What was said following Atlanta United’s 4-2 win over Seattle on Wednesday in the Carolina Challenge Cup:
Atlanta United manager Gerardo Martino
“Sixty minutes, amazing game. The other 30 minutes the team was really tired.”
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“Today the intensity wasn’t a problem. In the first game (2-1 loss to Columbus), yes, it was a problem. Today they were very intense. The difference was they were a little tired and they were a man down in the second half.
“And the last 30 minutes, coinciding with them bringing in most of their first team that won a championship last year.”
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On Julian Gressel
“He’s a really dynamic player, really aggressive. He gets himself into good positions, good scoring positions. He’s going to be helpful for us.”
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On the formation
“For me, 4-3-3. But 4-3-3 for attack and when the team defends, 4-1-4-1.”
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“Generally, I thought we were fine. But the goal is to arrive March 5, ready.”
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On Josef Martinez in the lone striker role
“For the positioning our team is playing, Josef feels more comfortable as a lone striker.”
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On going for the trophy on Saturday
“We aren’t going to change the plans we had coming into the tournament. We want to win the tournament. We will play a lot of the players who haven’t played as much up until now.”
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Julian Gressel
“The daily practices to try to get used to the style of play and to the physicality of things and the speed of things. I think I’ve adapted all right and feeling pretty good as well.”
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On if he’s pushing on a starting role
“That’s what I want to do. I’m a competitive guy. I want to play the best I can. I want to help the team. If that’s pushing other guys to become better players then that’s my role. I want to be the best guy out there. I want to be the most competitive guy.”
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On the penalty called on the player defending him that led to the penalty kick
“I tried to jump. I think he was grabbing me or running into me. I felt the contact and felt like I couldn’t go for the ball anymore. I screamed a little bit. I think it was a penalty. I saw the replay.”
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On the assist to Hector Villalba
“I got the pass from Parkie (Michael Parkhurst). He told me to turn. What we try to practice is to play vertically pretty quickly. I took a pretty good first touch and with the second pass I know that Tito is making the run because I saw him run by me. I just put into the space for him. He just does his thing.”
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On the second yellow card
“I think it was throwing the ball away.
“We had a meeting about it with MLS actually. You can see it one way or the other. I just have to learn from it. The ref made the decision to give me a second yellow. I have to learn from it, maybe for the whole team and other teams in MLS. Happy that it happened in a preseason game and not a regular season game.”
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“You could see today that we were sharper. We looked at a lot of video and analyzed our game against Columbus and what we did well and didn’t do so well. We took a step in the right direction today and hope to continue that on Saturday.”
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Josef Martinez
“First, I’m happy for the team, that they played better tonight than in the first game. The trust is growing with the team each game. I’m grateful for the work I put in tonight and I’m happy to score two goals, and to return to Atlanta and get ready for the season.”
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On if he saw Radamel Falcao’s chip, after scoring one of his own
“I saw it. I thought Falcao’s goal was incredible. It just came to me in the moment. Luckily, it worked because it doesn’t always work.”
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On the first goal
“I thought on the play that the defender would play it back to the goalie. That’s something that we’ve worked on in practice this week, pressing high.
“I had the opportunity and the pass was a little short. I’m really happy with the work the team did as a whole.”
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On if he prefers to play as a lone striker or as part of two strikers
“I feel comfortable in both. The team is young with a lot of quality players. I’m just trying to help the team as best I can. If I’m needed to play as a lone striker then that’s fine.
“I thought the team played really well and I’m thankful to God for the goals.”
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Seattle coach Brian Schmetzer
On the first goal:
“It wasn’t good. Look, mistakes happen. So, we are short a couple of players and one of them comes to us from Charleston. It could have been one of our players. It was kind of unfortunate it was him. He was excited to get a run out with our team. He’s a nice young man.
On the second goal:
“Penalty, OK. Guys go up. Whatever. Was it a penalty, was it not? Did they review it? Whatever. But it really took the sting out of the game. Then the game became dysfunctional.
“It just wasn’t a very pretty soccer match.
“I couldn’t put a finger on one reason why it was dysfunctional.”
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On the players used in the first half:
“I’m not going to assess their performance with unrealistic expectations. That’s No. 1. I think they battled. There’s a little bit of fight after they went down 2-0. Obviously, you saw a quality Atlanta side. (Miguel) Almiron probably makes more in two weeks than the entire roster of our first half team. You guys can do the math. I’m not making excuses. Obviously we are a proud club. The messaging to the players was learn a lesson. If you want to get up to here. There’s your. Those are the guys you want to measure yourself against.
“We will watch this tape. We will show the young players this tape.”
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