BRIAN CARROLL
Two wins in a row against big rivals with a chance for a third – is this the kind of thing that can turn a season around?
It can certainly get us going and we hope that it can turn the season around, but it just goes back to putting in the work all throughout the week and then having it pay dividends on the weekend during the game. It’s worked the past two weeks, now we have to continue to do it and continue to improve.
What’s been the difference on the field? Why are you guys playing better?
Trainings have been good. Guys are healthy, putting in the work in training and we’re executing the game plan. With that comes confidence, a belief, and a trust in one another and it’s showing on the field.
Last year when you guys were successful, when Jim took over, there was this counter-attacking mentality that was able to transition quick through the midfield. It seemed like you guys were doing that pretty well especially in the second half at RBA. Would you say that’s the case after looking at the tape?
You know, we’ve just gone back to basics. That’s something that worked for us last year, we’re not necessarily trying to emphasize that, but just re-institute that and improve all aspects of our game, whether it be possession, set-pieces, counter-attack, defending, just being tougher to play against on both sides of the ball.
The past two games you’ve kept clean sheets with two pretty different back lines and some changes in midfield. What’s that been like working through all those different changes and still being able to have success?
It’s just been the next-guy up mentality to bring what’s necessary in order to defend first and be smart and try and keep that clean sheet, but really guys have just stepped up as a unit in the back four and done their job when called upon.
You’ve been through a lot of adversity, been in the league a long time, what was it like trying to keep the guys positive with the bad start and rough times?
Yeah it’s tough. It’s easy to put your head down or turn against one another, but guys continue to push forward, continue to stay together and believe in one another and support each other. We got a good team result against DC and that propelled us the next week leading up against New York and that win has propelled us through to this week. Now you just see guys ramping up their level of play and it’s happening from everyone.
What do you think about the FIFA Scandal?
Really, I’ve just seen some snip-its on ESPN, I really don’t know enough about it to even comment, I’m sure we will see it play out through the media but I just do not know enough about it and haven’t seen enough about it to make any statement about it.
You must have thought about it or heard about it. Yes?
I’m sure there are aspects of that (corruption) but I haven’t seen enough of it or been in it to know.
Just for you playing two straight games and playing a full 90 after not getting much playing time before that, how are you able to manage that?
Just trying to stay positive and continue to work hard so that whenever my name was called, I was able to help the team. Just make an impression so hopefully I can play the next week. Everyone has played their role and played their part and I’ve just tried to do that when called upon and glad to be part of the group that’s gotten two straight wins.
Brian there’s a lot made about NY’s different style this year under Jesse and they’ve pressed high with the forwards and the midfielders kind of like Casey did a few years ago and they won the title. Did you think about that when you guys were drawing up the game plan, was there a specific strategy to sort of counter that?
You know, we knew they liked to combine through the middle, and they have dangerous attacking players. Just tried to limit the touches from some of their key guys, be strong defensively, and get after them a little bit on the counter, and then when it’s not on, try and keep possession and take care of our opportunities when they did arise. We had to defend a lot in the first 20 minutes, we caught our breath and started to get a few counter-attacking chances in the first half, but in the second-half it really opened up a little bit for us as they were trying to push the game and we were able to take advantage of our chances. So game plan kind of just worked out and what Jim and the staff were talking about at half-time really came through and happened in the second half.
Over these last two games, how much of it is a matter of individuals on the team turning around struggles to start the seasons and playing better individually? How much does that play into it?
At some point, you kind of just realize that this is where we are and the only way you’re gonna get out of it is to improve individually and collectively. Guys just put everything that they could into the week of training leading up to DC, and we got a good result, and that puts back in guys’ mind what it’s going to take during the week to get the job done during the game. So we have now experienced that feeding and it’s fed into some confidence and now we have a new standard that we need to set and go past each and every week.
Looking ahead to DC, what is it going to take for your team to get a second win against a team you’ve played so recently?
DC’s a good team – they’ll be even better at home than they were when we played them not so long ago. It’s going to take being able to be good defensively as a group, out-compete them, and also be better with the ball both counter-attacking and in possession, and be solid as always on all other facets of the game. It’s going to take a complete game and a complete job from everyone to play their role and do their job.
JIM CURTIN
First to quickly touch on the Red Bull game, I thought we had a lot of strong performances from our guys and I was happy with the entire group. (We were) really committed in both boxes, defensively and offensively. (We had) a lot of blocks and last second slide tackles defensively and attacking wise we were able to put together a couple of plays. We actually had a couple of chances to get a third goal as well and kill off the game. To the guys credit the stuck with it and they kept back to back clean sheets which is now something I'm proud of. You know I've preached defense a lot and we've given up too many goals this year. The goal now is to put a third consecutive clean sheet together, obviously that gets you at least a point, and I think that's a place we can go and push for three. They have a tough week starting at Portland tonight so I encouraged our guys to watch that game. We'll see what kind of team they field on the long flight out there. Roster sizes won't allow them to field two completely separate teams so they'll have some tired legs in what looks to be about a 90 degree day in DC. So full focus on them now and we'll put New York behind us. We watched a video of it today and we're happy with the performance but its two wins in a row, it's something we need to build on and put consistent games and results together in order to get back in this thing.
On midfield transitions in the second half
Yeah I think that as the second half wore on we got stronger. I think that Chaco's had that in the past two where it’s been almost like a boxer where it's a feeling out process: slow in the early rounds and kind of gets stronger as the game goes on. He finds space and fitness-wise he showed really well at the end of the game. Vincent as well, you can see that our guys are a fit group and I think if you look at this second half and the DC second half we were able to defend well and get a goal late. That's a sign of the work that the guys had put in in training, which is a credit to them. And that counterattack looked like us. That was the old us last year when we were going good. Obviously it's been a struggle getting it going this year but we've done it now for two games in a row and the goal is to do it for a third, a fourth, and a fifth. It's kind of the dog days of summer now where you have to have your stuff together to pick up points. The games come at us fast now. I believe it's four out of five in June are here. There's (Lamar Hunt US) Open Cup games sprinkled in there, theres a game at Reading, so it's a busy, busy, hectic time but I think we have a good confidence about us and we're in a good run of form. It's almost good to get the Saturday, Wednesday, Saturday because your guys want to get back on the field again, so it's good that that's coming up.
On how the counterattack has evolved since the beginning of the season and it's resemblance to the team's good run of form last season.
Yeah, it's not a new idea at all. I would say that the final has been a little better. The pass Fabinho makes is a pass that invites CJ (Sapong) to go and get it as opposed to a lot of times this year where we've gotten good wide positions but the cross is off or the run is just a little bit off. We've worked a lot, whether it's 3v2 or 4v3 we've worked a lot on that. The guys have done a better job but can still improve drastically. We're by no means a finished product but I know we're starting to show glimpses of last year, where things were going well. And that's a credit to our experienced guys, which I think have come in and given us a real boost. Young guys have been called upon too in tough spots. Think of Richie Marquez: to go on the road and put in the performance he did against a top goal-scorer in our league (Bradley Wright-Phillips) I thought was very good. I thought Ethan (White) made a lot of big plays for us, Sheanon (Williams) did a great job and Fabi, who I think I had mentioned before had the best game of his career in a Union uniform. They got a few accolades too which is good. Fabi gets recognized for the team of the week and (Brian) Sylvestre does as well. So that's a positive but at the same time, in this league you can't get too high or too low, and that's a simple message but it's a true one. It's a league of streaks where teams get hot and teams get cold. Hopefully we got a lot of our cold streaks out of our system early and hopefully we can get back on track.
Thoughts on the FIFA scandal
Yeah I mean when I woke up I saw the breaking news, the stuff on twitter, and different things. I had seen the previous New York Times article, and the work that some of the reporters had done recently to put it in the spotlight. Unfortunately our commissioner has made it clear to not discuss that topic at this time. It's a process that they're going through and it's not really my place. I don't really know the legality of things and unfortunately I'm kind of not able to comment on that.
On whether the scandals could serve as a distraction to the Women's World Cup coming up
It's obviously an exciting time. I did a clinic out here on the training field last night with about 60 young girls and that's all they were talking about was the Women's World Cup. I have two daughters that are in to soccer and unfortunately my job doesn't allow me to go to Vancouver on break as much as I'd like to right now, to watch some of those games with my daughters but you know we have a busy schedule ahead. It is an exciting time for the game and it does steal a bit of the spotlight from them and the good things that are going on, not only at the international level but in our league as well. Obviously whenever the word "scandal" comes up it fills up this room a little bit more. There's no such thing as bad publicity but I think it's something where it's negative publicity. It's tough.
On CJ Sapong's impact upon his return
We used him a little earlier when I hoped when Conor (Casey) had a little quad issue. But CJ came on and gave us a ton of energy and life. You looked into his eye before he went in and he looked possessed, like he had something to prove. I'm very happy for him. He's been through some things now where I think he knows it's made him a better person first. You hope it makes him a better player and he learns from it. If that's a sign of things to come where he's able to do that on a short week of training and maintain it for 40 minutes. Like I said earlier, when Red Bull came off the field (Karl) Ouimette had a bloody nose, there was one guy limping, and one guy game off so he's a physical presence up there. He gives you a ton of energy and like I said he was possessed on the night. We're obviously happy to get a goal for him but at the same time the dirty work that he did off the ball was what I was most happy with: holding the ball up and being a man in there was impressive.
On contact he had with CJ during his rehabilitation
You wanted to let the league obviously go through their process. We exchanged some text messages. I asked him how he was doing and that sort of thing. He seemed to be in good spirits and it sounded like he was able to work out out there. They had a soccer person to keep his fitness going. But it sounded like his days were busy, they were filled with a lot of things that gave him new perspective on some different things, not only the game but being a man, growing up, and a lot of different ideas. He kind of embraced the process and I think he learned a lot from it and I think he'll be better for it. Like I said if that 35-40 minutes he gave us against Red Bull is any sign of things to come, we're in a good spot.
On Jesse Marsch's comments regarding the Union's play
Yeah it's funny I was sitting on my couch and all of the sudden my phone starts going off with text messages and I'm thinking to myself, what could this possibly be? Is it something related to Brian Sylvestre? It was a couple guys, former teammates of mine and coaches in the league that said, "Did you see the article?". And I read it once, and then I read it again. My first reaction was that I was surprised he was still thinking about Philadelphia. I thought he was on to playing Seattle away this week which will be a tough task. I think back to the week prior and I thought I had a lot of positive things to say about his team, a lot of positive things to say about him. It was disappointing to read. I thought it was a little disrespectful to myself and to the team, most importantly. He spent some time with the media. Maybe he's in a different frame of mind with the spin or whatever it might be but I will never speak negatively about another team. That's not really what I'm about. I like to give praise and I do think that they have a very good group, they're a very good team, a very well-coached team. Their assistant coaches are friends, teammates and former coaches of mine in Chris Armas and Dennis Hamlett, so I respect what they're about. I thought the comment was out of line for sure, especially the one towards the end of the article. It is what it is so we're moving on to DC. Is there a little more spice to the rivalry? Probably, but it's on to the next game for us.
On the team's ability with their backs against the wall and the sustainability of a counterattacking style
Yeah I think you have to find a balance. You can't just sit there and absorb pressure, there are times when you concede possession when you're on the road for sure, but it can't be all the time. We have to have moments where we're still good on the ball. If you watch the tape there's good moments in the second half where we were pretty sharp with the ball. You're right, there can't be this bunker in mentality, and I don't think that's what we're about. It's still a work in progress, we still haven't had all of our guys quite on the field at the same time in the way that I'd like them to for a consistent time but the guys who've played against Red Bull with a bit of a pieced together back line and some attacking guys gave us some really good options. I'm happy with that part. But you're right. You can't just wait till you're back's against the wall to put good performances together. It's has to become a thing where we get on a run and but four and five good games together. I'm honest with my team with where we stand and I'll tell you guys when I don't think we've played well and I'll give our guys credit when we do. I think we've played well in two games, but we have a lot to work on still. I don't want to say it's early because it's starting to move along quickly so we have to dig ourselves out of the hole that we're in.
On the defense's improvement over the last two games
I think it's been the mentality in training that we've had. There have been moments this year where we could have bailed out and taken the easy way out or pointed the finger more but they've stuck together, and Mo (Maurice Edu) has done a good job of keeping the guys together in the locker room. I'll do my best to continue to keep them going as the coach, but the work that they've put in in training has paid off on the field. I'm a big believer that if you put the work into the four to five days of training, the games become the easier and fun part where you just need to execute. For two weeks in a row we've done that and now we need to continue to do so for many more weeks.
On Brian Sylvestre's recall to Carolina and how it affects selection for DC
He's done well, he's done very well. He's come into a tough situation where he was familiar with our guys but these are still the first MLS games for the guy with three games and now two clean sheets for him. So yeah it's a unique one where we're happy with where he's at. It's difficult where their goalkeeper gets a concussion yesterday and they're scrambling. Technically he still is their player so they have the right to call him back and he'll give them a performance there. It's kind of like a midweek game where hopefully he'll stay game sharp and we'll get him back for the weekend.
On Sylvestre's Open Cup eligibility and how it affects the Union's goalkeeper search
We're exploring that right now because he will be Cup tied, barring any crazy circumstance where the game gets cancelled due to weather which wouldn't be the worst. But he will be a member of the (Carolina) Railhawks when it comes to the US Open Cup. I'm confident in Johnny (McCarthy) to do the job and go on a run for us like we did last year. But obviously you need someone to sit your bench and we're starting to explore that option. We're always looking for a solution and I think that Brian's done a very good job so we'll explore what that means between us and Carolina with maybe a purchase down the road. We'll see how that goes but for now, and I hate this cliche but we're taking it one game at a time and it's a situation where Brian has given us two good games and I'm very happy with him as a player. He's got a presence in there, he gives you some size on crosses and has done a really good job.
On Fernando Aristeguieta following his tryout with the Venezuelan national team
Yeah he was disappointed and we exchanged some texts during the process. His camp that he was on Margarita Island where they were quite isolated and it sounded like it was very fitness heavy and difficult. If you look at Venezuela's roster it looks like they have some heavy hitters in his position. He said that they had five forwards in there. In one day they brought a couple of heavy hitters that are playing in Russia where they have some top strikers. He always knew that it was going to be difficult. I think he pushed and made the decision a tough one but he said he fell short and now he's motivated to come back and help us. The good news is that he's fully healthy. For the first time, there's no cast and there's no quad issue. He's fit as I've ever seen him coming off of a tough camp with Venezuela. And he's pretty seamlessly back into the group. The guys like him a lot. Anybody that works as hard as he does gets the guy's respect and appreciation, so I'm excited to get him back and to have a full week of training with him is a positive.
On the difficulties of Fernando missing practices and games due to injury and international duty
It's hard. He hasn't trained a lot at all with different things: national team, injuries, moving to a new country, and a lot of other little variables that have come up where he's missed a lot of training sessions. There hasn't been a lot of cohesion in that regard, but he is a guy that I believe in. I know that he can be a double digit goal scorer in our league, and I'm anxious to get him a run of games now, and have him put the ball in the net which is what he wants to do for us.
On the injury status of Steven Vitoria, Conor Casey, and Ray Gaddis
Steven is actually rehabbing at YSC with Bill Knowles, who does a great job in rehabbing players. It was a little more long term than we thought so we sent him there. I don't know the exact timeline so I don't want to put weeks on it, but it's not in the immediate future that he'll be back with us. Ray looked good in training. I thought his ankle was still a bit tender. I talked to him yesterday about where he's at. I don't want it to be a thing where he comes back early and re-injures it over and over again because ankles are tricky in that regard. The guys that played in the last game did a good job, but I think that Ray is a very important part of our team. Unfortunately, Conor has a little tear in his quad. It looks like it'll be a week to two weeks. It's difficult for him because he got some momentum going. We credit him though for getting us out of our slump and a bit of momentum going forward. He came into a tough game where he hadn't started yet and he gave us a lot of valuable minutes in his last two starts. And I told him he goes onto the shelf undefeated, so it's a good thing.
