NEW YORK RED BULLS MEDIA CONFERENCE

May 29, 2024

Sandro Schwarz

Press Conference

Red Bulls 3, Charlotte 1

Q. Coach, it seemed like it was a tale of two halves. First half, the team seemed a little sluggish. They came out the second half, everything seemed to be firing. Can you talk about what it was like at halftime to kind of get them going?

SANDRO SCHWARZ: Yeah, I agree about that first half. Yeah, it was not good. We didn't play vertical and we lost so many -- in so many situations, too easy, the ball, and didn't find the right moment for our pressing.

Yeah, we analyzed this in the -- it was not the halftime; it was more the break, then, for this one hour I think. It was good to have this break for us, and to change a little bit something in our tactical and in our -- especially when we have the ball, yeah.

Second half was good. Very good. It was great with intensity, with energy, and also to have the confidence with the ball in a lot of situations. And we scored from set pieces from the corner. So it was good, very good second half, and I'm very happy about these three points today.

Q. Second half was better but they did get a lot of balls behind the defense, and I think you were slightly lucky that they didn't put any of them away.

SANDRO SCHWARZ: The second half?

Q. Yeah, in the second half.

SANDRO SCHWARZ: Yeah, they have, also, very good quality. Especially with his striker in the duels, and we had some moments. But in the first half, which we had some problems, and the second half, I think it was, before we scored the first goal, it was one transition moment for Charlotte. But the rest of the second half, we controlled and we create chances.

So it's good to see that we can change, also, in a game our performance. It gives us more confidence. We need our confidence for this performance, how we want to play and yeah, it's good. This is what I said, very good second half. First half was not good -- not good enough.

Q. I would just like to ask you about Carlos Cornell, the moment in the first half where he went down, just talk about any update on that. He finished the game. Nearly had a clean sheet. But in your opinion, what's going on with him? And did that extended halftime, almost like an hour break, did that really help him?

SANDRO SCHWARZ: I'm not sure that it was only the break that helped him. Yeah, he played the whole game, and he was a little bit angry after the game because we concede in the last minute this goal, and this is a good reaction of Carlos.

But I'm sure that he will be ready for Saturday for the home game. But it's not Bark Night on Saturday, no. Maybe White Cats would be also good (laughing.)

It sounds good, White Cat Night. We can do that, maybe.

Come on, was not bad, yeah? The joke was not bad, yeah. I ask myself, What is Bark Night? But now I know (laughing).

No, I don't have it but it's okay. I prefer the White Cats (chuckling).

Q. Good evening, Coach. As you said, it wasn't really halftime, more of a long break. Was there anything you said to the team to keep them focused on the match, and obviously the performance was better in the second half?

SANDRO SCHWARZ: We showed some sequences more in the halftime, and we analyzed in all phases in the game from the first half because we had to improve a lot, when we compare the first half and the second half.

And then we showed, also, the whole first half in the locker room that they can see for themselves the game. And yeah, we showed some -- I think it was six, seven sequences to analyze our pressing, to analyze our transition moments to play more vertical. I think this was the most problem the first half.

We had some good moments, but then we didn't play -- we didn't break the lines, and then we lost a little bit the could have had with the ball in these moments.

Yeah, second half, great reaction. And I said this directly after the game in the locker room. This is how we want to play with, this intensity, against the ball and with the ball.

Q. We talked about this before where in some cases and during in matches, they start off great, and then in tonight's they start slow. Is it a concern that they haven't played a full game from start to finish, the energy level, is it the fact that they haven't played in nearly a week and a half, or is it something else? Because as the season goes on, you're going to be playing a lot better teams. You really can't afford to play half a football game just to keep up with these guys. So I wonder, you know, especially after tonight's game, you're probably wondering, okay, there's got to be a way to have these guys play a full 90-minute games.

SANDRO SCHWARZ: Yeah, this is the next step. This is the next step in our development, and now we've played I think 15 games, but this is the next step to control the whole game.

In previous games, we had some moments which was then maybe 60 minutes, 65 minutes very well. But this is the next step, to control the whole game, yeah.

Today I'm very happy we have this reaction after not the best performance in the first half that we can change our intensity, our energy immediately and then to change how we want to play, and especially in the second half. This is also good to know because it's not possible to play every week a perfect match, a perfect game.

So it's good to see that we can change and that we have to keep our focus on how we want to play, and this was good, and this is why I'm happy today that we change the second half to the first half.

Q. The second half, like you said, was much better. Particularly with the substitution of Dante, I thought provided more mobility and verticality in the attack. Curious what you thought of his performance, and also, there were a lot of Jamaican fans near the bench asking you to put on Cory Burke the entire match. Did they have any influence on the substitution?

SANDRO SCHWARZ: Maybe, a little bit. Yeah, there was some Jamaican there, and they said, we have to sub in Cory. But Cory was in the last weeks very well in the training session, and also in D.C. United in these minutes, and New York City, the derby game, as well.

It's then the sequence that he gets minutes more and more, and it's a good impact for to us have him the last ten, last 15 minutes.

And the first question was?

Q. Dante.

SANDRO SCHWARZ: Yeah, Dante was a good reaction to come from the bench. We spoke in the halftime about that, or we spoke on this long break that we need all subs now directly to have a good impact for us, and it was good. And then we will see for Saturday.

Q. The center back partnership of Andrés and Noah, obviously it's been forced the two times you've played it recently but it has looked good in both of those times. Is that something that could be an option going forward, those two?

SANDRO SCHWARZ: Sean Nealis is an important player, as well for us. Don't forget, we have now -- we played now 15 games and they red cards, and all these red cards from certainty backs. In a lot of games, we had to change these positions.

But different combinations, also. We played very well games with Andrés and John, especially, the national break, the first game against Inter Miami and then we had good games with the combination Noah and John.

Yeah, we will see now. It's important to have this recovery the next two days, and John is back. It's good that we have more options from the bench.