It was a fun and crazy night last night in San Jose, and the quotes from both sides reflect the celebration of Real Salt Lake and the fustration of San Jose:
REAL SALT LAKE COACH JASON KREIS
On game: "The two goals in the first half were special goals, and the third goal was nice as well. Tonight the individual plays came out really well and gave us the good result. The game was affected from the ejection giving us the upper hand. Overall, a lot of things went our way, but certainly there is room for improvement as well."
On first road win: "It is very nice to get the first win of the season on the road. Getting a shutout in this first road match was very important for us. A lot of good things happened for us tonight. We wanted to establish a foundation of what how we are going to play this season and we came out strong tonight and got the result we wanted."
More quotes after the jump:
REAL SALT LAKE FORWARD FABIÁN ESPÍNDOLA
On first goal: "Javier (Morales) tried really hard to connect the play with me, then the ball deflects off my hip and in the same motion I took a shot which resulted in a goal. I saw Joe (Cannon) off his line and lobbed it over him."
On first game of the season: "We had a strong preseason and worked hard to continue the success tonight. We had a strong mentality coming in to the game; we defended well and also attacked their goal strong getting a result we wanted."
REAL SALT LAKE MIDFIELDER JAVIER MORALES
Coming off knee injury: "Coming off of last year's knee injury I feel good now to play a full 90 minutes. It's a bit tough for me getting used to playing at a fast pace once again and I felt a bit tired at the end of the match. I am happy about tonight's result and with the support of the team and hopefully we can carry this on to our next game."
On both goals: "The first goal I had tonight, I really didn't have enough time to think what to do. I got the ball and without thinking I took a shot and luckily it came out to be a spectacular goal. The second goal was different from the first. On the free kick I realized the wall was too tall, so I had to get the ball around the wall and tuck it in the upper corner of Joe's (Cannon) goal and got my second goal of the night."
SAN JOSE EARTHQUAKES HEAD COACH FRANK YALLOP
On defensive performance: "That was not the performance we wanted obviously. There is not much you can say positively about it. We just didn't play the way we expected. It is a long season, but we need to be better, starting with the next match."
On RSL's goals: "(Javier) Morales scored two of the better goals that I have seen in this stadium to be honest. That first one kind of caught us by surprise and we had to chase the game a bit and the second one made it tough for us. We pressed the issue at the end, but you have to think that they took their foot off the gas a bit up 3-0 with a man advantage."
SAN JOSE EARTHQUAKES MIDFIELDER ARTURO ALVAREZ
On losing the first game of the season: "Obviously, it's a very disappointing way to start the season. We were coming off of a great preseason. It was something that we were all excited for. We were looking forward to this game. We can't put our heads down; it's a very long season. We have two weekends to regroup. We have time to work on things; offensively and defensively. We got to take advantage of this time and make sure we come out flying for our next game."
On improving the continuity of the offense: "Obviously today we had our chances. We need to take advantage of those chances. We have to make sure we are clinical inside the box and in the offensive third. We have to take advantage of that or else it comes back and hurts you later in the game. We got to keep going with this; we have to forget about this one. Obviously learn from it and get ready for the next game against Chicago."
SAN JOSE EARTHQUAKES DEFENDER IKE OPARA
On first career MLS Game: "The first 10-15 minutes you're trying to get your feet wet and settle down. From there, I thought I did a lot better. But it doesn't matter when you're down and when you lose a game 3-0. I could have had the best game out there and it would not have mattered, we lost the game. For me, looking back, it could have been a better outing."
On playing in the pro level: "It's different. It's more physical and faster. Over the course of time I'm hoping to adjust pretty well. In the preseason you're playing against different leagues and you're not accustomed to those teams and players and it doesn't have that regular season feel. Again, I feel over the course of time I can adjust to it well and hopefully help the team get some wins in as well."
and there you have it, comments from both sides in last nights matchup between the Quakes and RSL