"This rivalry tends to bring out the best in our group" -Jim Curtin postgame Union vs NY Red Bulls

whenever you're at yeah first uh and foremost a big thank you to all the the traveling Union fans uh that made this feel like a another home game um we're loud for the entire game pushed us on um obviously atire group with uh you know the the three games in in six days um which is difficult for the guys but I think they found energy um this rivalry tends to bring out the best in our group and uh it was a big three points I think we're all disappointed with you know losing to a very strong team uh at home um but had a good response tonight and got an important uh important three points tonight and we all spoke yesterday about your desire the team would want to do better to take advantage of what Michael can bring put in better positions yeah did that right out of the gate tonight and I wonder in know in a game where the balls flying all over the place this game always that happens how do you make sure you guys are paying attention to see when he's got a one-onone he can exploit go out yeah I think first of all big picture-wise if you look at the fif first 15 minutes of our Columbus game in the first 15 minutes of this game that's that's us at our best you know so we have it in us and now the challenge is to sustain it for for all 90 I thought in the second half we had a little bit of a dip which I think is due to maybe some Fitness and and Red Bull pushing down uh with us up two goals but um with the way Red Bull plays with Mel um he's a weapon because they their Center back are brave and they'll step on the other side of Midfield and that leaves him uh open in transition I thought he came off the back line a couple times and set them up early to receive some balls at his feet right and then lays them back to Dany which then sets up the next play where now the center backs are aggressive and maybe overplay him and then he can get in behind so um we need those runs in behind what people don't realize is it creates so much space for Gaz do to operate underneath doesn't mean Mel gets the ball every time when he makes those runs but it makes the center back's drop five 10 yards deeper and now Danny has more room to operate so um it's a it's an important piece to to our our group and I thought that um when you see Mel uh when you see Ty and and Danny play like that you know I think we're going to be hard to play against uh of course can we sustain it for longer stretches of time that's our that's our challenge but on the road against the team in Red Bull that's that's hard to play against um I thought that they had a really great great first half and then I'll just call it a a gutsy second half where we're kind of hanging on um and look you need a little bit of a bounce to go your way to get results on the road Andre made some very big saves as we all know um but that's the that's the Mel that you know like I talked to you we challenge him and he usually steps up in those moments but now it's like I don't want to I don't want to challenge anymore I just want it to be like that the rest of the way Jack that too because yeah he's got a connection with Mel has shown that over building yeah what's his role in all of that and playing matchups in Midfield and things like that on so on a night like this you know he's probably gonna have some books like that the play goes pass yeah it sounds counterintuitive but Jack mcglenn is the perfect player for a Red Bull game because when everybody else is a thousand miles an hour he can kind of have that calm and say I got this and and when someone's sprinting at him maybe make a deceptive move to get out of pressure and then play a through ball so um you need you need a brain um you know you need a guy that can you know make a pass that that unlocks an aggressive team and that's still a very good Red Bull team um but we have a way of you know little little things that we do against them that I think um give them problems too and it's it's one of the big pieces is Jack being calm on the ball when everyone else is going a thousand miles per hour I think you saw some really good combinations even on the plays we didn't score um I I liked a lot of those even more you know the two goals from outside the box that's great but we could have had three or four tapin too they could have scored it could have been a four- four game don't get me wrong they had chances as well um but we'll take the points and I thought Jack did a great job um Jim Andre BL minutes it was back and forth yeah make some big saves there and as you get the 34 the defense started to calm down see the Andre Jack andal down what were you seeing what did you just think overall night from that and Andre working together yeah he he's uh again I say it all the time but he's he's the best goalkeeper in the league so uh you know the saves he makes early on um or yes we score early and have a great start but now uh with vanir the 1V one he makes a huge block uh he kind of like you said is hard on and firm on the backline when he speaks everyone kind of listens on the backline he doesn't doesn't scream a ton but he lets them know when they need to raise their level so um we all have so much respect for Andre um you know we're fortunate to have him I thought his kicking tonight also was excellent like all the amount of diagonals that we played to uh to tolken side where Ali had a good matchup in the first half uh those little details I think we got right and uh uh we We've Come Away with a big three points but Andre certainly had a huge night for us um make so many big saves and again I I say it 100 times this year it's not a knock on our other goalkeepers but that's what makes us who we are you know our our backline responds to having him in the goal uh and that's when we'll get the most points when he's in there than yeah with h Danley playing the full 90 tonight really you please assess his percentage Yeah so I think you saw um well first of all it's a perfect matchup because it's it's second balls it's tackle it's you're up quick there's no time to really even think and that suits his his skill set what I think he saw though with dley tonight was I think his composure on the ball so again when you come from French league one and and you jump into MLS as unique as our league is you know he's playing week in and week out against uh PSG and and and high high level teams where he has to defend for 90 minutes uh and and now um I think you see the good defensive instincts but then you can also see composure in tight spaces so some of the passes he played into Danny you're starting to see some of the relationships um come balls he played to Jack I think he did a great job not only defensively but playing forward I think we'll all talk about the athleticism I'm actually going to be curious to see when the uh the physical data comes back as we track each how far each guy runs I think it's going to be off the charts um for him but then you see even uh something that I liked at the end of the game where you know he makes that burst into the box and he gets into the the we call the assist Zone which is the perfect zone for an eight in our system and the diamond so he can probably do that too against the right opponent in the right night so um and he plays across it should have been a tap in it just I think Tai's feet get stuck where he's he's got three games in his legs and and uh in the past couple days so um we should have scored more too um but that was a great performance from Danley really proud of him um not easy um to come into a new team language barrier I think that the thinking was to start Ali with them just for communication and Ali knowing the intensity and what a Red Bull game needs I think they did a great job in the first half and and we held on in the second half if I'm being honest um I think heard you a lot about Fitness and now obviously going into a little bit of a break is it a little frustrating to not be able to build off of this right away I know it's Sprint here at the Landa the season yeah it's been a little stop and start for us all year when we get some momentum you know maybe a player goes out or to get transferred or or something like that um we can't keep that rhythm going um in this instance you know it just Falls at a time where we have an international break and it looks like it's going to align that we get a certain player back fully healthy for Miami by the time we we uh we play them there which is again kind of the way it's gone this year for us um uh but we are still in a position to to get in the playoffs um whether we deserve that or not right now you can you can talk back and forth on um but that's the way our league is um we recognize we have to beat the teams that are in kind of direct competition with us um we'll we'll rest we'll recover guys will go away with the national team hopefully stay healthy um and then we obviously really tough games in Miami and then New York City to really good teams with the ball um so again it's going to be tough for sure um but I do wish we had yeah a little more you know Rhythm where it was just us playing one game a week would be nice for a little while but you don't get that luxury um after the little Little Leagues cup run and now an international this is the schedule and then if you could talk a little about the work done to limit leis Morgan to how little he did today which is pretty rare for someone of his talent yeah he's a great great player and and you hope you know you catch him on an off off night um look on a different night he could have scored three or four goals so I'm I'm a realist um Manuel could have had four goals as well tonight so um sometimes you know with him you're trying to limit where he touches the ball um I think our quick start to the game um made them have a little indecision in their group and you could see some frustration which is what you want on the road uh but he still has so much quality right foot left foot he can hit that that curler to the back post and uh yeah like like I said on a different night the the one to start the second half I've seen him score that I've seen him score that pretty consistently and he just hit it a little high and it goes off the bar so um one of those nights where we we need a couple breaks too when the the other key players uh for them are just he didn't have a bad game but he was just a little bit off you know so and we did a good job trying to limit where he touched uh the ball I think the great play at the end of the game even kind of the double team where with Kai at the end of the game where they steal it off him it just was is uh being relentless getting around their good players and sometimes we do keep it simple um you know take away the opponent's best players and and do the things that we do well as best we can thank you congrats yeah I think you saw us um if you go back to the the ideas and the tactics and they're simple um sometimes sometimes you over complicate this game but if you go back to even the Cincinnati game where we we knew a player was playing out of position for Cincinnati and pretty Relentless going to that side with with balls in the air big diagonal switches um with bedya and his um intelligence and physicality to win and hold knockdowns and the way that you know Lewis Morgan does push forward a lot we knew if Ali wins the first one and biso joins him or Gaz doog overloads on that side we could get um extra numbers against them and token's a great incredible Defender no question about it um but he's not the biggest so um we went at that area with a lot of diagonals and uh uh it gave them some problems um they gave us a lot of problems though too on the night so um you know it was a situation where that diagonal ball you saw you know you saw uh mcglinn hit it a bunch to them you saw Jack Elliott hit a lot of balls over there even uh Andre played a lot direct over that way and it becomes about maybe you don't win the first one initially but then that second ball and the knockdown could lead to chances and I think we did a good job on that back yeah Martinez we saw him play a lot of doing balls here but D was playing a lot of split ground yeah specifically on the you guys scor how big of a weapon can that be you guys going for yeah especially against good pressing teams like Red Bull that that that we call it like a mini switch so again it's a good hard ball on the ground that a guy catches quick and sets him up to play the next one and gets you off that side just as fast as maybe a long floated diagonal sometimes when you hit a long 80 yard ball the ball that Jacob hits a lot um that player who receives it is really isolated and doesn't have help you know but when it goes to Danley and then Danley to jack it gives Kai some time to to get himself forward as well and then it lets the forwards know when to run so there's a lot of kind of nuance to it um I prefer um the good Chris balls 30 yards on the ground because it sets up the next guy ball in the air if you think about it you're waiting for it takes extra extra time to bring down so um all definitely good ways to to play but Danley had a I thought a really quiet great game uh tonight which is what you want out of the six you don't want to notice them it's like an offensive lineman you know when you don't talk about them they're having a great game so that was really good from Danley talking about he came off pretty early was that injury like look going into the game it was it was going to be I said to olly and Quinn to both of them and I hate doing this before games I said 45 minutes each and that's how it's going to go Al's going to start just to you know um we knew Red Bull would throw a lot at us because they they're fresh and they have a have the weak rest um where we would be a little tired I said all you empty the tank in the first 45 get through the physical parts and the uh the ugly parts of the game and then when it opens up Quinny you're going to come then we got to halftime and played pretty well and I said let's try and go for five more minutes or so and Ali had a little bit of a knock and is is like I think it's just a muscle injury so he'll be fine um but Quinny came in and and helped us uh as well so it's all there so come to uh Red Bull Arena tonight Red's their first loss at home in the season yeah um so another gutsu performance on the road we've seen a couple of them this season think back to Cincinnati cup Portland earlier the season um but with the struggles at home is there anything that the team can try differently whether that's um routines or um anything like that in order to try to get more comfortable um playing at home again and picking up points uh at home down the stretch yeah our our home form Jimmy kills us right now you know because we lost to I don't want to say bad teams but we lost we dropped a lot of points in in positions where we were should have been comfortable and and maybe deserved points um and and it hurts so I don't have the answer as to why we've lost so much I know it's unacceptable and then I I will not go through another season where it happens so we'll do everything in our power to change it um but maybe the guys do feel I don't want to say pressure because they they've been through the battles there they've won a lot um sometimes when you you try to do more at home it leads to mistakes and I think that's what you've seen a lot this year the guys want to help so bad because they fight so hard for the fans for the badge for everything and their experience so it's the same guys not the same but pretty much the same group um and we've had really just uncharacteristic results at home and and we've made big mistakes that this group shouldn't make and then maybe when we come on the road we're a little bit looser um and and we know um the pressure is not as much on us and you play loose but we have to bring it back to home because at the end of the day if we don't win our our our our last three home games we're not going to make the playoffs so I've told them that they're against direct direct competitors you get DC United Atlanta that's really going to be the big one obviously we go away to Orlando where they're kind of in and around us and then uh that last game against Cincinnati hopefully means nothing for them and everything for us you know one of those situ where how the schedule breaks but you're right the home form has been unacceptable we have to take more confidence in that in that building you can't be I think at one point we went 60 games and only had three losses and then this year it's it's seven Lo it's I don't like even talking about it it makes me angry so um we'll try to get it right and I can I can promise it's something that um we want to get in the playoffs this year and do our thing still um but next year also that that's unacceptable we have to have to win our home games our fans deserve that than all right thanks