	products recent interviews FastScripts archive about ASAP Sports

Our Clients:

Browse by Sport

Find us on

Subscribe to RSS

Click to go to
Asaptext.com

View our
e-Brochure

NEW YORK RED BULLS MEDIA CONFERENCE

May 19, 2019

Chris Armas

Harrison, New Jersey

Red Bulls - 1, Atlanta United - 0

Q. How does it feel to get a win so rewarding the way you got it tonight?
CHRIS ARMAS: It feels great. It feels great to win. It feels great to win at home in the fashion that we did. It's great to see our guys commit the way that they did on every play for the entire game. Set pieces in tough moments, and so I'm really proud of the guys, the guys that started the game and the guys that came into the game, the guys at halftime that weren't even playing, supporting each other. So it's really, really a great win.

Q. I have to ask you this, the red card?
CHRIS ARMAS: It looks like he's the last man -- inaudible -- and he was up a little bit. I didn't get to see the play, but I'm sure they got it right.

Q. Congratulations on the win. Two-parter. First, just on the way this team is winning games and have one of your best players in Brian -- and you talk about Brian and his contribution but now Raul comes off the bench and Red Bull II, what does it say about the team but also with him scoring that goal?
CHRIS ARMAS: Well, yeah, I got to see on the inside over the course of the last few years, the work that Brad putts in every day, and how he is a mentor to those guys.

So he doesn't, it doesn't show up on a day like today for him, but even for Brad, to see his mentoring skill with those guys, everyone looks up to him and the strikers look up to him. There's a lot of information been exchanged.

Yeah, and in the end it says a lot about, again, our club and the structure, the layers, the USO, the job they are doing, and I said it with John and those guys, how they prepare. John Wolyniec is a legend at this club and he mentions the strikers, he talks about the little things, the video. There's a lot of that going on so he prepares those guys in a real way to be ready for what's out there.

Q. Just on the post-game dust-up, what did you see from that?
CHRIS ARMAS: I was shaking Frank de Boer's hand wishing him well this year. There's going to be a motion, right. There's a lot on for them. It's becoming a little more of a rivalry here and there. It means a lot to us at home. You've been through some tough moments in this year already, and yeah, honestly, it's very normal stuff I think at the end of the game sometimes when teams are fighting.

Q. The assist on the goal --
CHRIS ARMAS: Yeah, at halftime, we talked about a few of the ways that we'll score. We knew we could create a few chances, whether it's a set piece or a foul, because we are going to be in transition from us being organized and catch them, or it could be from some football where we are going to have courage to play -- Cornelius (ph) drives on the ball, our center back, and he makes a really good pass just to give us an out, and then Danny puts a perfect pass -- listen, Danny Royer, what he's meant for our team in these years, is he's very inspiring, his play. He's intelligent and he's always up for it, and he's intelligent both sides of the ball and tactically, he's always connected.

So yeah, I think it showed tonight the demand, it's not just get guys behind the ball. There's a lot more to it. So he did a big job.

Q. What was the message to the team after this good game?
CHRIS ARMAS: Yeah, there's lots of little messages in there, but understanding the opponent was going to be important; Atlanta, knowing their strengths, where they can hurt us, where they are strong. So we always talk about the opponent and in terms of the game plan. And then of course, we talk about us a lot.

Again, where we want to attack. Where we can have success on the day. And yes, there's no real big message. We wanted to try to, we knew them coming in, we'd probably see two things: Direct play, and make the same slow. We saw both of those. They were going to build out of the back all day. We were up for the press as we saw early on.

But we thought, we'll step up all the way and make them kick and put them in a game that they really aren't as comfortable. They had a plan coming in right away, you could see it, from Martinez, these little clipping (ph) balls our staff was amazing, the short notice in these last weeks preparing footage and training sessions. It was a big team effort.

Q. Kaku, seemed like he was playing a little higher up the field today and seemed like he had a lot of energy the way he was playing. Obviously he came out the second half but what did you see from him today in his performance?
CHRIS ARMAS: Yeah, look, at the start of the game, you're asking him to stay close to our striker. It's Brad, it's Brian. That's where he is very special. Up the field, his final passes, he's always able to handle the ball and has good ideas. Knows how to operate in tight spaces up the field.

We had a decision to make, even when we go down, but it was going to be important to still have a guy out there that can keep the ball give us some buzz and provide an outlet, not just a striker. It was a big demand for him to move to the side of our midfield, but he was very, very good. He had discipline. He had control all day long. And what we -- one of the things we loved about him when we brought him here, is that he works. He plays both ways and he gives a lot to the team. It was impressive.

Q. I just wanted to follow up with -- Kemar wasn't available last year in that September game, he was such an important part of that win. Do you feel like he was extra motivated in this game? You mentioned the emotion. Seemed like he was playing with a lot of emotion in this one specifically?
CHRIS ARMAS: I think we all know Kemar Lawrence is a special player and a special personality. He has bite and he has passion and it means a lot to him, and when he gets a run of games and gets the fitness, he has something different. You can see it. You can feel it, what he brings. Even at full strength, I mean, if you think about -- we know how good Atlanta is, especially up their right side with Gressel, with Escobar, and Kemar has always done a pretty good job. But he was really up for it today. He even mentioned after to the guys; that he hats been waiting on this one. He missed out on it last year, so it's awesome for Kemar.

Q. You mentioned understanding Atlanta today. When you go down a man and your team is still finding those chances to go score a goal or take a lead and skill time, what does a team have to look for, to find those chances when they don't have an extra set of feet?
CHRIS ARMAS: Well, we actually even talked and showed a slip at halftime. With the ball, there's still time to play, and it wasn't going to, we didn't want to just hang on. We didn't. You know, we went out -- tactically to make some adjustments, but there was a discussion "when we win the ball," and how can we score.

So again, I mentioned earlier, a few different ways we can do that. But it was going to take courage and it was going to take guys having some calm, and ideas, and guys moving, as tired as they were, and to go from defending to attacking was going to be not just a one -- we didn't want just one -- and we put together a pretty good play.

Q. Do you think in some ways going down a man, trying to break you down, that was more of an advantage for your side?
CHRIS ARMAS: Well, yeah, I mean, I think, again, we talked earlier about what their strength is. I mean, they are the best possession team in the League, of course, FC -- Dallas -- per the statistics, they are built for possession but they are also built for transition.

In many ways -- we are not going to talk about our game plan right now because all really you got to see at full strength was them hitting some long balls and then we had ideas of how it would go like that and like this.

So is there strength crossing the ball in flanks? I think they have some footballers that can play. Yeah, were we forced into this and forcing the ball wide? Yeah, it takes a little away from what they really do with transition. You could see when we are careless with the ball and we had some bad giveaways in the first, even numbers there, they are dangerous going the other way.

So that did force us into a more disciplined structure, and maybe helped us control spaces a bit more.

FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports

ASAP Sports, Inc. | T: 1.212 385 0297