After training at Red Bulls Training Facility in Whippany, N.J. on Friday, head coach Sandro Schwarz and midfielder Peter Stroud spoke with the media prior to New York’s MLS regular season match against Philadelphia Union on Saturday.
News and Notes
• The Red Bulls have posted a 10-2-4 mark at home across all competitions this season, including a 9-2-2 mark in MLS play.
• Captain Emil Forsberg has recorded seven goal contributions in his last seven MLS appearances.
• Forsberg has recorded a goal contribution in four-straight appearances at Sports Illustrated Stadium.
• The Red Bulls will be seeking their 150th career MLS win at Sports Illustrated Stadium.
New York Red Bulls Head Coach Sandro Schwarz
On facing Philadelphia again after midweek Lamar Hunt U.S. Open Cup clash …
I can't talk now in detail about our tactical plans for tomorrow, of course. But of course, we were very disappointed about the result, but on the other side with the performance was really good, and the intensity, the way how we played, how we in our defense behavior, and also then in a lot of good moments when we had the ball, so but at the end, okay, a little bit unlucky, especially with the last moment, I think what we have to improve, and this is the main part. This is the main topic then as well, that we have to be very aggressive, but without stupid foul. That's important, because they have the quality in set pieces. We know that. Tomorrow, new game against Philly. I don't know if I had this experience in the past to play two times in three days in different competitions, I don't know, but tomorrow league game, so we have to be ready against them in our stadium tomorrow, and this is what we want to show.
On message to team ahead of match…
A lot of conversation,. that's my responsibility. That's my job to talk with the guys every time, about development, about what we have to improve, about what was good. And we talked also about things from the last game, which were very, very good. Was not only that, we start talking about the behavior. Start talking about some set pieces. We talked also about which was good directly after the game. So we can took a lot of positive things from the game against Philadelphia and also against Salt Lake, I would say, the last couple of weeks after Chicago, the Leagues Cup game, and now to play with whole confidence, to believe in ourselves and our quality tomorrow, and then to show that we can bring this performance against a good team again.
On AJ Marcucci injury…
I think it's really tough for all of us, for the whole group. He was in a really good spot the last couple of weeks, and in all the training session since the beginning of the season. So now he's out for long term, and what we can say is we will support him. I had a good conversation with him in person in the morning today. So we will support him. The whole club will support him, to help him that he's coming back stronger.
New York Red Bulls Midfielder Peter Stroud
On team mentality to bounce back from Lamar Hunt U.S. Open Cup Match…
I think to try and build off of some of the good things that happened on Wednesday. I think is important. That's the goal, is to try and build off some of the moments that we executed at a pretty high level, I think, in Wednesday, and then to fix the stuff that maybe we lacked on Wednesday as well, to not see the game out, get the results. It's just about fine tuning everything and just rinse and repeat, kind of so we're hoping for a good performance tomorrow.
On playing in front of fans at home…
I think our home record this year is significantly better than our way record, and that's for a reason, obviously, to play in front of our fans, it gives you extra energy that you need sometimes, especially late in games. So it's going to be a totally new game, as coach said, new environment. We played them twice this year, but it's been in Philly. So we're hoping that, we can use the energy from the crowd tomorrow and get after and put a good game together.
On final stretch of the season…
It's crazy to think we only have a couple games left, but I think it's important that we take every single game, one at a time, try not to get too far ahead of ourselves. Every game is so important on this run in. Things in soccer can change quickly. You can have a tough period for a while, but I think it's a perfect opportunity now for us.