SEEING RED - RSL DOWNED AT BMO FIELD: TFC 1, RSL 0
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Laurent Roberts free kick beats an RSL team that was lifeless in first half. Read match report at MLSNet.
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A TFC blogs report on the match -> Mistake by the Lake
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"Robert scores on free kick in Toronto's 1-0 win over Real Salt Lake" -> Canadian Press
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"Two in a row for Toronto FC" -> National Post
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"Lack of Offensive Pressure Hurts RSL"-> MLSnet
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Video Clip of Highlights (mainly for TFC fans) -> Zephyr
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RSL at Toronto FC player grades -> James Edward's blog
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Add your player evalations for this match here -> Fans Scorecard
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ PLAYER QUOTES (courtesy of RSL Communications):
Toronto FC Head Coach John Carver
On his club's defending today:
“We’ve had one or two critics about the way we defended, I thought the second in particular we had to defend, it was the cliché game of a game of two halves, and it certainly was today. But I thought we defended ever so well, we put our bodies on the line, I thought Sutz (Sutton) took the pressure off us by coming and taking a few catches which helps your back four. I thought the midfield worked their socks off and defended well, as did Danny Dichio, and Guevara.”
On Ricketts debut….
“I thought the first half he showed glimpses of excitement which is why we got him.The second half he tired and that’s why we changed him. I changed my two wide guys I could of possibility done it earlier – but I wanted fresh legs on.”
On the crowd for first home game….
“I think it was a little more than I imagined. You know you can talk about it, but once you’re out there and experience the occasion then there’s nothing better. I’ve had some great occasions in my life, and it has to be on the top of the list, I mean the fans were fantastic I’d like them to continue for 90 minutes, but it’s certainly going to be an intimidating place to play and we to make it that.”
TORONTO FC MIDFIELDER LAURENT ROBERT
Thoughts on the game:
“To win the game is the most important thing, it doesn’t matter who scores. It is important to play, win and enjoy, and today I did all of those things and I am very happy here. We played more defensive in the second half but we kept the ball and managed to win the game. I was lucky because the free kick was very close to the box and I knew the wall would jump so I thought I would put the free kick on the floor and it worked.”
TORONTO FC MIDFIELDER CARL ROBINSON
On the match:
“It was great to be back out there and play at home again. After winning at LA it was important to get a good result. There is no point working so hard to win in LA if you come home and don’t get the three points, so it was crucial to win. I didn’t think the fans could get better than last year but judging by what it was like today, it was even better.”
REAL SALT LAKE GOALKEEPER NICK RIMANDO
Thoughts on the match:
“This is a tough place to play so we dropped off a little bit and seemed to give them a lot of room and some space to play. Second half I think we turned things around and Jason (Kreis) told us to go at them and you could tell by what happened. We had our chances but didn’t put of them away.”
REAL SALT LAKE HEAD COACH JASON KREIS
On the differences of RSL’s play between the halves:
“It was definitely a tall of two halves I think that we came out tactically and played that game a little bit wrong to be honest, I think the coaching staff takes full responsibility for us sitting back, perhaps we should have pressed them from minute one.”
On what he said to team at half time….
“I just said that I thought there were two big things tactically, we had to press them as we would at home, treating it as though it was our game for the first 15 minutes I didn’t expect we’d be able to do it for the whole half, but they did, credit to them. Our guys were giving the ball away a bit needlessly in the first half, I thought just the soccer needed to be better as well.”
REAL SALT LAKE MIDFIELDER KYLE BECKERMAN
Thoughts on the match:
“We felt we battered them in the second half which is something we just gotta work on. We gave up a goal that could have been prevented; we’ll just work for next week.
“We felt we got enough to tie it up and get something out of the game, but it just wasn’t our day. All credit to them, they got the goal and held us out so which just need to keep working harder and hopefully we’ll get some better luck.”
On his club's defending today:
“We’ve had one or two critics about the way we defended, I thought the second in particular we had to defend, it was the cliché game of a game of two halves, and it certainly was today. But I thought we defended ever so well, we put our bodies on the line, I thought Sutz (Sutton) took the pressure off us by coming and taking a few catches which helps your back four. I thought the midfield worked their socks off and defended well, as did Danny Dichio, and Guevara.”
On Ricketts debut….
“I thought the first half he showed glimpses of excitement which is why we got him.The second half he tired and that’s why we changed him. I changed my two wide guys I could of possibility done it earlier – but I wanted fresh legs on.”
On the crowd for first home game….
“I think it was a little more than I imagined. You know you can talk about it, but once you’re out there and experience the occasion then there’s nothing better. I’ve had some great occasions in my life, and it has to be on the top of the list, I mean the fans were fantastic I’d like them to continue for 90 minutes, but it’s certainly going to be an intimidating place to play and we to make it that.”
TORONTO FC MIDFIELDER LAURENT ROBERT
Thoughts on the game:
“To win the game is the most important thing, it doesn’t matter who scores. It is important to play, win and enjoy, and today I did all of those things and I am very happy here. We played more defensive in the second half but we kept the ball and managed to win the game. I was lucky because the free kick was very close to the box and I knew the wall would jump so I thought I would put the free kick on the floor and it worked.”
TORONTO FC MIDFIELDER CARL ROBINSON
On the match:
“It was great to be back out there and play at home again. After winning at LA it was important to get a good result. There is no point working so hard to win in LA if you come home and don’t get the three points, so it was crucial to win. I didn’t think the fans could get better than last year but judging by what it was like today, it was even better.”
REAL SALT LAKE GOALKEEPER NICK RIMANDO
Thoughts on the match:
“This is a tough place to play so we dropped off a little bit and seemed to give them a lot of room and some space to play. Second half I think we turned things around and Jason (Kreis) told us to go at them and you could tell by what happened. We had our chances but didn’t put of them away.”
REAL SALT LAKE HEAD COACH JASON KREIS
On the differences of RSL’s play between the halves:
“It was definitely a tall of two halves I think that we came out tactically and played that game a little bit wrong to be honest, I think the coaching staff takes full responsibility for us sitting back, perhaps we should have pressed them from minute one.”
On what he said to team at half time….
“I just said that I thought there were two big things tactically, we had to press them as we would at home, treating it as though it was our game for the first 15 minutes I didn’t expect we’d be able to do it for the whole half, but they did, credit to them. Our guys were giving the ball away a bit needlessly in the first half, I thought just the soccer needed to be better as well.”
REAL SALT LAKE MIDFIELDER KYLE BECKERMAN
Thoughts on the match:
“We felt we battered them in the second half which is something we just gotta work on. We gave up a goal that could have been prevented; we’ll just work for next week.
“We felt we got enough to tie it up and get something out of the game, but it just wasn’t our day. All credit to them, they got the goal and held us out so which just need to keep working harder and hopefully we’ll get some better luck.”
