New York City FC fell 2-1 to Atlanta United on Sunday in an Eastern Conference showdown. Read what Doménec Torrent and your Boys in Blue had to say about the game.
Doménec Torrent
On the fast pace of tonight’s game...
“It was very fast because we made mistakes in the first half. I said to my players in the second half, ‘If you play every single ball long ball - forget about it. It’s impossible to play.’ In the build up, we play 100 percent. I’ve said many times, ‘Look what happened, play long ball, recover the ball, we defend deep. They have specials in between the lines.’ Before the game I said to you, ‘I don’t like when we have to play these kind of games, box-to-box,’ and we played in the first half box-to-box. The reason why, because the build up all the time was long ball, long ball, long ball. I said, ‘No, long ball is - we practice long balls to surprise them.’ In the second half, we played short and we played much better.”
On Julian Gressel’s play from the right side...
“They start to play great in the first minutes. They could’ve scored three goals in that way. I said to (Ronald) Matarrita, ‘You have to be truly close to him, because we practice that.” One player goes above the crosses, and four players focus in the crosses. Because, they are playing that way, and we knew that. I accept sometimes, you play here, it’s not easy.”
On his team’s strategy tonight...
“I say many times, maybe the people don’t believe me, ‘If you play long balls, if you play faster, how fast the ball goes the faster the ball comes back.” That’s the reason why I wanted to take control, and you have to take risks - absolutely, and you can make mistakes. I make mistakes every single day, and they can make mistakes. But they have to take the ball and pass the ball and play short, because we played the last two months that way. I don’t know the reason why in the first half, we played every single ball long, long, long. That is the reason why when you lose the ball, they recover the ball and the space is so, so big.”
Alex Ring
On New York City’s ball movement...
“We started (moving the ball) after they were 2-0 up, before that we just played long balls and came back fast.”
On teams handling New York City’s style of play...
“Teams catch up on it and start playing man-to-man, and we just have to find solutions because at the moment, we are having problems with that. Now, we have a week until Cincinnati, and we will probably work on it in training.”
On what New York City can learn from this match...
“If we want to be a top team, we have to play better. It is that simple. I think, in the first 50/60 minutes we lacked basic things, most of all courage. You can’t win games if you don’t play with your heart (and) with courage. There is a lot to think about after this game.”
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Atlanta United Head Coach Frank de Boer
On Atlanta United’s play in today’s match...
“I think we took good control. We won every duel. Miles (Robinson) won every duel from (Maximiliano) Moralez. Each opponent was close to him. Franco (Escobar) played a fantastic game, also. I cannot say that anybody played not-so good. Everybody played to a very high standard. Again, they play a (similar) system to us, but I think we did it better today.”
On the first-choice starting 11...
“I will say that we do not play with 11. We play with like 18, 19, or 20 on our roster. Everybody is important, and some of these can change. Of course, this is a good lineup, but you can see when (Emerson) Hyndman came in, who also played really well, and Jeff (Larentowicz) showed that sometimes against a certain opponent this player is a little more suitable to start. I always talk about team performance, so I do not want to talk about an ideal 11. Do I like the majority of the team? Yes, that is ok, but there is always room for some changes.”
Atlanta United goalkeeper Brad Guzan
On New York City FC’s Valentín Castellanos attempted shot on goal in the first half...
“Obviously, a bit of a breakdown in terms of allowing them the space and freedom to get behind us. They run in on goal and at that moment, you try to stand up and make yourself big, and fortunately, came up with the save.”
On the team being able to handle pressure...
“It’s about being brave; it’s about being confident. In the first half, Miles (Miles Robinson) tries to give them an advantage and shoots one back at me, but fortunately it goes off for a corner. But I said to him, I said, keep doing it, it’s part of us playing it. Mistakes will happen, not the end of the world. We believe in our ourselves, we believe in each other. Those things will happen but it’s how you respond and you have to be brave, you’ve got to have big shoulders and accept responsibility and say, right, we’re going to get after it today. If a mistake happens, a mistake happens. You put your arm around the guy next to you and you say, right, let’s go again. He was he was great for us. In terms of us being able to play out of pressure, when teams press us, we’re confident that we’ll be able to get out of pressure, but not only get out of pressure, eighty yards the other way and create a chance.”
