D.C. United Head Coach Ben Olsen
On the way the game unfolded…
“I’m not pleased with the result, that’s for sure, but I’m pleased with our effort, and we looked like ourselves for a large stretch of that game, so that’s a positive. It’s a better performance than the Colorado game, and in a lot of ways it’s the best performance we’ve had in over two months. We came up against at team that I think is playing very well right now. The way they pass, they become a very tough team to chase. If you do that, they are good enough to play through your pressure at times, especially when you are chasing the game.”
On being encouraged by the play of Espíndola and Saborío:
“Absolutely. For Sabo, the goal didn’t come tonight for him, but he did a lot of good things. Fabi looked back to himself. I was very encouraged with Halsti. I thought he got a little winded in the second half, but I thought he had his best game for the club. Again, right on through we had a lot of seven-, eight- and nine-rated performances. I’m encouraged but disappointed, as those guys are with the result, but there’s no time to dwell on it. We have another tough one which is going to have big implications next week against Montreal. I’m looking forward to it.”
On D.C. United’s chances, particularly in the second half:
“I think it was a good game, and we had a bunch of chances. We had a bunch of good looks in and around the eighteen, we got enough service in, and on another night we get one or two goals more than we did. I’m encouraged but disappointed.”
D.C. United midfielder Chris Pontius
Overall thoughts…
“You just can’t let yourself get down 2-0. It’s a tough hill to climb, especially against a team that keeps the ball. They’re very good at killing off a game. They did that to us tonight.”
On indications that the team is moving in the right direction…
“Yeah, we have to start feeling it if we’re heading into the playoffs really soon. I thought there were moments in the game that we looked good. And again, Columbus is a tough team to play against. Give them credit. They move the ball extremely well, and they’ve got the leading scorer in the league on their team as well. It’s a tough game, but I thought we created enough chances tonight to get a result.”
D.C. United midfielder Markus Halsti
Overall thoughts…
“We had great chances to score more than one goal. I think it was pretty even when you check the chances, like I think we had three really good chances. Sabo had the first chance, the one against the goalie. A goal there, and it’s a different game. You never want to lose; you always want to win the game. So that’s not good with what we did today, but there’s a lot of positive stuff.”
Columbus Crew Head Coach Gregg Berhalter
Opening statement…
“We want to put ourselves in position to win every game, and we don’t have a sit-back mentality. Our mentality is to be aggressive and go for three points.”
On the team’s overall caliber of play…
“Look at the table of away game results this year and see where we are. I think that’s what’s important to do. We grinded out ties on the road in the beginning of the year in hostile environments on different surfaces, and we hung in there. We still believed in the team, we believed in their potential on the road and you can see now that we are starting to get the results.”
On the team’s control of the ball in the second half and overall mentality…
“I think that there was a phase of the game in the second half where we were in complete control and the penalty did change that a little bit, but I still like the mentality of the group. I want to keep the ball, I want to make them chase the game, and I think this was a great exercise late in the game to have to dig in, defend and deal with a lot of balls in your penalty box. I think that’s what I’m proud of the guys for doing.”
On the team’s defending…
“It was an opportunity for us to prove to ourselves that we can defend that type of game when we’re under extreme pressure. They have some big guys in there--some guys that are good in the air, very physical, and we hung in there.”
On the atmosphere of the game…
“What we knew was that the matchup was going to be, a tough conference matchup. D.C. is a very good team, they’ve proven it all year, and we knew it was going to have a playoff style atmosphere to it. I think the guys came out of it in good shape. I think we proved to ourselves that we can stay calm and execute our game whether at home or on the road. “
On being one step closer to clinching a playoff birth…
“We’re focused on the next game. We’re going to enjoy this one, but it’s all about next week in Portland, and we want to continue to make progress and move forward.”
On Tony Tchani’s assist and overall play…
“It was a fantastic pass. Tony is a huge part of our team, and he’s responsible for moving the ball side-to-side and when the opportunity presented itself to make that final pass, tonight he did. He played an outstanding ball to Kei [Kamara] for the goal, but he was aggressive moving the ball from side-to-side and getting shooting opportunities.”
On Kei Kamara…
“Kei has that in him. He has that break-away, pull-away, get-behind-the-defense in him and it’s up to us to get him a ball in positions like that more often.”
Columbus Crew Goalkeeper Steve Clark
On the victory…
“It was a nice win. A good, hard, close game.”
On the team’s overall mentality…
“We’re able to win ugly. We kind of have some grit to us now and that’s exciting for this team.”
On the overall pace of the game…
“I think we’re building on performance and performance. There are times where I thought we looked great and we defended, but this is a tough team. Give D.C. credit, the pace was a lot faster tonight than it had been in some time. D.C. was really coming, but we were able to hold, counter and score.”
Columbus Crew Forward Kei Kamara
On the victory and goal…
“It feels good to get three points on the road. It was completely a team effort today. This was a good team. We’ve played them before, and it wasn’t a good result for us, and coming into this game we knew what we had to do. It’s tight in the season right now for first place in the East, and that’s what we were pushing for.”
On the importance of winning games this time of the season…
“This is the most important time of the season, and when we look at it, it’s not just about making the playoffs, but about being on top of the East, and the best way for us to do this is to win games. Unfortunately, some of these games don’t go well, so we really have to win and get points from our road games.”
On Tony Tchani’s assist…
“It was great vision. I’m crediting everybody and all of the goals I’ve scored this year because my teammates put the ball by me perfectly, so I don’t have to do too much.”
