Quote Sheet
Real Salt Lake 2-2 Toronto FC
Rio Tinto Stadium, Sandy, UT
April 9, 2022
Midfielder Damir Kreilach
On being back in the starting lineup:
“Being on the field is a privilege. I was so happy to be back with the boys to help them as much as I can, but unfortunately, we can’t control the results, and the results didn’t go our way. All things considered, I think we did some great things tonight, but we were unlucky in front of the goal. Scoring a third goal was our priority after the first half, but unfortunately, we didn’t get it.”
On celebrating in front of Kreilach’s Corner:
“It’s all about emotions. It doesn’t matter who scores, as long as you’re winning. Every goal gives you confidence and especially what I said before, I’m trying my best off and on the field to help the boys. We have to stay positive. In all seven games, we’ve shown our identity, we’ve shown who we are, hopefully we can keep showing everyone until October, even November, too.”
On his connection with Sergio Cordova:
“When you have strikers like that, like Sergio [Cordova], like Bobby [Wood], they can hold the ball at any moment and wait for help from Pablo [Ruiz], from Scott [Caldwell], [Maikel] Chang, and Justin [Meram], on both sides, and that means a lot. I think so far in these seven games, we’ve shown exactly that we are a great team in terms of creating chances. That’s who we are at the moment, but the only thing you can’t control is the results.”
On trying to keep team morale up:
“So far, we’ve had so many unlucky situations with injuries in the last month and a half, but every single guy who’s stepped in has shown respect, quality, and we’re all on the same page. This is how we see success. Luck hasn’t been on our side lately, but this team is going to do great things this year.”
Head Coach Pablo Mastroeni
On Sergio Cordova’s lack of goals:
“Forwards can be so streaky with their production. He’s going to start scoring goals and his confidence is going to put fear into our opponents and open up even more space for other players. Tonight his running onto the ball was fantastic and his partnership with Damir [Kreilach] was really awesome to see. We also have Bobby [Wood] in the fray and now it becomes interesting for us because we have to decide what formation we are going to set up in order to get all of our guns on the field. This is something we are going to experiment with going into this week with New York.”
On Toronto’s equalizer:
“I’m going to be very biased here, but it seemed like there was contact to me. The moment of the game that we should assess is where we played that ball because that is something that we can control. The referee's decision is obviously out of our control. I was hoping he would overturn his own call, but it didn’t work in our favor tonight. Hopefully, in the future, we can get that break.”
On the linkup play with Damir Kreilach back in the lineup:
“We saw a lot of opportunities when their two pivots would step up in that press. In pregame, we talked about the spaces where we could find Damir [Kreilach]. I thought Zac [MacMath] did a very good job in particular finding them in those gaps and then our pivots did a very good job at running off the ball over the top. I think Pablo [Ruiz] had a fantastic game where he would break through the midfield in pacing and finding some good options. He almost found an opportunity for himself but he was unfortunate to not capitalize on it. That was definitely an area that we felt we could exploit and I felt we executed things to a tee.”
