Quote Sheet
Real Salt Lake 2-1 CF Montreal
Stade Saputo, Montreal, Canada
May 22, 2022
Defender Justen Glad
What he credits the turnaround to
“We knew going into the game that we just had to stay the course. We went into halftime and the halftime speech was just ‘keep doing what we’re doing, keep playing. We’re going to get our chances, and if we stay solid in the back, we’re going to have a shot at this game.’ I’m incredibly proud of the group. We showed a lot of fight out there, and it’s a huge three points.”
Thoughts on being impactful off set pieces and corners
“Every set piece is a great opportunity to get a goal. It’s a huge part of the game. Me and Marcelo [Silva] and everyone, we really emphasize that. If you’re not scoring goals in the run of play, that’s how you’re going to score. I’m just happy to put one in the back of the net.”
Thoughts on game management
“It’s a huge part of the game. When we’re up a goal late in the game, that’s what you have to do. You gotta try and kill the game in any way possible. You saw we were playing it in the corner and especially away on the road, you gotta do whatever it takes. So doing those little things, maybe kicking the ball away, taking as much time as you can, Zac [MacMath] holding onto the ball and falling down, those are the little things that can end up winning you the game.”
Midfielder Jasper Löffelsend
Thoughts on keeping a good mentality after conceding early
“I think we did a tremendous job bouncing back from the first minute. I didn’t feel that we were not confident, but we have to re-watch it. Obviously going down in the first minute is kind of tough, but we did a great job from there. It didn’t take us out of our rhythm. We continued playing out of the back, what we were practicing on over the last couple of weeks. We got more comfortable at that. We had some great chances in the first half and then finally broke the lock in the second half. With the quality we have up top, we were able to score consecutive goals. Great job from the team today.”
Thoughts on proving himself as a starter
“I had the luck to work under a fantastic head coach at the university level with Jay Vidovich and he was always preaching, ‘Once you make it to the pro level, it’s about how much you can put in on the field. It doesn’t matter where the coach or the team needs you, you just need to leave it all on the pitch and perform as well as you can.’ That’s what I always do. Not only preseason, I try to push to the limit every single practice, try to get the guys with me no matter who it is. If the coach needs me in any other position, I’m happy to jump in, try to do my work. Obviously I have to get comfortable in a couple of positions I didn’t play before. It’s just a game for me. It’s so much fun to work around so many great guys on the team who trust me now. We did a fantastic job from there on.”
Thoughts on the amount of ground he covers
“I wouldn’t say it’s always purposeful where I’m running, but I can run a lot. Thanks to my mom and dad for getting me the genetics to keep going. I always tell my friends it’s just about the mentality. Think ahead, think about what can happen in the game. Don’t let it evolve before you, be a part of it. So that drives you to do one more run down the line, to get yourself in an assisting position, to get yourself in a goal scoring position or to defend the last piece. I always try to look forward to making the next play, and that’s just a drive that you need to have to keep going and keep pushing yourself. I think that’s a big mentality piece that not only I have but a couple of the guys have on the team. That’s something you can rely on.
Head Coach Pablo Mastroeni
Thoughts on how the team came back
“Obviously, I was disappointed in the way the game started. I think our ability to get in the game and dictate the game I liked on both sides of the ball for large portions of that first half. We got a lot of belief as a group. At halftime I am saying ‘we need to double-down on everything we did in the first half. Not losing that edge but not becoming over emotional.’ We’re not going to win this game in 44 minutes or in the second half, this game is going to go to injury time, and the guys stayed the course and played fantastic.”
Thoughts on how to approach the team at halftime
“It is really interesting. The first thing I do when I walk into the locker room is I get a feel for the group. Are their heads down? Are they talking? Is there communication amongst the guys? When I walked into the locker room at halftime, they were getting after it in a positive way. It felt like they were saying ‘fellas this is the best half we’ve played. We have to keep going. We got to keep after it. Pedal to the metal, don’t lose that focus.’ So I have to say very little. We talked about this player-led culture, when they’re doing it, my voice doesn’t need to be heard. We just talked about a couple tactical things we wanted to adjust in regards to where we found a lot of success and double-down on that. But again, it’s really about the feel that I get when I walk in the locker room that dictates the halftime.”
Thoughts on how to build on the two-game win streak
“I think one of the things we’ve spoken about at length, and we chatted about last night, was being a team that is dangerous with the ball. I thought early on, especially after that New York City FC game, we were much more comfortable defending than we were attacking. I think with every game that we play we become much more confident with the ball, creating good opportunities on goal without losing that defensive bite. I think when you can play both sides of the ball with the type of mentality we’ve been playing these past two games, these are really building blocks. I couldn’t be more proud of this group and the way they approached it and more importantly, how they believed in themselves in a way that today this group looks nothing like the group that started the year. The idea is we continue evolving, we continue learning from the game whether we win or lose and be the team that is one of the toughest on both sides of the ball to play against.“
