REAL SALT LAKE 1, CHIVAS USA 0
CHIVAS USA HEAD COACH PREKI
On the result:
"It was a tough evening for us. I didn't think we were particularly sharp in the first half. Actually, quite a few guys that weren't sharp, and I didn't feel like the commitment was good from the get-go. We made one or two mistakes and we paid for it. After that it was an uphill battle. In the second half we made a couple of changes, we pushed the tempo, and we created quite a few opportunities. It doesn't look like now we can find the touch on the ball, we just can't put the ball in the net and that's the way it is."
On the two substitutions:
"Both guys were not sharp. I thought Atiba [Harris] and Jonathan Bornstein were not sharp at all, and the two guys that came in the second half played pretty descent. They gave us some energy and we were very unlucky to take something from that game. Justin [Braun] had three really good chances, Sacha had a good chance, Raphaël Wicky had half a chance and he was pretty decent on the ball. At least it's good to see some of these guys on their way back. It's going to take them a few of weeks to be sharp, and we don't have a few weeks.
On Justin Braun's performance:
"He had three chances tonight, and you've got to get there. You have to find yourself in the position to score goals. Right now no one is finding the spot apart from that kid. He is not finding the net right now, but hopefully he will. We need goals from the forwards, and right now we can't find the goals."
CHIVAS USA MIDFIELDER JESSE MARSCH
On the shift in the game at the half:
"The first half was lackluster. Once we got scored I felt like we started to pick it up a little bit but it was too little too late, although we had chances. The last two games we've actually managed to do some good things but come away with no goals, so that's obviously a problem, but it's a long season."
On the difference between the two games:
"Some days you have to take their team and our team, and say to yourself 'how many guys on our team had good days, how many guys on their team had good days.' And when you put them together, even though at times it looked like we had the ball a lot and we're pressing the game, I don't think we had enough guys have their high quality games where we're putting pressure on them and making them defend and putting our mark on the game like we know we can. Anytime when you don't get enough guys to come out from the beginning and have good games, you're going to struggle. That being said, the game was there to win, but so was last week's."
REAL SALT LAKE HEAD COACH JASON KREIS
On playing in a 4-5-1 formation:
"I think it caused them some problems, I think they weren't sure what to do with it and it made us very difficult to break down. It really limited the space in the midfield for them. I think our two, Robbie [Findley] and [Matias] Cordoba did a pretty decent job of getting back on their outside backs, so they probably couldn't get forward as often as they would've liked. I think a lot of the things worked well for us tonight. I would say that offensively we weren't nearly as strong as we have been in prior matches and I think we'll have to get used to playing that way so we can figure out how to generate more offensively from it."
On holding on to the lead:
"I'm so, so proud of the guys. I said at halftime to them that 'here we are again, in a spot that we've talked about multiple times this season, so let's show everybody, let's show ourselves that we've learned something,' and the guys did a fantastic job with that. They've taken a big step forward by showing that they're learning."
On what the win does for the team:
"The difference for me is that when you maybe don't play well and you pick up a result it's a big leap for you mentally. And if you play well and don't get a result it can still be in the back of your mind that you're losing games. For me, there's so much of this game, and these seasons, that's about mentality. To pick up a win like this will be a huge boost for us, not because we played particularly well tonight, but because we picked up a hard-fought win."
REAL SALT LAKE GOALKEEPER NICK RIMANDO
On being busier in the second half than in the first:
"It was just one of those games where you've got to stay connected in the game and even though you don't do anything, you still have to be in tune and ready for anything. That's what happened in the second half -- they had a couple shots that I had to make a save on and luckily I got to it and made the save."
On the team's effort on the road:
"We knew as a team that we could do it, we knew all along. It was just concentrating for the whole 90 and then playing and fighting, and we did that tonight. From [Nat] Borchers to [Jamison] Olave and [Chris] Wingert and Tony [Beltran] outside we all played good, and it wasn't just them in the defense, it was the whole midfield and the forwards, and together we won that game.
REAL SALT LAKE FORWARD ROBBIE FINDLEY
On winning on the road:
"We've been working hard and we could've had a couple earlier in the season away from home but we've been working hard in practice and tonight we fought for each other and stuck together and came out with a win."
On his goal:
"I was able to find myself on the back line, it was a good ball by Kyle [Beckerman] right into space and I ran onto it. The keeper started cheating out so I took one more touch to be able to get it past him."
