PRESS CONFERENCE: Jesse Marsch | 6/13/18

Congratulations on the win. In a stretch where the fixture congestion is ridiculous, mid-week, you have to go to Philly. Certainly there could have been more goals in the first half?

Coach Marsch: Yeah.

But on a night, you certainly -- do you just take 2-1 and happy that it's a tidy win and move on?

Coach Marsch: Yeah, for sure. I mean, you know, there's some frustration that we don't handle the game better because if we are better on the day, it can be much more in hand. I told the guys, there's no negativity right now. They have all had to dig so deep. Tyler and Tim coming back across the continent, or across the ocean and a bunch of guys that have had to play game after game after game, turn around, different demands.



But good three points. Really good three points.

I was going to ask about the performance, but is this where the rubber meets the road in terms of the rotation of players?

Coach Marsch: Yeah, I mean, you know, it's funny, we went into this stretch of games, and when we started it, we didn't know if we were going to play the second round and we assumed that if we did play the second round, it would be mid week, and then I think U.S. Soccer threw us a little bit of a curveball with allowing Philly to pick the weekend, and, you know, I don't really blame Philly because if it were the reverse, we would have done the same thing. But I don't know how U.S. Soccer can allow such an unfair fixture date to take place in a big tournament. That's not right.

But in the end, life's not fair, you know. The scheme's not always fair. So we have to find a way to use as much of our roster and find out which guys are ready to turn around and push as hard as we can for Saturday night and go after it.

So we'll find -- I told the guys, you know, it's going to be really, really tough but we are going to find out about ourselves and we're going to go down to Philly and just pour our hearts into it.

Have to ask: Is this the last game we're going to see you coaching this team? Sounds like you plan on being here Saturday?

Coach Marsch: Yeah, yeah, I'll be here Saturday. This is not the last game I'm coaching. I'll be here. That's an easy one.

Obviously, a win is a win but seemed like you had a bit of frustration the second half, a couple -- you were on the sideline, a couple players not doing what you wanted to do and you talked about wanting to stay positive, but what were some of the things you were seeing from your players that you want to look at?

Coach Marsch: There was tactical moments where we were a little loose which allows them to move up the field and then there's finishing some plays off. But I know what I'm looking at, guys are tired, but I also know that by not doing the little things right, they are going to get more tired.

It's normal in some ways and again, I'm not going to let negativity seep in.

What would you say about Ethan today?

Coach Marsch: Yeah, he gets an assist and I don't know if they gave him a double with Danny, the first goal.


We knew we would have the ball a lot and we were hopeful Etthan would be able to find moments in the game and he did. That part was good.

THE MODERATOR: They did give that assist, so two for Kutler.

Coach Marsch: Good.

You guys aren't in Russia? They didn't give you the budget? (Laughter).

As far as Tyler and Tim, a lot of teams said, no thanks, about letting players be released for those friendlies. You obviously let those guys go. When you see them play the way they played against France, both guys did well. Does that make you feel good about that decision? And unrelated, Patrick Vieira has moved on. Thoughts on him?

Coach Marsch: Let's start with Tim and Tyler.

You know, I say this all the time, but I spent time with the national team, so I know how valuable those experiences are. There's nothing we can do here with our team or with our league to recreate the experience for Tyler and Tim to go start in Lyon and play against one of the best teams in the world and play against some of the best players in the world and to hold up in that game.

So those moments build people and build players into bigger people and players. So you will find very few times in my tenure as a coach here where I have ever limited a player from going in with a national team no matter where and no matter what. So I've always been very supportive of that and I just -- then we try to work with federations and we try to work with the league to try to respect the schedule and put us in position to succeed in some of these moments.

Patrick Vieira, yeah, you're not supposed to like rivals, you're not. You're not supposed to like the derby coach but I'll say I really like Patrick. We had some rocky moments in the history of the derbies, but that's what -- the way it's supposed to be in some ways but in the end I think we developed a real mutual respect for each other. We have some friends in common, so I think that helped us come together. We were able to find different moments at different times to have good conversations and in the end I liked watching his team. I liked beating his team but I liked watching his team.

So in the end, I think he was a real positive, having him here, and if we could have more coaches come and bring that kind of nuance to our league, then I think we'll be better for it.

Going back to Kutler, he's one of the many players that played for the USL team that you've brought up and now has played for the MLS team. You've signed a couple players to the MLS from the USL, but not that many have gotten on the field. But this year has been really different. What changed?

Coach Marsch: Well, we moved a lot of our older players, right. We moved Sacha. We moved Grella. We moved Sal Zizzo and we made the decision to bring in a lot of our young talent and it was a mutually inclusive decision.

So I think a big credit goes to this organization in -- in total because everyone has put so much effort into trying to honor the identity that we were trying to create here. I mean, I could go from, you know, Fernando and Sean Ruiz to the academy team of coaches to all the physical team, the physios and the fitness trainers that we have throughout the team to train all our players and physically prepare them to do what we need them to do at all levels. And then all the coaching staffs across the different levels.

Really proud of what we've built. Really proud of what we've built. That's almost separate from the results of the first team. It's almost -- it's all interconnected, but in the end, it's a real club and I think that's the thing that everybody who is here really feels and is proud of.

Bradley, perfect position to head that ball in. He's now four away for a hundred league goals. I've asked you this all the time about Bradley. What makes him so special out there to put that ball in the back of the net and is just -- doesn't matter how it is. Just it looks spectacular.

Coach Marsch: I happened to be watching him the whole time and his little movement and then his ability to just duck in front of Chad Marshall, he has a knack for it. The two headers in Atlanta were amazing. He has all these headers now on the year. He's so good in the air.

He's a total player. He's the total package. I rave about him at the time but there are no flaws in him as a person or as a player. He's got everything that you can ask for.

We've been so lucky to have him, and, you know, obviously it's hard to, it's hard to imagine so much of our success without what he's been able to provide and accomplish for our team.

So you know, we're really lucky to have him, and we'll have to figure out how to use him on Saturday and how to use everybody, because that's going to be another important one.

And secondly, about the goalkeeper situation on Saturday, is Ryan going to be back for the Open Cup?

Coach Marsch: Yeah.

Or are you going to let Luis at it? 

Coach Marsch: Ryan is in for the Open Cup and he's in for the whole tournament.