Sacramento Republic vs San Jose Earthquakes Post-Game Quotes

You've read the ICS match recap and what I took away from Saturday's 2-1 loss to the San Jose Earthquakes. Now check out some of what Republic coach Paul Buckle had to say after the match.

On his feelings about the game

"I'm very happy. I'm absolutely delighted that we've upped our game. I think it was a big step up from the Rapids game. I thought our speed of play was better. We played on the counter-attack in the first half and I think we casued them a lot of problems. I think other than a deflected shot that Evan had to save first half and then the free kick at the end... I didn't see them open us up. We counter-attacked very well, scored a great goal and deserved to be in the lead."

On the seven substitutions he used for the second half:

"As the second half goes on I made lots of changes, because I have to, because this is our second game and players are not ready to play 90 minutes. With that comes some misunderstandings and some players trying to impress and get into the starting XI."

"I wasn't able to keep the same team on for 90 minutes. Impossible for me to do that, given we've only been back a couple of weeks. It's not easy for the players who come off the bench into the game when the game is at a certain level."

On the team's offensive performance:

"I thought Pridham and Stewart looked dangerous up front...  Pridham took his goal very well and I thought we looked very dangerous, especially first half and even second half. We had a couple of opportunities where we could have made an extra pass and got in."

On Mackenzie Pridham:

"Pridham showed what he's about, he's a poacher in the box. He doesn't give the defenders a minutes rest. I thought the goal was an excellent one, a very very well worked goal... With someone like Pridham coming in to [the team], that's going to put his body on the line, who's going to get into center backs, he's not scared of taking a hit, and he showed tonight he can finish against a very good defense."

On Max Alvarez:

"We know what Max can do. He's not had much game practice but I thought he did very well tonight. As a wide man or inverted winger, his job is to create goals or score goals and he did that tonight. He created a goal for Pridham."

On trialist Harry Williams:

"He's an excellent player. He's a young player. We have a bracket in the squad of development because we can't tap into any players that are coming out of college now because our academy hasn't been up and running that long. He comes in the development bracket, he's just 20 years of age. You can see he knows the game, you can see he's clever."

On how the team can build off Saturday's performance:

"Well you just keep building on the positives. There wasn't many negatives for me tonight, I have to be honest. I think what I have to do as we go forward is identify my best team... There's lots to think about, but when we get our full team on the pitch we're going to be dangerous."