Manchester United coach Mourinho: RSL well-coached; Saucedo too dangerous

Manchester United coach Jose Mourinho had good and bad things to say about Real Salt Lake after his team’s 2-1 exhibition win.

On the team’s quality, he praised coach Mike Petke and his team, calling RSL “well-coached” and full of “good ideas.”

I enjoyed to play this first half. I think this team, the team that played the first 35 minutes, they’re well-coached, good ideas, good understanding of the game, playing in relation to the qualities of their players. Two fast wingers, a good midfield moving the ball. I just feel sorry that they have a game on Wednesday, because they couldn’t play the whole game with the best team. I repeat, in the second half, younger people, less quality, more enthusiasm, more running — more difficult for us to play.

But he had some less than glowing things to say about Sebastian Saucedo, who he accused of being “aggressive” and “a bit dangerous.”

I think the delay was because the referee asked to me change the player, and I didn’t, because I don’t agree with the card. Saucedo, I think is the name of the boy who was real aggressive during the second half — what happened to Mata and some other actions where he was a bit dangerous, which I understand. ... It’s a good experience for us to play with less (players).

And, of course, you always get the obligatory “how’s MLS” question, which can prove a valuable benchmark. Mourinho is likely to be honest about it all, certainly.

I think the quality is better. I like to play in soccer stadiums. I know you have amazing stadiums that sometimes you adapt to football, but I like the concept of a soccer stadium even if it’s smaller. I like the fans, I like the enthusiasm, and the quality is improving all the time. I’m happy — very happy with that.