New York Red Bulls II Head Coach John Wolyniec
On the comparison to the last game against Rochester:
I guess I didn’t see a lot [that was] different. It looked almost exactly the same. We probably had a little better of a game, the chances we’d probably call even, so it’s a little disappointing in that sense. I was hoping that since the last game we have taken some steps as a team, as individuals, and I was kind of hoping that we’d show that in the results today. A 0-0 tie at home isn’t the worst result, for sure, but our expectations are high and, you know, at home, three points – we’d rather have the three points. It looked a little bit too similar to the last game for me. But, you know, not a bad effort for sure.
On Aaron Long’s injury:
Yeah, he felt his hamstring a couple plays in a row and was a little bit concerned that he wasn’t able to push it so we erred on the side of safety and tried to get him off as soon as we could. There’s no way to know how bad it is right now, and hopefully we got it early enough that it’s not too bad, but I’m sure there’s something there and he’ll be out for a bit.
On Derrick Etienne Jr. playing a new position:
We came out in the second half of last game in a 4-3-3 with Derrick in the middle, and it seemed to work. And with the first team playing in a 4-3-3, we wanted to transition to that as well and see. And, you know, it was a position that he played for us last year and like I said in the second half of last game, so we feel comfortable with that and we thought that it would be effective today. And with games going forward, we thought that a move into that formation would help us going forward. So maybe it didn’t come off so well today, but we have confidence in Derrick playing that spot.
On Ryan Meara:
I think Ryan’s a really major part of the reason why we are top in the league in goals against. He’s been very good for us, a very calming influence, a very confident influence in the back. And, you know, with all the changes we had to make in the back today he’s been the consistent one. So you have to give him credit, with all the moving parts in front of him he’s been a constant in all that. So you have to give him a good deal of credit.
On Damien Perrinelle coming back from injury:
Damien’s been great. It’s been along time. Obviously, with an ACL it’s a long injury, and for him to get his second game in a row now, and to come out well after 45 minutes is good, so we upped his minutes a little bit this week. And, you know, we look to see what happens going forward, where he is physically and how he feels about his game, and part of what we do with this team is to provide first team players an opportunity to keep sharp or come back from injury and that’s the case with Damien. There’s a lot of games coming up, and he’s going to be hopefully involved with the first team sooner rather than later.
On Florian Valot coming in as a substitute for the second straight game:
There’s a reason why we added him mid-season. We have a lot of confidence in what he can do as a player. I think he fits the system well, he’s been itching to get into games, and then obviously last week he came on and made a difference. This week, he comes on and is close to making a difference. Maybe if I had given him a few more minutes he would have made a play and helped us get a win, but he’s a guy that we’ve added to our team to add to the quality of the players that we have and to add to the attack. And a number of our guys are doing well so it’s going to be hard for him to find time, but he’s going to put pressure on the other players to do well, because when you have a guy like that on the bench you want to get him into the game as quickly as you can.
On keeping up the unbeaten streak against Montreal:
I think the key for us in that streak has been goals against. We’ve been phenomenal in that area, and I hope that we can continue to do that. We did it today. Like I said, I think that Ryan [Meara] has been a major part of that. Aaron [Long] has as well, so with him going down injured that could be a bit of a concern, but I have confidence in the guys that have stepped in – [Tim] Schmoll and [Zach] Carroll and all the guys that have played center back, we’ve been pretty solid there so I have confidence moving forward that we’ll be able to put another zero in that column and hopefully get a win.
