D.C. United’s Head Coach Ben Olsen:
On the new lineup playing together…
“I thought we would be in better shape than we were today, but we have two weeks to get back to work. I know we can still strike at any time. I think that we were just a little bit off in some of the final things that really mattered tonight, and that was on the offensive end. Defensively, we struggled to deal with how many numbers the Crew threw at us. I thought they did a very good job at offsetting us. We didn’t handle it so well in the first half.”
On his view of the penalty kick…
“My view was the same as everyone else’s view. How was yours?”
On his opinion of the call…
“I don’t want to put it on the referee tonight. This is a league referee issue that is a reality in professional sports. You just have to hope that you’re not on the wrong end of a call from a naïve or inexperienced referee, and unfortunately the reality is that we were on the wrong end. That was not the reason we lost the game. It didn’t help, but it wasn’t the reason. I give credit to Columbus on the night.”
On Nick DeLeon’s performance…
“I think he did well. He had a fever two days ago and he got through it as much as he could. We didn’t know if he was going to be able to go full time, but he’ll be rearing to go in a week or so.”
On the substitution of DeLeon…
“I just thought the game needed a change. I didn’t think he was having a bad game, but we just needed a change. As a group, we weren’t great, but some of this is to be expected. It’s a long season and I still believe in this crew. You can see at some points in the game that this group will be fine down the line.”
On Eddie Johnson’s performance…
“I think he was just a little off the mark. He made good runs. The balls we delivered to Eddie were just inches to short or just a little too long. Overall, it was good to see him out there. I think Fabian had a very good night. He was really busy and was a real handful for the Crew defense. Besides that, I think it was an overall disappointing night.
D.C. United’s Bill Hamid:
On the newness of the club and expectations for the first game…
“Yeah, it is always going to be hard to get things right immediately, but no we didn’t expect to come in here and lose three nothing.”
On the first goal and the organization of the defense…
“I think that is something we are going to have to watch over, but I think at first glance it may have been a communication thing between our midfielders and defenders. I have to take a look again because it looked at little different, Nicky ended up dealing with the cross and so we have to take a look at that again.”
On how the team looked overall…
“I think all around we looked good at times and at forward we threatened them a lot. There were a lot of situations where the ball was bouncing around in their six and they just muddled up on their side. I think we were very good, honestly. I think moving the ball forward we looked very good. I think at times we were organized and at other times we weren’t. I think overall it was a very good performance.”
D.C. United’s Nick DeLeon
On the team’s performance as a new group and the expectations…
“Yeah, we definitely shouldn’t lose 3-0, but it is what it is. We have to stay positive. We have a good group of guys with talent. It is a lot of new pieces, so it might take a bit for us to all get together on the same page.”
On his gut feeling about the team…
“I love D.C. I stay positive all the time. I feel like we will start getting results here soon the more we play together.”
Columbus Crew’s Head Coach Gregg Berhalter:
On his thoughts on the match...
“It was a great way to get started. The emphasis was on starting and playing our game from minute one. I think we did that. We went out there and we were brave and wanted to play.“
On how his team performed…
“I think we played well, the game was a good game. I mean ideally, you want to fully control the game for a full 90 minutes, but I don’t think we did that. When I look at going on the road and controlling the opponent, I think we did well. We scored two fantastic goals on the road and I’m happy with our overall performance.”
Columbus Crew’s Michael Parkhurst:
On how the early goal gives a team confidence…
“It really brings us up. We’re a young team with a lot of new things going on, so that first goal just brings us together and gives us the fight to keep going. You know, it was such a good goal too. We’ve been working on that kind of goal all preseason. It’s great to see us doing that during the regular season.”
On being named captain…
“Gregg announced it before training yesterday and it’s a great honor. I feel like I’ve got some experience in the league and I’ve been around for a while, so I want to be here on an off the field for my team. It’s a great privilege.”
On the defense playing together…
“Stephen was a rock back behind us. I thought overall that the team defensively played really well, especially with EJ and Fabian up top.”
Columbus Crew’s Steve Clark:
On the win and the shutout…
“I’m pretty stoked about the win. Obviously, it’s nice to get the shutout as keeper, but there were a lot of guys in front of me that did a lot of defensive work to help me get the shutout.”
On his first MLS game…
“The level of the game is what I thought it was, solid. I felt like I was keyed in from minute one to minute 92. It’s a nice win and we have two weeks to think about it. We still have a lot of things to improve upon, but this is a good start.”
