NEW YORK RED BULLS MEDIA CONFERENCE

April 13, 2024

Sandro Schwarz

Press Conference

New York Red Bulls 0, Chicago Fire FC 0

Q. When you have ten men for 50 minutes, obviously a draw feels like a great result. But with as many chances as the guys had, is there a little bit of disappointment from you and the group that you didn't get three points?

SANDRO SCHWARZ: No. It's true that we had a lot of chances. Also in 11 against 11 at the beginning of the game in the first 20, 25 minutes and then we lost a little bit the control of the game.

But second half was great, great performance tactically, especially in our defense structure and also to have these situations with four center midfield players, we changed, also the structure, and both eight approximation, Pete and Wike, Frankie Amaya was great. Great job, also, the back four.

We said this in halftime, we have to defend seriously and also have the focus in our transition, and we had the moments. A little bit disappointed about these chances, but it's small. To have this feeling with this great tactically performance and also with this mentality was very good.

Q. You showed a lot of emotion on the sidelines, every time Carlos touched the ball you're giving a round of applause and at the end, when you hit the double post, you fall flat on your face. Talk about the emotions that you show on the sideline?

SANDRO SCHWARZ: It's an emotional game, soccer, huh. Yeah, I think it's important, also, and it's necessary also for me as a head coach to have this emotion. Without emotions, it's not good then, good enough, and also for my performance.

But I'm very proud of all these guys, of the whole staff, of the support this year, of the whole club how we managed the situation. The only thing is it was a hard week for us.

We lost Serge Ngoma for a couple of weeks now, and also the same with Peter Stroud. But we have to support these players, our players; that they come back very strong.

Q. Wike Carmona has taken a big jump it seems this season. He started I think the last four games. Can you talk a bit about his, I guess, development over the last year and what you see from him on the field now?

SANDRO SCHWARZ: For the last year is very difficult because I'm only here for, I don't know, three months.

But what I can say is also the preseason, he's physically and also technically very good. He showed this in the last game, and also today it was very difficult for the two players to play the right, the eight position on the right sides and more on the center. But he's physically in a very good spot, and also to keep the ball to create some situations. That's a very, very good performance of we canny.

But for me, the whole team today, especially the midfield players, Frankie Amaya, Peter Stroud and Wike, and then on ten position, and Emil, and we have only Lewis Morgan as a striker, but not to stay only deep and to look what happened. Also to create and more in transitions than our chances.

But Wike, great development, but I would say the last weeks, months. I don't know what happened last year.

Q. You substituted Dante Vanzeir for Andres Reyes shortly after the red chart. I'm sure that was probably a tactical decision but Vanzeir wasn't too thrilled about. It what did you say to him after he was coming off the pitch?

SANDRO SCHWARZ: It's normal. He's also very emotional. This is normal. When you have the substitution after 43 minutes, and everyone knows it was a tactical situation and we need them for sure center back more and was for us the decision to keep Luis on the field with his speed and then also Emil on the field to keep the ball, to find maybe in some transition the last pass.

So it's a hard decision at this moment, and also I can feel, also, that it's not happy with Dante, but it's normal emotion and everything is good.

Q. How is Peter Stroud and what happened to him?

SANDRO SCHWARZ: It looks not so good but we have to look tomorrow. He has some appointment then tomorrow with the medical staff, and we have to look in the next days. But it looks not so good to be honest.

Q. Talking about the team's performance, even before the red card in the first half, the team is finishing, had a lot of struggles in this game. Forsberg especially could not seem to find the target. Is there any concern with that after tonight?

SANDRO SCHWARZ: No. Also we talked in our pre-match meeting about that; that we need patience also today. That we don't have this feeling to finish the game after 20 or 25 minutes. It's good that we create a lot of chances in our ball position moments but I'm not concerned about that. It's life. It's a part of our game.

Yeah, we had also some chances, especially at the end, the situation with Eli and Frankie. It's okay. Sometimes we scored from these chances but today was a little bit unlucky.

Q. Do you feel like you win a point or you lost?

SANDRO SCHWARZ: We win altogether one point. I said this in the halftime, so not to think about, Oh, we have to play 0-0. We will create our moments. First of all we need our tactical structure and our defense, and also in our box, defending was very well, and great save from Carlos was I think only one situation in the second half.

But it's a very good point. It's a very good point especially after this red card. I'm happy. I'm proud. This is what I said. So sure, before the game was the main target for us and also our main goal to keep these three points here in our stadium.

But when you see the whole game then after this red card, it was great. Especially then we were very close, we were very close to get these three points with ten players.

Q. What did you see from the red card incident with Andrés? Did you agree with the decision, and have you spoken to him after the match?

SANDRO SCHWARZ: Yeah, I didn't see this sequence. I will see this later. But I didn't see that, and he said, also, sorry for this reaction. But I'm not -- and I said, it's also the whole team. I'm not this person in the head coach the whole time to be angry with Carlos. He has to learn about the situation and he will learn.

Q. Obviously you don't want to be in these situations where you have to play a man down for 50 minutes but what can you take away from this performance with your team showing resiliency, grinding out a point and maybe even almost a win?

SANDRO SCHWARZ: Yeah, we prepare also before the game that sometimes can happen these situations to play with ten players. So we were prepared about this situation and to play in our structure with 4-3-2 or 4-3-1-1.

This is what I said also in the beginning of this press conference. I'm very proud about this mentality, and it's good to have this feeling also, and to have this experience that we are able to win, also, a home game with ten players. It's good to know. But hopefully we play 11 against 11 the next games.

Q. Please talk about Elie's performance coming back as a starter. He looked really solid out there.

SANDRO SCHWARZ: Yeah, it was also, he missed two games in the starting lineup I think, two or three games after the international break and his first starting lineup -- his first game in the starting lineup. Good behavior, especially at the beginning and ball position. He break sometimes the lines of the opponent with his passing or when was the center close, then he passed very good outside to the fullbacks and we create a lot of situations on the right and on the left side with our fullbacks. So it was good.

And especially then in the second half, it was more then to organize with Sean Nealis the back four behavior and box defending to be concentrated against the strikers in the second post, one situation, that was good. So it's good that he's now also in a good rhythm.