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COLORADO RAPIDS MEDIA CONFERENCE

August 31, 2019

Robin Fraser

Harrison, New Jersey

NY Red Bulls - 0, Colorado Rapids - 2

Q. Big win, 2-0 on the road, second road win of the year since your debut, what do you make of the whole 90 minutes?
ROBIN FRASER: I can't say enough about the effort, really can't. The guys put out such an incredible effort. I told them afterwards, I want to be associated with this team because those guys fight. You know, we took some pressure early. Obviously scored the goal, which was great.

Relieved a little pressure that way. But then they were on us and on us, and -- match them up a little bit, and I just felt like the second half, we did a really fantastic job. Just overall, so proud.

Q. On the left side Jonathan Lewis and Sam Nicholson, both playing offense and defense. What did you make of their performances tonight?
ROBIN FRASER: I can talk about them. I can talk about 11 other guys. I thought they were fantastic. Sam gives you -- Sam Nicholson gives you what he gives you. He beats guys. He's fast. He gets down the line. He's very difficult to deal with.

You put Johnny on the other side, same kind of pace. These are two tough wingers to deal with and certainly big assets of ours.

Q. Jonathan Lewis, he had the brace tonight. Was there something you told him before the match, something you were looking for specifically?
ROBIN FRASER: Yeah, score two goals. In the first half he was playing as a forward and trying to look for opportunities -- we knew the center backs were going to be aggressive and if one checks into the midfield, Johnny is looking to get in behind. He was able to make himself and make us dangerous a number of times by doing that.

Q. Luis Robles came up big for the Red Bulls a couple times. What did you think of his performance?
ROBIN FRASER: Luis? At some point there, I thought after being here with him for two years -- it's incredible -- but really I think the bigger part of that is how well we counterattacked as they are pushing for game.

And just, again, the resilience of this group. We win balls in good spots, and we have guys who are dead tired and they are still bombing forward and still having the ability to make the right choice and right pass and get ourselves three or four times in front of the goal. I just can't say enough about them.

Q. It was a complete performance for the whole side offensively and defensively. Next week is Seattle at home. How do you take tonight and put it into next weekend?
ROBIN FRASER: You go on and you look at some of the things that we maybe weren't great at but then highlight things that we were very good at. One of the things that we don't talk about, and it's just the way it goes, you don't talk about the midfielder because he doesn't do anything that's spectacular looking.

I thought Jack Price was brilliant today, absolutely brilliant. His responsibility defensively and then his wherewithal to start attacks offensively were absolutely fantastic.

You look at some of these performances, we will look at them and find ways to make sure we keep duplicating them in terms of quality, but the effort is all there out of these guys every time.

Q. You come into a Red Bulls spot that is known for their pressure, and you seem to solve it time and time again. How do you feel their performance was and just breaking that first line and getting out there?
ROBIN FRASER: I felt like in the second half -- in the first half, we took a lot of pressure. They were able to get out easily. We changed the shape in the second half. We were able to confront them higher, win balls higher, and as a result we were able to quickly get behind them before they could even organize their pressure, and then as the game went on and we got more and more confident, we're able to get out of one side and get to the free side where we had much more time, and out of that we are able to create decent counter-attacks.

It's attention to detail. It's awareness. It's rhythm. You're right, it is they live and die on their pressure, and if you can beat their pressure, then you can negate obviously their strengths.

Q. First time in a long time you got to say you won a game as a head coach. How does that feel?
ROBIN FRASER: Pretty great. As I said to them, it's difficult as a head coach when you take over. You always want to get that first win off your back and get the monkey off your back. To come in here on the road, missing a lot of players, there are so many things that you can say, injuries and they just fought, so I'm really proud.

Q. You just got here, so maybe you can't answer this, but what does it mean to a young team like this to have a veteran to stay in the goal there?
ROBIN FRASER: What does it mean? Just Tim's personality, it's one of calm. It's one of experience. You're just around him and you can tell that he's got this. Whatever it is, he's got this. And for a young group, it's really calming. It's really like a safety, and to have him around -- I can see in the things that he says to them during training, before the games, during the games, halftime, you can tell that he has the pulse of the locker room and they have the utmost respect for him. He knows how to treat them and he knows how to get the best out of them.

Q. Obviously you mentioned a little bit about how Lewis as a player, great chances, but the whole package, including the situations he's had in his career and the ups and downs, what do you think you have in a player like him and what do you hope to achieve working with him?
ROBIN FRASER: What you have in him is a player who can get behind and beat people as I said earlier, and that just didn't come every day. He has tremendous pace. He's shifty enough that he can unbalance guys. What I hope to get out of him? To get him to give performances like that day-in, day-out. Concentrate and learn and get better at some of the defending things, some of the decisions in the final third. But what you have is a lot to work with, and there are a lot of players like that here that there's a lot to work with. Just continue to develop their ideas individually and collectively.

FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports

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