NEW YORK RED BULLS MEDIA CONFERENCE

May 6, 2023

Gerhard Struber

Press Conference

Philadelphia 1, New York 0

Q. If I can ask you, how difficult of a match was this tonight, and how frustrated have you been with the entire 90 minutes?

GERHARD STRUBER: The frustration is right now on an outstanding high level. 10 for 10, I would say. Not only for me but also my boys.

Yeah, again, we can see, we missed a lot in this game. Not ready in the moments when we get the chance, and one time very, very unlucky with a penalty. Yeah, that's very -- question in my eyes. We had a special time, tough time. Yeah, it's very, very difficult at the moment.

Q. What were your thoughts on the penalty kick that resulted? What were your thoughts on the penalty resulted from the kick?

GERHARD STRUBER: What should I say now? I think blowing the whistle about a penalty like that, then I think you have to -- moments like that, you have every game, many, many times in a penalty area, you have contact, you have situations like that, and the referee stayed so close. Also he has the chance to look at a little bit late on the TV without stress. Yeah, it's a crazy decision but it's fact.

Q. What did you say to the ref that prompted the yellow card?

GERHARD STRUBER: About me? Give me the yellow card?

Q. Yeah.

GERHARD STRUBER: No way. Maybe you ask him.

Q. Earlier this week when you were talking press during your training session, you said your plan wasn't to play Ronald and for to stick with the second team in the practice --

GERHARD STRUBER: It's clear that the question is coming. Not surprised that the question come from you.

Q. Okay. Is there anything gained going back on what you said in press when you said he wasn't going to be played at all on the first team?

GERHARD STRUBER: Yeah, I think this was a special day, and yesterday he showed me in the training outstanding moments, and we need a goal today. Especially yesterday we have many, many moments to score moments in the training, and he showed me in this direction a very, very good picture, and this was the reason why he come in. I had a feeling maybe he could bring some impacts, what could be helpful, yeah, and I have a big trust in him.

I think he needs, of course, time, but sometimes special situations need special measures and I go in this direction today. We all know that in the end he has a bright future. He needs game time and he needs especially the second team that he makes the steps what we want. Today, I think he has one or another good moment, he showed his talent, and this was the reason, especially yesterday the training was the trigger for the chance to come in game time.

Q. This evening I saw a bunch of guys -- doing everything they can in the game, and yet we wound up on the losing side of the game. So I have to ask, as a coach, you're trying to move your boys into the positive, how helpless do you feel in the sense that these sort of evenings do pop up and everything doesn't always go to plan or go your way? What are you telling your team at this point to keep fighting? Because they do, they will fight again, but it's almost like they have to play almost perfect with every opponent. Do you feel that way or very differently?

GERHARD STRUBER: We cannot say that we make everything right in the end. The table never lies and the reality is that we are in the last place in the table, and we make not everything right, especially the results at the moment are very, very bad.

And also in the games, when we see, also, today how we handled -- and against Philly, we know that this is a team on a very high level. You get not so many chances, but when you come in moments like that, you must be more in balance. You must be more ready for situations like that.

And today, we do it right, and in the end, we was inefficient. This was the problem. And we cannot say right now the performance is always good, of course. The boys invest; the boys, was ambition to bounce back in this game. But you need in the moments when you get the chance against a team like that, you have to use that. And I think this is, of course, we can see we have a big potential in this direction. This is not a coincidence. This is our situation. And of course we keep fighting and we keep going. This is clear. This is crystal clear.

But a loss like that is hard at the moment; that you can be on a good level. I think the frustration, the disappointment is proof.

Q. With all the injuries you've had so far to start the season and with everything that's been coming at you the wrong way, you have another match in the Open Cup against D.C. for derby and you have the Hudson River derby a couple days later. How do you rally your boys to prepare for those two matches within this upcoming week?

GERHARD STRUBER: It's a challenge, yeah. We have to go on Tuesday against D.C. in the Open Cup game, and we have to look right now what's going on with injuries, which players also go more in high-risk moments. We play on artificial grass. It's also different, and I'm not ready. I have no information right now about the one or other player.

Yeah, we will see. But of course, we have the Open Cup for our chance, and also we will bring a performance on a good level in this competition. You know it from last season, we come in the semifinal, and I think also this season we will create in this competition a good performance but right now, we know our -- yeah, we have not so many players available at the moment. This is I think the biggest challenge.