COLORADO RAPIDS 2, REAL SALT LAKE 0
RAPIDS HEAD COACH FERNANDO CLAVIJO
On the Rapids second-half performance
"The game plan was very clear. We just could not find any momentum. We need to set a pace. In the second half, they are going to try to slow it down as much as possible and we need to do something about this. We need a little more intensity. You know, I mean, we were just two steps behind on everything else."
On Byron Foss' performance
"Outstanding. I mean, outstanding. I said it all along ... You know, Joe [Cannon] is one of the great goalkeepers in the league. But we have a roster full of players and they need to stay on top of their job. I though Byron was very good. The other day, unfortunately, they didn't give him much time to warm up. But today was outstanding. I'm truly happy for him.
"I think that he is young and has enormous shoes to fill whenever Joe Cannon is out."
On the second-half strategy
"One of the things is, I don't think that we possessing the ball very well. That's what it is. You need a couple of guys to step up and everyone else follow and we were not able to do that in the first half."
On Eric Denton's performance:
"We know, I mean, he's a very good player. We said all along, for him to break the lineup, he needs to do a little more than what we were doing and we were winning. So to break him in, it was hard. Hopefully we can get him in in the next five games and make a good run for the playoffs. I see him as a good candidate to start absolutely."
RAPIDS DEFENDER MIKE PETKE
On the team's performance:
"... And we almost go to sleep early. But in the long run, we could just tell that they were worn out. You could tell that they were desperate, they need this win. It was good that we got it, took it away from them."
On RSL's Melvin Tarley (who scored four goals in U.S. Open Cup vs. the Rapids):
"Yeah, I mean, he's a good player, but what he did to us in Minnesota was not typical. You know, the attack, we weren't up for it. And tonight, personally for myself, I didn't really play the Minnesota game so I really wanted to shut him out ... along with everyone else. I do have respect for him. He's a good player. But there's no way I wanted him to come in and do anything near what he did last time."
On what the team needs to do heading into the playoffs:
"I need to rest my bones. But I'm going to be honest here. Half of me thinks that the team will just keep going and punching along, working hard. Seriously, we've got not even a team that doesn't want to listen. And they want to be above the team. And that's not healthy. It's [the team] not one guy, it's not two guys. And we need to come together. We've got to quit the whining and quit everything else and realize that we have an opportunity here. Remember when Colorado made it to the championships ... Look back at that. I mean, we have an opportunity here and I think guys really need to wake up and realize it."
REAL SALT LAKE HEAD COACH JOHN ELLINGER
On the game strategy:
"We wanted to pressure constantly on their backs and make
them lump the ball up in the air, because every time they
did we were winning it."
On their performance:
"We're not playing poorly. Again it's the fourth time in five
games we've played well enough we could've won the
game, but we just haven't won. We just have to find ways to
win games, what's been going on most of the year is
we're finding ways to lose games."
On what is wrong with the team:
"It's a mental thing. It's not a shape thing, or a technical
thing or a fitness thing. It's just a mental thing with us. The
whole away thing is eating at us."
On how to fix it:
"Someone has to be the guy, who basically is the refuse to
lose guy."
On the game strategy:
"We were just going to take it to them from the start, and why
not, why sit back and play defensive. We just seemed to be
playing better with three forwards."
On team's performance on the road:
"We have two games left, we need to win an away game.
We want to win, we don't want to finish the season with 12
straight losses."
REAL SALT LAKE DEFENDER PAUL BROOME
On the team's performance:
"It has really been the last month and a half or so that we have really had a chance to win, but there's that one time in the game when the ball doesn't seem to bounce your way and you end up losing the game by one goal. That is something that is in front of us that is a really frustrating thing. You give the effort but you don't see the results."
On the loss:
"It's a frustrating thing to not get the results that you think you can get and you think you deserve."
On the last three games:
"The last three games have been really good, but once again the key moments of the game just haven't been going our way."
On what to do next:
"Just go back to work and try to make it right."
