- Match: New York Red Bulls vs Atlanta United
- Location: Red Bull Arena, Harrison, NJ
- Date: September 30, 2018
- Final Score: NY 2-0 ATL (Recap | Highlights)
Atlanta United Head Coach Gerardo Martino
Q. The team looked like it lacked intensity in the first half. I was curious if you agreed and if you had any particular reason why.
GERARDO MARTINO: Because today we played against the most intense team in the league and we knew that if we didn't match that they were going to control the game.
Q. Why weren't you all able to match it?
GERARDO MARTINO: Because they did it better. Usually when one team triumphs over another it's because they did things better, especially in the first half. The second half was a little bit different but definitely in the first half.
Q. Any concerns about this loss?
GERARDO MARTINO: Before this game we had a bigger advantage, now they have cut that advantage smaller, but it's still just depends on us. But they have closed the gap.
Q. There seemed to be something between you and Armas at the end of the game. I was curious if you could elaborate on that, please.
GERARDO MARTINO: I went to separate him from Miguel because I think they were arguing and I went to take Miguel out of it. I don't know what they were arguing about but I saw that they were starting to talk and I went to take Miguel out of it. I like coaches with a low profile.
Q. What did you try to do in this game and why didn't it work?
GERARDO MARTINO: We wanted to gets the ball behind the first line of their midfielders and then be able to find the space behind their center backs because they like to play a high line. And we were able to do it on a very few occasions, Miguel in the first half and Brandon had a chance in the second half, but that was the plan, but it only happened a few times.
Atlanta United Right Back Julian Gressel
On the first half…
“They were a lot more intense than us. We try and play out, they had a pretty good plan of obviously trying to stop it with their hold-up. We couldn’t really control the game in the way we wanted to. They were defending a lot more, I thought, and the whole first half was played in our half of the field which is not what we want. Credit to them. They were very intense, they were fired up, and they had the edge in those 50/50 duels, those second balls.”
On whether playing long balls would’ve provided more opportunities to break the Red Bulls’ high-press…
“We have a certain style that we want to play and that we want to show on the field. It didn’t really quite work today the way we wanted it to. I still thought that, maybe, if we moved the balls quicker and got into the right places we still could have played through their press. So, I don’t really know if we need to play long balls and just play for the second balls. That’s really not us, you know. I feel like their comes a certain time of the year, which is now, and then probably the playoffs where you kind of just play more result-oriented than style. That’s going to come from Tata and his staff and we’ll just try to learn from this experience today and move on.”
Atlanta United Goalkeeper Brad Guzan
How did the high-pressure affect the team’s performance…
It was down to intensity, desire – we never got started. We never got into the game until the game was past us and we were chasing the game. High pressure or not, we knew what they were going to come with, we knew what to expect – we just never got into the game.
Even though both sides are already qualified for the playoffs, did you stay hungry to get revenge over the Red Bulls…
I don’t think that’s our next game, our next game I believe is at home against New England. We’ve got to turn around and make sure we have a good week of training and get ready for New England. We’re not thinking about New York Red Bulls right now. The game is over, we turn our focus to New England.
Any guesses why you guys didn’t come out with much intensity…
It was a poor start. We never got going and at that point we were chasing the game. It’s not one thing you can put your finger on, we all knew how big of a game it was, we all knew what to expect in the game, and we didn’t perform.
