game called for today or your design? Where do you see him in this team and system under you?
CHRIS ARMAS: We see Tyler in the midfield. We see him as one of the sixes but he's a two-way player, but any time he's up the field, he's up for it. He likes to be around the goal. Look, he can make final plays and he can make final passes, but he also covers ground and he gets around that part of the field, which we knew would be a big piece of them.

So look, when Marc came in, Tyler pushed up and Marc slid underneath, you know, so that was the move. And yeah, Tyler is fearless up the field. When you look for a spark, he can do that. Lots of sometimes it's something against the ball or a turnover, and not just winning the ball, he can force turnovers.

Q. Have you given him any specific feedback in terms of his position?
CHRIS ARMAS: Like I said earlier, our video, we look hard at ourselves. We look at the good things and we try to challenge ourselves to be better. With him what makes him so special is I think we all know his personality and his courage, but he's always willing to learn. He comes to work to learn. He's a student of the game and he stays after.

So yeah, he's always looking for feedback and we're always looking to see how we can help him grow.

FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports

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