Midfielder Paul Arriola
On the game...
“The past three games we’ve come out and scored first early on in the game. We make it a point to come out into the game and provide on energy and get the early goal and we’ve been able to do that now. The question is how do we keep the lead throughout the game. Obviously, with the red card it was going to be tough. I think we did our best, and in the end, we showed a lot of character. It’s a good step forward regarding the team and the chemistry that we have and how we all fought for each other very much like the game against Columbus where I was thrown out. It was a very tough result because now it’s not necessarily about the performance but it’s about the result. I think now we will be confident going into San Jose that if we can keep 11 men on the field we will have a really good chance of getting 3 points.”
On team confidence...
“Personally, I found myself more confident in the position that I played today. It gave me a little bit more freedom and with a loss like this where we were down a man and we continued to push, in the end I think we could have easily tied the game up with a good cross or a good finish. The losses are piling up; the road games are difficult and they’ve been difficult since last year. It’s our job to continue to get better. Me personally, I’m very confident with my teammates and what we can achieve in San Jose and elsewhere.”
Defender Steven Birnbaum
On the last 15 minutes...
“I’m just proud of the guys. They had a lot of heart today. Being down for 70 minutes of the game is tough and I thought we had a pretty good second half. There’s some positives to take away from this, but not picking up any points is tough. I thought we played well to pick up at least a tie. There were chances out there for us and sometimes that’s the way goes. I’m happy with the second half and the way the guys responded.”
On preparing for San Jose next week...
“I thought we did a good job in the second half of keeping the ball a little bit longer and creating better chances for attackers out of the back. With 11 guys now going into the San Jose game, we are really going to hone in on that and make sure we dominate possession because we are a good enough team to do it.”
Real Salt Lake Head Coach Mike Petke
On needing a win tonight...
“It always comes down to the three points and I wouldn’t want somebody on my team who would rather have personal glory then three points. The last thing I said (before the kickoff) was three points for the team, 200 wins for Nick and you could tell that he didn’t want to hear that. That’s the credit to Nick. Three points are great and obviously, it’s a special night for Nick; not just for Nick, but for all of us. The players, the organization. Nick represents this organization and anytime he can be recognized is phenomenal.”
On finishing chances...
“Taking your opportunities. Corey had a phenomenal goal, same with Savarino, same with Albert. Sometimes it’s a coin flip unfortunately. Those three guys took their chances tonight and put away some pretty nice goals and perhaps we could’ve had one of two more.
Real Salt Lake Midfielder Kyle Beckerman
On getting victory after two hard away losses:
“Yeah we were talking about it a bit before the game you know to take those positives from those games and actually get some points. It was just an important game to get three points with four out of five on the road to then finally come back home in the middle of it. We needed to get the three points to stick with the pack. So, that was the main thing. Of course, we like to play fun soccer where everybody’s touching it, the balls on the ground, and there were some good times for that tonight. And then there were some times where we just had to battle and get it done. So, there was a good balance of it, and we’ll look what we did good, look what we did bad and try to improve this week and get better for next week.”
