NEW YORK RED BULLS MEDIA CONFERENCE

July 12, 2023

Troy Lesesne

Press Conference

Cincinnati 2, New York Red Bulls 1

Q. I guess a couple games in a row now where in the second half, maybe took your foot off the gas. Is there anything you maybe attribute that to, what's caused that the last two matches?

TROY LESESNE: I can only say that New England when they go down a man, I don't think that we respond well enough at that point. I think we started the second half extremely well. We scored two goals in the second half. So I can't say that second half performances are poor.

I would say that today wasn't good enough in the second half. I thought we started it well again but maybe a little bit of it is fatigue potentially. We're thin right now. I think we all understand that. But credit to Cincinnati as well. Have to give them credit and credit to New England the other night.

For the game, they are down a goal, and they do that. We don't adjust as well as they adjust. I just told the team, I take the first layer of responsibility and accountability for that, not to absolve them from any of their responsibility, but I look at myself first. So we need to correct that going into Salt Lake.

Q. Why is Cincinnati such a tough opponent? They seem to be as good as you guys are, and they found a way to stole a point.

TROY LESESNE: Very well-coached. I'd like to send my thoughts and condolences to Pat Newman and his family. He wasn't here tonight and he's dealing with a family issue himself. And Dominic Kinnear, his assistant coach, I think he's done extremely in this league, maybe won a couple championships. Very well-coached. A lot of talent in their roster even when they are down a couple guys themselves. They have a lot of quality players with a lot of experience, and I think they were able to make some adjustments that maybe we weren't able to make, you know, to continue to push the game like we were pushing the game in the first half. They are a good side. They are at the top of the conference for a reason.

Q. Around the 64th minute, you brought on Matthew Nocita. Can you talk to us about the decision to go to a three back formation and how you guys adjusted?

TROY LESESNE: I thought that actually worked quite well in the beginning, and I think that we started to come back into the game a little bit more. They had three players up front, a little bit more clearly than -- they had two in the first half.

From that point, we got back into the game a little bit but then I think our pressure dropped off and the first ball fight wasn't quite as strong and certainly on the second ball flight they were on the jump, winning a lot of those moments.

I think the adjustment at that stage worked in the beginning but maybe not throughout the rest of the match, unfortunately.

Q. What did you see from Hassan tonight?

TROY LESESNE: Yeah, I thought Hassan, until he got fatigued, he thought he had a very good night, I really did. I think he's grown in incredible ways. Development over the course of this year is so impressive. I think he's up to close to double-digit starts now in the year, and that's a guy that he's with the club a long time ago and made a couple moves and had to work his way back into a first-team situation.

I'm really proud of him. I'm really proud of the minutes that he played tonight, and now he's going to get a little bit fitter and hopefully be able to go 90 minutes.

Q. There seemed to be a little bit hesitancy; did you see that, and was there a frustration level?

TROY LESESNE: I think in the first half maybe. So maybe in the first half. I think we could have created more clear-cut opportunities and we didn't do that in the first half.

In the second half, I think, again, give Cincinnati credit. They pushed the game more than we did, and when the moment came to potentially make a play in the second half, even when the game started to be a little bit more stretched than we were in transition, we just didn't have the quality and the execution we needed.

Q. Can you talk more about how much the loss of Andrés was felt tonight? Many of Cincinnati chances that went through the spot he normally plays.

TROY LESESNE: Yeah, any time you're missing a player like Andrés, it certainly is influential in how we play. That said, again, Hassan and Sean, for large parts of that game, showed up extremely well for us.

I think the difference is if you're able to start, you know, Andrés or start Hassan, let's say, and you're able to bring on a guy like Andrés, that gives you more power to win the game.

I'm really happy with Matt Nocita to get an appearance tonight, but that's his first MLS appearance. His only other appearance with the first team was in the Open Cup for Cincinnati.

So you know, that's not an easy position to be in with your first match going against Santos and Acosta late in the game.

Q. Obviously you said the team -- late in the game. Just talk through your discussions with the staff, after they got their first goal, about bringing on other fresh legs?

TROY LESESNE: Yeah, there was discussion. You know, Amir, Luquinhas, they put in a ton in the game; Dante. Potentially guys that produce goals for us this year or created goals for us it year consistently.

So we wanted to let those guys try to get us back into the game and maybe find the second goal.

Q. After a loss like that, you don't have time to commiserate because you're taking a flight to Utah. So what would be the big takeaway after this match to make sure that you guys stay on th front foot going against a great team that's really flying right now?

TROY LESESNE: Yeah, just try to get together tomorrow. Make sure that we reset mentally, physically. Try to understand what happened tonight in the second half, and make sure that we improve on that but not dwell on it.

We have to move forward very quickly against a team that, like you said, is in very good form, especially at their place at altitude. So those are all factors.

But I look at tonight's performance, we are playing against a top team in the League. They are missing a lot of players and we are missing a lot of players. The difference in the game is marginal but those margins are very fine, and that's something that we have to shore up going into Salt Lake this weekend.