Coach’s Quotes: Petke can put his footprint on ailing RSL

In Daryl Shore’s final press conference of his reign as interim Real Salt Lake coach — or at least acting head coach, given the club has promoted Mike Petke to that role — the focus of questions immediately started on his new boss.

Given the result, I think that’s fair. Let’s dive right into the answers.

Can Mike Petke fix this?

Mike (Petke) can come in and put his footprint on this. We’re a resilient group and we’ll put our best foot forward.

Guys are now playing for a new coach. Training will be intense. Guys will be proving their worth to Mike. I don’t know that much changes. However, he’s going to put his blueprint to the team. Guys will have to step up.

This really is what we needed to hear right now. It’s further confirmation that Daryl Shore’s interim coaching was non-interruptive, and that he was more or less carrying out what Jeff Cassar had set in place. Maybe some of what was here continues, but Petke making a mark sounds like exactly what we need.

On the scoreline

Soccer’s a funny game. We went up 1-0 early. They came back and got the goal. We had three really good chances to score again. If we go up 2-1, it’s a totally different game. We still felt pretty good getting into halftime 1-1.

A couple of breakdowns in the second half lead to their goals. A couple of mistakes that you’ll never see again from our players. Things happen, and we’ve just gotta put this past us.

I know some people get annoyed by coaches that inject a little positivity into their press conferences, and I know this sounds like that. But believe it or not, Daryl Shore is right, and if we’d finished those good chances, maybe the scoreline is reversed.

On center backs

We were shorthanded tonight. We knew that Aaron was dealing with a hamstring. He felt like he could go, but something happened to him. We didn’t have a center back on the bench, and maybe I jinxed myself by thinking about it. The scoreline is not what we wanted it to be, but we’ve gotta move on.

Ugh.

That’s all.