Head Coach Chris Armas
On the result against Nashville
From the Nashville game, I really felt for the players, the staff who had been working really hard, and our fans who came out; our fans came out and it was a full house. I felt good energy in that stadium. And I can see the work [our players] have put in now for five or six weeks. And in a week's time, there was a noticeable difference, improvement quickly because from the Portland game to Nashville, we saw the differences, we worked on a few things. So then when they see the guys in our home opener, put ourselves in a really good spot to win the game by good play, by good structure, by limiting the opposition in so many ways. it stinks, the nature of the way that ended was just tough. But in all reality, I think our guys come out of that game with confidence that we're becoming a really good team and looking more and more like who we want to be as a team.
 On leading the team in his first Rocky Mountain Cup matchup
Listen, I'm a competitor. If there's a trophy out there, I love it. How often do you get to play for something so early in the season? The energy in our team is really good. We know exactly what's ahead on Saturday, we know what our objective is, how much it means to, first and foremost our fans...like the other night, we want to make it so clear that we're going to push for a victory. We love what's ahead here. It's nice, we're starting with a clean sheet in Game 1 of this competition and we're gonna go after it. We're gonna make that really clear by the team we put out there and the intensity we're going after. It's important to our fans, to our players, to our organization, and then of course for me to go to help this [series] get off on the right foot.
On takeaways from Salt Lake's snowy contest with LAFCÂ
What I what I know for sure, as a football person, is wins are good, the food tastes better with the victories. So if I'm them, I probably feel confident coming off that nice victory, confident at home, confident that they can win when things aren't ideal, there’s something to be said for it. But there's not a whole lot, unless we're gonna play in half a foot of snow, but we have enough on them. We know who they are and that in these games there’s so much more to them. There’s tactics, there's match plans, for sure. But so much of it will be that emotion and intensity to match that, exceed it, and we have a lot of respect for them. They're well coached, we know Pablo and his staff to have done a really good job, and that'll only make us prepare even harder.
Midfielder Cole Bassett
On returning to DICK'S Sporting Goods Park for the Home Opener with Nashville
It was good to see everybody back out there, we haven't had a packed house like that in a while. So it's good being back in front of the fans. And then, for us, we were happy with rest defense, and our defense played a great game, as well as our sixes won a lot of duels. But offensively, we know we have to create more chances, but we did have the chance to finish it off. So we're hoping for a bit more there.
 On keys to building toward a three-point performance this weekend
We talked about it this morning, is continuing to do what we did on the defensive side of the ball. If we don't let teams have many shots, especially inside of our box, I think that's a big plus for us. And then it gives us a great chance to win games. I think we only allowed like six last game. So that was big for us. And then going forward, we do need to create a little bit more inside the box and get more numbers forward. There was times where we only had two or three going forward and we could use a few more numbers in the box that create dangerous opportunities.
On approaching his 100th regular-season appearance with the RapidsÂ
It's special. You don't think about it. Emilio [Gonzalez, Communications Manager] texted me yesterday about it. It gives you a little smile, but obviously it's a big game for the 100th one. So obviously, it'd be nice to get a win against Salt Lake for that one. It's just a lot of years here and I have enjoyed my time at the club, but obviously it takes a lot of hard work to get to that point.
 On taking on rivals Real Salt LakeÂ
I think what we've normally done against Salt Lake is we kind of kill ourselves quite early on in the game, and then it's tough to get back into the game. The first 30 minutes for me, especially away from home, is very important, and we can't let the game get away from us. I thought this week we didn't really allow Nashville to have too many chances early on. So I think bringing that away to Salt Lake, whether you're home or away, I don't think there's too much of a difference that of a play style that we should be playing. So hopefully we go there and get a win because it's been a couple of years since we've done that.
