Photo and video: Daniel Gajdamowicz

John Hackworth’s postgame press conference

Postgame interviews with Cristian Maidana, Zac MacMath, Ray Gaddis and Andrew Wenger

Philadelphia Union postgame quotes

John Hackworth
On subbing out Carroll and Le Toux

It had nothing to do with who they were as much as just tactically. The first sub set up the second half. We were thinking we had to get back into the game and move Mo (Edu) back and have two attackers. We thought we could put Leo in the middle and Maidana wide. I thought we needed Conor (Casey) on there, especially if it was late and we were going for that equalizer. We thought those two changes were kind of setting each other up and that’s what we were thinking.

On the way the Union played in the second half

We played some good soccer throughout the game. We possessed the ball, went side to side and made them do a lot of work. Eventually that wore them down a little bit. The hard part for us was I don’t think we were really strong without execution.

On Austin Berry’s performance

It was tough. Austin is a good player and a great kid. I know that he is going to learn from this experience. He’s probably going to take it hard, but he can look back on a couple of plays and know he could do better.

On Andrew Wenger’s debut

You score a goal on your debut in front of your new home crowd and I think that’s fantastic. He shows some good qualities of how hard he works, that he can hold the ball up, get in the box and make a good run. That ball from Nogueira was sublime to give it to Andrew. It was a great run by Andrew to finish, but there was some good build up on that play. In fact, that ball Sheanon played inside, there was a tiny little window between a couple of Salt Lake players. We had some moments where we played some really good soccer. It’s frustrating for me that we didn’t put as many of those good moments together with some execution in front of goal.

On the team’s character

I don’t ever question the character of our team. I know our guys, I know what they are like. I was as impressed when we were trying to control a couple of things in the back. Sheanon was having problems cramping and we almost had a game winner off of a good cross by Chaco and Casey misses just sparingly.

On Wenger’s pressure of being No. 1 overall pick

He has a new lease. I think he knows that we believe in him. It’s going to be really important for him to be here and play the way he just did.

On MacMath’s performance

Zac was really good, he kept us in the game a lot. It’s really unfortunate that our guys don’t react better on that penalty kick. Zac was pretty good. He was good off his line, he cleared the balls and made some really good saves. I’m a little disappointed that he had to make that many.

Maurice Edu
On the game

It’s been interesting to say the least. I think we’ve shown that we are capable of being a good team in this league. We’ve shown we can play. We can beat the best teams. We’ve also shown that we have to be able to play 90 minutes. We had a lapse today where we dropped off a little bit and they got a goal. We showed a lot of heart and character to get back in the game and now we’ve got to go that extra step. We’ve put ourselves in good positions to win games and now we’ve got to go out and actually do it.

Cristian Maidana
On being able to play after missing a game due to injury

I feel really good to be back in the field, especially after not being able to play last week. It’s good to be back, but I am disappointed about the result.

On his set pieces and their importance

It’s something that I have always done well, and I feel it is really important. Luckily enough, Maurice was able to head it in today but we have to make sure we work harder so we don’t have to depend on set pieces. We need to work in both attack and defense to be able to secure the points for us.

Zac MacMath
Coming back against a team like Salt Lake

Yeah, obviously coming back against a team like Salt Lake is a big boost for us as they are one of the best in the league for sure. But I think we are overall disappointed as we probably were the better team out there, and we deserved the three points.

On his game interventions

That is part of the season. You have games where you don’t touch the ball and other games where you have to work more. It’s about learning to balance that and making those saves to keep my team in it.

Playing at the same level against a team like Salt Lake for most of the game

Yeah, I would hope so, to know that we are able to play at that level and that I was able to keep us in the game when it was a bit against us… that gives the team and the defense a boost and hopefully we can continue to do better and win games now.

Real Salt Lake postgame quotes

Jeff Cassar
On the result

I think at the end of the day it was a fair result, I think they had several half chances and we had a few very good chances. It was a hard fought game it looked like there was two tough teams out there competing extremely hard and we just have to do a better job of focusing and closing out games.

On being happy getting a point on the road on the east coast and feeling like you could of gotten three out of it

At the end of the day I am happy with a road point, I think there was three points to get, but I am happy with one, happy to stay undefeated and excited about coming home.

On the first penalty in the fourth minute and thinking that it was inside

To be honest with you I do not know, and that is the honest truth. It looked like it was a pretty careless challenge on (Olmes) Garcia and the referee saw it in the box.

On being undefeated, getting points on the road these last couple of weeks, what does it say about your team

It says that we have a lot of fight, a lot of pride in our play right now and I think we are going to get better and that is what really is exciting. We are not playing our best soccer right now, but were still getting results and that is up to me to get the guys going.

On the scoreless streak is that a sense of pride and do you talk about something like that

We just wanted to come out with an aggressive mentality this game. We were not talking about streaks or goalless streaks or anything like that, just talking about being aggressive and to impose our will on them and I thought we did that for the most part but we got caught, we got caught on a counter attack and we got caught on a set play.

On getting the lead, did you want to lay back more was that the problem on trying to close it out

I do not think so, they just got a corner kick, I think we were dealing with a few long throw ins, corner kicks and I have to look at the play again but we just got to be better closing out the game.

On getting to the championship game last year and whether teams treat them differently now

I think that every team recognizes that Real plays good soccer, good possession soccer and Philly wanted to come out and disrupt that tonight and they did a good job of that. It is a credit to them, but it was just two teams that were fighting hard.

Luke Mulholland
On the result

In a way I’m a bit disappointed we did not get the three points. Obviously getting the lead twice and on the road, not that we are six games into the season and we have only played a couple of games at home proud feeling we are still undefeated. Obviously at the same time looking at it, taking the lead twice it would have been nice to get all of those three points.

On the penalty, did you think it was inside or outside the box, it looked like it was a hard call for him to make

Yeah definitely, I think it was just inside the box. It was a clumsy tackle by the defender. I did not think there was any need to do that and it was definitely a free kick or a penalty. I felt like the initial contact was inside in the box, the momentum could of took him outside, but definitely a penalty for me.

On to stay unbeaten and tying on the road

Yeah mentally it is good for us. I think it shows that we are a hard team to beat, even though that is possibly two points dropped because we have taken the lead so late on. It just shows our expectations that we have for the whole season.

On the goal changing from last year getting to the final

It’s my first season with the team, so I cannot really comment on how the guys felt from last year. Definitely feels like they have continued the way they were playing and each game that we go out there we are expecting to win.

On his goal

Yeah, we all have confidence in Sabo (Alvaro Saborio) scoring those. Penalties do not always get scored, it is important to follow it through, follow it up, and just right place right time. All I did was just try to re-direct it back on goal fortunately enough to find the corner.

Ned Grabavoy
On the game

Yeah obviously it is tough to get a tie on the road usually in this league so you’re feeling good about yourself. We have had this two times in the first six games where we had leads really late in the game and we cannot seem to pick up all three points. I thought we played really good soccer, I thought we got ourselves in front of great positions in front of the goal, I thought we had some good combination plays in the midfield, which ultimately has us up 2-1, seven-eight minutes left in the game and cant close it out on a set piece.

On ensuring they pick up three points in the future

It is difficult, because teams are throwing so many guys forward five-six minutes when they are down like that. Set pieces are really important in this league. We see it week in week out multiple games. The way the games end like that and it just got to be, we have to close up the small details on set pieces.

On the penalty, being inside or outside the box

You know to be honest with you, from my angle, I could not really tell. I think it is one of those it is right on. He is either going to call it a PK or he is not going to call it a PK, certainly a foul. He elected, he thought that the contact started in the box, but to be honest with you I have not seen the replay, so I do not know how it looks.

On getting points against Eastern Conference teams on the road

I think we are unbeaten, so we are picking up points along the way. Still I feel like this group expects a lot, our expectations are very high from our coaching staff on down to our players. We think that we can go most places, play soccer and win games. We have been putting ourselves in great positions to do that, we have won a few and we have let a few slip away for ties, it is not losses it is ties, but I still feel we can clean some of these things up and it is early in the season.