NCAA Tournament Second Round - Post-Game Quotes
11/23/2014 12:00:00 AM | Men's Soccer
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Michigan State head coach Damon Rensing
On the overall performance today...
I think it was a gritty performance from our guys. This is a tough game. I thought we played a little uptight. We started off really well the first 10 minutes, probably just unfortunate not to go ahead 1-0. This is a tough game when you have these in-state rivalries. Oakland is very well coached. Those are very tough and I think we played a little bit uptight. I think probably some of that was that Oakland came out after us a little bit towards the end of the first half.
These are tough. I don't know what advantage we get by winning. I mean, we're picked to win this game. It's expected and I thought our guys played a little bit like that. It was tough for them. I think you have to give our guys a lot of credit. It was an emotional game with a fantastic crowd and we found a way to survive and advance. At this time of year, that's what it's about.
On if coming back to win a post-season match against Oakland was part of the team mentality after losing earlier this season...
We tried to taper all of that stuff. We knew our guys were going to be fired up for this game. We really talked about managing the emotions of the game and not make it that type of game. It's all about us. We really focused on how we were going to play today, how we were going to manage our emotions, how we were going to pass the ball, how we were going to defend and that was really the main focus. It doesn't matter who you play at this time of year. If you manage those things about yourself, you have a chance to move on.
On Zach Bennett's performance...
Zach was spot-on with his decision-making of when to catch, when to punch, when to stay on his line and that was great. You need that. I think that instills confidence in our back four. I thought our two center backs were special today, Ryan Keener and Zach Carroll, not just because Carroll scored. They dealt with so many balls in so many precious situations and were very good.
On the difference in the team's performance between the two matches...
We talked about how it's going to come down to how you play in the 18s. Even though we might have the ball or they in the middle third, how you defend your 18 and how you finish when you're attacking the 18, we took care of those very well. We scored one goal in that 18 and defended and didn't give anything up. I think we managed the 18s much better today than we did early in the year.
On the midfield performance...
Those two (Fatai Alashe and Jay Chapman) are two of the better midfielders in the country when you look at them as a group. I thought everybody played like they didn't want their season to end. I thought they were special that way.
I'm very proud of all the guys. Adam (Montague) was another one. Not a lot of glory there, but Adam held the ball up, battled, ran and did some good things. Those two guys were good.
On Jimmy Fiscus...
Jimmy is a great defender. He started off a little shaky on a couple things, but then to his credit, he got better as the game went on. That's a good sign from a young man. For Jimmy, Kenny (Krolicki) and some subs to come into these situations and do that, I think that's special. For freshman to do that, hat's great.
On regaining control after Oakland made some strides toward the end of the first half...
We just got back to halftime and said we can play better. When we got to halftime, I knew we'd be able to regroup. Just get to some second balls and get the ball wide, I thought we were forcing some things a little bit, again just playing a little uptight. I thought we could calm down. I thought we did that a little bit better in the second half and obviously awarded ourselves with a great goal on a corner kick.
On how the program has grown in regards to advance in the NCAA Tournament...
I think you've got to walk before you can run, so to speak. You can't talk about making deep runs in the tournament until you get to the tournament. If you look at the support we've got in the men's soccer program over the last decade or so through President Simon, Mark Hollis, Shelley Appelbaum - we've got great support. That's allowing our student-athletes to put themselves in those types of positions. Once you start to get in that tournament, you can see that there's a chance to move on further. Obviously last year and the year before, we made some runs. Now you see it's possible.
The more you play in these types of games, the more you know that you can do it. We told our guys that one of the things that I think was very important was that we have experience. We know that you don't have to play perfect. I think we used to go into these first NCAA Tournament games and thought you have to play the game of your life, you don't. You just have to just play and know that you're going to make some mistakes and that things aren't always going to go your way. You have to keep playing through those things. That's what we've really realized now that we've been in a lot of these games. Our players have held to as well.
On thinking about the possibility of winning a national title...
When you're in the final four, which we are a long ways away from. We will think about winning against the Washington-Furman winner on Sunday. Two great programs, I think they kick-off at 8 p.m. Eastern tonight. We'll have our live stream going there. Once we know who that winner is, we'll focus on that for sure.
On the benefits of playing potential opponent Washington in exhibition during the preseason...
It'll probably help both teams. It's one of those things where you have a little bit of familiarity, so we'll know a little bit of what they're about and they'll know a little bit of what we're about. It'll probably be a wash. It's always nice to have a little bit of knowledge. I think it's fun for our guys to play teams in this NCAA Tournament that you maybe don't play in anything that counts and Washington or Furman, whoever that is, would be great. These games, playing Oakland, are tough. That's a tough NCAA Tournament game and a credit to our guys to find a way to advance.
On the coaching staff...
Our associate head coach Kylie Stannard does a lot of our restarts offensively and defensively, so he deserves a lot of credit. We won a game on a restart. He puts a lot of time into that. We go over that probably ad nauseum to these guys. These are the times that it pays off, so that's great.
Oakland head coach Eric Pogue
On how the team performed differently in the regular season compared to in the post-season...
It's post-season, so the game is going to be a different game. It's not on our home field. I think we finished a couple chances against them this year in the regular season, but tonight we didn't. I think we played extremely well in that game and I think we played extremely well in this game. That's not a discredit to Michigan State because I think they are a fantastic team as well; I just believe that we're a very good team. Our expectation was to win today. I thought we played well enough to win, but if you don't score, you don't win and today wasn't our day.
On any frustration during halftime...
No, actually. Soccer is a cruel game sometimes. I think we were disappointed because I think we believed that we were playing well, but we had higher expectations for ourselves in terms of wanting to put some of those chances away. We knew the second half was going to be a battle and it was going to be about stepping up in different moments. They got their opportunity, they finished and in the second half I still think we played very well. We just came out on the losing end today.
On the physicality of the match...
As much as these guys all know each other, in a game like this there's no love loss even though they're friends. They know each other from their club seasons, but in a game that's win or go home, there are no friends on the field. You play to win. It's going to be physical and I expect nothing less. If it wasn't a game like that, it shows that the guys don't care and that's not the case with either team. I think both teams wanted to win and there's a lot of respect between the two programs, but both teams are competitors and both teams believe they are good teams. I think that's what you're going to get when it's a win or go home type of scenario.
On the teams' history in the NCAA Tournament...
It's an in-state rivalry and Michigan State-Oakland has always been a great rivalry over the course of decades and decades going back. It's going to be no different. I think now in the Division I era, we're starting to assert ourselves as what I believe to be a top-level national program along with Michigan State. I think that will only get ratcheted up. Throw in an NCAA Tournament game and we seem to get matched up quite a bit when it comes to that. I think we're just proud of the guys' efforts. We're just disappointed.
Michigan State junior goalkeeper Zach Bennett
On his performance...
I just want to first say that the defense played outstanding. They obviously kept a ton of shots even from getting to me. I've got to thank those guys - Carroll and Keener coming up huge on two humongous blocks in the second half, potential goals for sure. Like always, whatever they need from me, I'm going to try and do my best. With the wet surface out there, you just try to keep everything in front of you. If you can't hold it, push it. That was my mentality going into it.
On his one-handed save...
It was kind of bouncing around the guy. He kind of turned and hit it a little bit. I popped my right hand up and went up in the air. One of their guys started bodying me up and I couldn't really pull my left hand up, so I just kind of kept bobbling it to myself. I'm sure I scared the bejeezus out of the coaching staff, but I controlled it and ended up holding onto it. It was a big moment.
On the earlier loss to Oakland being in mind prior to the game...,
You know, every time you lose to a team, you want to avenge it later on in the season. Luckily, we had a chance to do that today. Like he said, it's really tough to play an in-state team that always wants to play you guys. It's one of their biggest games of the year. It's really nice to be able to come out and get the W this time.
On containing the Oakland offense in the second half...
Once we got to halftime, we hadn't had our greatest half of soccer and it was still 0-0. You've got to take a positive out of that. The second half I think, just like what Carroll was saying, we just have to get into that mentality that we're not going to give anything up, put your body on the line, whatever. Andrew Herr did a great job of shutting down (Gerald) Ben in the second half, Keener and Carroll always coming up huge with blocks. Jimmy worked his tail off on the left. I was just so thrilled with how the whole defense played. All together, organization was great, calling out runs, the talking, the communication was awesome, so it was a really good game for us.
Michigan State junior defender Zach Carroll
On his game-winning goal...
We had a nice play to get a corner kick. I picked my spot where I wanted to go and I was hoping the ball would clear Adam's head, and luckily, he went up and it went over him.
Kylie (Stannard) was joking with me before the game, telling me that I needed to start heading the ball down because I kept hitting the ball over the goal in practice. I just wanted to get a nice, firm header down and on the slick surface it slipped in right past him.
On the performance of the defensive line...
I think in the first half, we played all right, not our best half. Second half, we were just warriors out there. I thought (Ryan) Keener played an awesome game today. He made a couple huge blocks in the box. That's kind of our specialty, getting that goal late in games and being able to kill it off.
On staying composed when the game becomes physical...
The biggest thing is to remove yourself from it and just take a big, deep breath. That's where our leaders come in. When that stuff starts happening, they pull you aside and say to relax. That's huge. I thought we handled it pretty well today.
Oakland senior forward Joey Tinnion
On a chance he had with six minutes remaining...
I was just trying to get scrappy in the box to try and win the second ball to knock down. It fell to me. My back was to the goal, so I had to kind of jump and hit it. I couldn't look at the net, so I just swung for it. Their keeper made a real nice save on it, his hand was up there. I honestly did think it was in, a great save though.
Oakland senior defender John DeLeon
On the defensive effort throughout the year...
After the first five games, we really didn't have an identity as a team and Coach really brought us all together and said to start with defending, because you can't get beat if you don't get scored on. That mentality kind of changed the way we played and changed our record ultimately. We rattled off I don't know how many wins in a row. It really turned the season around. Even today, I thought we were hard to break down. It's just the little things got us like set pieces, which we've been pretty good on all season. A credit to Michigan State, they executed real well. They have some big guys in there and just finished their chance.
