Real Salt Lake 3-3 San Jose Earthquakes
Real Salt Lake Head Coach Jeff Cassar
On the match:
“I think San Jose imposed their will on that game, which they do a fantastic job of. I think that if we were a little better with possession, and more sustained on attacks, we could have taken the air out of this game early on. After they started applying pressure, applying balls in the box, they started gaining momentum and it’s tough to get it back when they start rolling like that.”
On surrendering a two-goal lead:
“I think if we didn’t give them any fouls or free kicks and defended set pieces well, it’s a different result; probably a win for us tonight, but we have some stuff to work on. It’s early in the year. I’m just really proud of the guys. Four points in two road games – super pleased with that. It feels like a loss right now, but at the end of the day, it’s a point on the road against a very difficult team.”
San Jose Earthquakes Head Coach Mark Watson
On the result:
“That’s kind of standard stuff around here, isn’t it? Once again, we had a great start. It was disappointing to see the game seemingly slip away from us. We got a bit sloppy and dug ourselves a big hole, but once again, our guys found a way to push to the end and get a point out of the game.”
On conceding a goal before halftime:
“The heads were down. It’s your home opener, you get off to a great start, the team had a lot of energy; to concede three goals and one just before halftime, the heads were down. It was a matter of sorting ourselves out on the field and making sure the heads were back up when we went back out there. We wanted to start the second half with energy and fight and a belief that we could still get something out of this game.
On Real Salt Lake’s performance:
“They’re a good team and keep possession. There’s a couple things we needed to do better. They had too much time on the ball. Kyle Beckerman is a big part of what they do, and we gave him too much time on the ball. We knew we needed to sort that out for the second half or we would have had no chance to get something out of the game.”
