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Red Bulls Chris Armas On 1-1 Match vs NE Revs

New York Red Bulls Quote Sheet

Red Bulls 1, Revolution 1

August 29, 2020 | Gillette Stadium


New York Red Bulls head coach Chris Armas

In a really difficult building to play in, against a good team that put out their best team, we were expecting and demanding a few things tonight. One, to have a team a team that was ready from the start, a team that was ready to play 90 minutes, a team that was going to be on the front foot and aggressive, no one hiding out there. And we saw that.

Knowing that we were going to put a young team out there, if you just went around the field with Omir Fernandez, Ben Mines, Mathias [Jørgensen] gets a bunch of minutes, Patrick Seagrist, Manny Egbo getting his first start. If you went around the field a little bit, you’d understand how proud we are of that effort to get a hard-fought point against a good team in their building.

We had to dodge a few bullets at the end of the game, they’re putting some pressure on, especially when we get a red card but yeah, our guys dug deep. There’s always going to be work to do for us to understand these types of games against teams that challenge our style of play with direct play and big switches, and we’re going to learn from that. I am proud of the effort that I saw tonight, and we will keep building.



On Ben Mines and Omir Fernandez

Both of those players continue to grow. They’ve grown in the philosophy, they’ve grown as young men who physically can hold up in games like that against an athletic team. Listen, as much as we knew that New England would be good in transition, we felt that we could catch them in transition with speedy guys on the field. You can see that Ben Mines challenged them a few times and so did Omir, and he gets rewarded with a great goal. Those guys have earned those minutes, it’s not like we didn’t have options, those guys earned those minutes and I thought they had some really good moments tonight. Even seeing Omir Fernandez dig deep and go the whole distance there, it’s good for him because this how players grow.


I trust young players, I trust the young team and those two especially on the night, yeah they showed up.



On the team’s performance

What I told the players before the game, is what I told them after the game. What I expected tonight was the New York Red Bulls. A team that has total belief, and not coming here just to battle and hang on, but to go after the game.

I told them before the game we want to get the result and get the three points for sure. Above all, we step on the field with a total belief and commitment to going after the game and sticking to who we are. For that I’m pleased. I’m pleased. We put out a really young team tonight, guys. In terms, some of it is aged based, some of it is MLS experience based. To play against their best team… yeah, at the end we were hanging out, but we went after the game and if we’re a little bit sharper on the night, both with and against the ball, I think there’s more out there for us. We had a lot of unforced turnovers, and this is a stressful thing for a team, you just start taking pressure. We’ll improve, we’ll build on it. There’s some positives, and there’s some work to do for sure.



New York Red Bulls Midfielder Omir Fernandez

On his goal

[Ben Mines and I] practiced that a lot this week. Chris [Armas] told us what the lineup was going to look like and we wanted to have a lot of confidence in practice. We've found each other in practice and I guess it just happened in the game. We just wanted to go in with confidence, and I knew I was going to get one. I just had to put it in the back of the net and luckily I was able to do that tonight.


On the confidence the goal gave him

I think it gives me a lot of confidence to score in big games when the team needs it. We wanted to come out and gain more confidence for the team to show that we can score goals. We have that creativity up top. I feel like it gives me confidence, but everybody in the locker room confidence to keep pushing and keep progressing.


New York Red Bulls Goalkeeper Ryan Meara


On getting back to being the starter

I feel good and I feel like I am seeing the game good and I feel sharp. I think it's been a big help that the defense has been so solid especially the last couple games. We've played against some tough attacking players and we really stood up and not giving up too many chances. There's always things we can clean up but I think we're happy tonight with the 1-1 result.

On his defensive unit in front of him

Defensively, I'm very comfortable with whoever's in front of me. We have a good unit, both with our regular first team guys and the backups. Tonight was a big opportunity for guys like Amro [Tarek] and Manny [Egbo] and Patrick [Seagrist] and even guys up the field, like Ben [Mines] and Omir [Fernandez]. I think everyone stood up to the test. These guys have been working so hard in training and I've been there and been that guy on the outside so I have a lot of sympathy for them. It's great to see when they get their opportunities that they stand up and contribute. Going forward, we're going to have a game every three, four or five days until November, so it's huge to have that depth. It's definitely something to build on.