Coach’s Quotes: Mike Petke will never be satisfied

Mike Petke’s run of form in press conferences is unheralded, with another excellent performance this week. He’s doing everything right. Let’s just jump into some of the key quotes from after Saturday’s win over Philadelphia Union.

I think it is more satisfying, the 1-0 game, the shutout and holding on and showing character, grinding it out at certain points. I thought the first half we played some of our best soccer I thought at times, I even thought the second half at times as well.

We managed the game well and that was a big thing that we talked about coming into this, about managing the first 15 minutes specifically, because of the last month and half of giving up early goals and making mental mistakes. But we talked a lot about it and they managed it well and got the goal and then held on. We played some good soccer around it.

Game management. That’s something we really haven’t seen enough of from RSL this season, and Petke’s right to focus on it. We absolutely have the personnel to do it, because we do have a reasonably veteran squad — even if we’re also trying to imbue it with some youth.

I am never satisfied; I want 15-20 passes, god’s honest truth.

I love this. We don’t need to go too deep into this, but this is exactly the sort of thing you’d expect to hear from Jason Kreis, although maybe it would have been said slightly differently.

I had some words with Plata over the last couple of weeks over a goal will come, and once the goal comes then it will open up a bit for more goals to come. He was getting frustrated and I didn’t want the frustration to affect his game and I am very happy that he got the goal tonight because he deserved it. He played a hell of a game and now this is going to do something a bit more for his confidence.

Good stuff. It’s rare that a coach gives you this sort of inside look, and the transparency Petke gives us is worth a mention every single time.

I think Jefferson (Savarino), right now, what people have to realize is he is doing well but he could be so much better once he gets adjusted to this league. Albert (Rusnak) went through a bit of an adjustment period and now we are seeing a lot better out of Albert. So I am thrilled with Jefferson over the first couple of games that he has been here.

Jefferson Savarino was very good, so getting better sounds nice.

(Sunny) was there to break things up he was concentrating on the number ten and playing simple when he had the ball and playing forward. It is not a luxurious job that they play the six, it is the unsung hero type of role, and Sunny stepped up today and he was huge for us.

Sunny has been doing well in the last few weeks, I’ve thought, and he continued with that this week. It’s nice that I’m not alone in thinking this.

(Luis Silva) can drop back in there and combine. He is a tireless worker and you know him and Yura in that position they bring something different to the role. Yura (Movsisyan) is a number nine; Luis is not a traditional number 9. But what that gives us is being able to come back and combine and open up space behind him. I think for the most part he did well and I was happy with Yura when he came on, his work rate as well.

Is Luis Silva a false nine? Let’s talk about that sometime soon.