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NEW YORK RED BULLS MEDIA CONFERENCE

September 22, 2018

Chris Armas

Harrison, New Jersey

Red Bulls - 2, Toronto - 0

CHRIS ARMAS: The challenge is always, how much like us can we be. Playing quickly, playing hard, playing behind, creating a certain rhythm to the game. We got lulled into it a little bit in the first game a little bit, a little more than we would like, but from the opening we put on our jerseys and we were pleased.

Q. Obviously Brad gets the late yellow which suspends him for the Atlanta game. Given that, how big was that goal for Derrick to get in, get his confidence going of the it seems like he hasn't scored the amount of goals he's probably wanted to score. Was that big for his confidence?
CHRIS ARMAS: Well the first part with Brad, it's unfortunate he'll miss the game and of course things are said all the time, but Brad is not the guy that crosses the line. So for us to see certain guys get away with verbal, verbally getting after referees and for Brad himself, he doesn't, no one respects the game more and shows it the way he does and in games we don't think he gets a lot of leeway and the benefit of the doubt at times. And that goes for fouls and we think it goes for even tonight. Because he, you know, it didn't sound that bad what he said. So it's like is his leash that short? It's disappointing. So, listen, Derrick, his confidence and what a goal means to any player, Derrick's human, we all know that he's got a number of good looks and he's put himself in those chances and because he's trained well and he earned that, he earned those minutes tonight. So we're all rooting for him when he's out there because he loves to score, he loves to play, he loves the club like no one else. So any time a player can get rewarded and give something to the team like that it's a thrill to Derrick.

Q. Wondering, you guys were a first half team early in the season, seems like recently in these games you've been most dangerous when you've made changes inside the half, coming off the performance in the road why do you think you guys have played that well in the second half to be that dangerous?
CHRIS ARMAS: It's interesting, first of all I think it's clearly two different times of the year, but early on I don't know, we had a good run in some, do we catch teams, were we better then? I mean you guys can figure that part out. But so much more is on the line right now. Playoff time. I mean Toronto, they're still alive somewhat, they're coming in, they have to win, right? So how, do you think that's going to be easy? It's going to be difficult. So now there's not a lot of room for error and in that first half if we just talk about that, to have the five to eight, these transition moments that we're better, better with the ball, better to execute. Some on the move moments and some calming down, getting on the move, so there's some, there is room there and if you score one or two of those, I think we would be talking differently and it would be a pretty good half. So it doesn't feel good because there's give a ways, maybe unforced errors, give them credit, they ran to some different spots but we created a lot of turnovers that we couldn't take advantage of.

Q. Back to Brad. How big of a loss is that going into next week? Maybe the biggest game of the whole season next week. Talk about what it means to not have him there.
CHRIS ARMAS: We all know it's a huge loss to begin with. Again, it's disappointing. We saw a dirty tackle, if you saw something that's going to keep him out almost worthwhile, maybe you can swallow it a little easier. So, again, it's, I don't think he gets that benefit of the doubt in these moments. Not when you see the them firsthand four straight years. And there's probably no better forward over the course of that time, you guys tell us the stats, 20 goals a year, there's no better -- and he's the most honest one of them all. He doesn't cheat the game ever. So can the referee manage it in a way -- the guy's frustrated, I understand it, can I hold off on the yellow card.

Q. (No microphone.)
CHRIS ARMAS: I don't know exactly, so I'm not going to talk when I don't know exactly.

Q. What does this do for this team's confidence and what is the priority in terms of the balancing being on the road with rest and routine with guys?
CHRIS ARMAS: Well listen, we are taking one game at a time. We don't show up every day, we have a goal in mind of MLS Cup and we try and get the performances right, the points when you look at the standings and the points, okay, there's performance in that that and we're really trying to look hard at it and get it right. It's a count down, right, we say 11 games, 10 games, nine games, we're thinking that we want to make a push. We know there's work to do. So all along we're trying to keep pace and there's a few trophies out there. So as you cross them off your list and now you go, okay, any trophy out there we're trying to work for, clearly.

Q. This is a big blow to their playoff chances. Even though they have had a rough year, can you talk about their team play this year?
CHRIS ARMAS: I won't mind having -- I honestly, if you look at the eastern conference, who will we play? Don't know. No matter who it shapes up to be it's going to be difficult. Home and away things become a little tense. Who might you have to play? We don't know. So.

Q. Do you still think they're a --
CHRIS ARMAS: Toronto is a champion. Do we want to play the champions in the playoffs? I think we matchup well against them, so if they got in and we play them, we thought we pushed them last year and every time we play them we beat them at their place this year, we beat them at our place this year, we shut them out both times. So we're not so concerned with who we play. We want to get to there, get right, take care of our business, read ball football get in and then just go after it.

FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports

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