Head coach Ben Olsen
On United's overall performance…
"Overall, the effort was there. There were some moments when we could have been tougher in some duels and been a little smarter with our decision making, but they’re a good team. It’s a long road stretch and we’ve got another away game next weekend in a tough stadium. We just have to get back to trusting our ability as a team. The wins will come, and the breaks will come as well. I didn’t think we had a lot of breaks today."
On the controversial no-call against Luciano Acosta that turned into a Crew goal…
"They went up 3-1 and we had to chase one of the best possessing teams in the league on the transition. I want [the referees] to make the right call. If it stays 2-1, it’s a different game and we can go about the rest of the match in a different way."
On the mentality of the team at this point in the season…
"We always want to get our first win as quickly as possible, but as long as we stay in a forward-moving mindset we’ll continue to grow as a team. I think everybody understands that this is a long season and we can’t get too high or low, especially during these first four months."
Defender Steve Birnbaum
On improvements for his team’s next match against Sporting Kansas City...
"Obviously we have to go back this week and look at tape and make adjustments because it wasn’t good. Obviousln the first half to give up three goals, we put ourselves in a hole for the second half and we have to tweak things and constructively work on things this week."
On the positives of the match...
"We had a couple of good spells in the first half where we were on the front foot. They were on their heels, but the key is to sustain that and that’s something we are going to work on this week."
Midfielder Chris Durkin
On the match...
"I think we came out on the front end and caught them off guard with our press. We need to work on the fact that they adapted to it and we needed to keep possession of the ball a little bit more and really dictate the game. I think that can only get better."
On the opponent...
"We all knew coming into the game that they’re a possession-oriented team, they’re very fast on the counter. They’re fast just moving the ball. We knew that and I think for the most part we dealt with that. It’s just that you give those guys a few opportunities and they capitalize."
On making his full MLS debut and playing 90 minutes...
"I think obviously reflecting on getting 90 minutes is definitely a dream of mine. To achieve that here was awesome. You know, putting my ego aside I want to win. I don’t think – sure I like reflecting on the 90 minutes but you know I want to win."
Crew SC head coach Gregg Berhalter
On closing matches...
"That’s always nice. You’d rather not give up a goal than give one up. I think it’s focus, I think it’s us having the ball. When you look at possession, we still maintained an advantage in possession in the second half. We were still able to create enough chances in the second half. Overall, I think it’s good. When you’re up 3-1, at minimum you want to end 3-1 or score more goals and we did that."
On early-season progress...
"I think so. Every game is unique, every game has it’s different challenges. I think we’ve been navigating through it pretty well so far. All we do during the week is prepare for our opponent. We try to improve on our game, and we stay focused on one game at a time. It’s no different now. We just happened to be undefeated, but the focus is still on the next opponent."
On early D.C. pressure...
"That’s a good question and the answer to that would be a couple of things. The first thing is that you have to understand that they have all week to prepare. A lot of teams do this, they figure out a strategy to press us. They know how we build up. We’ll give some variations, but they know we want to play with our goalie, and they know we want to move the ball around the back to break lines and advance the attack. So they’ve been practicing, and you can see that. You can see that they’re very effective, they had a lot of energy in it. When teams do that, in general, it’s difficult to break their press. So we knew that it was going to be challenging. I think what happened is, as you saw the game go on, they got fatigued. If you’re going to invest a lot of energy into pressing, it’s going to hurt you one way or another. So I think that they got fatigued, and we were able to open up space, and as that half went on you saw some tired legs, and you saw spaces starting to open up. We just had to be patient."
Crew SC Goalkeeper Jon Kempin
On getting the win...
"Every game we want to win, especially here at home. Would have been nice to get a shutout as well. It was a good finish. We want to win every game."
Crew SC Midfielder Federico HiguaÃn
On pushing for goals in the second half...
"We are an offensive team. We like to score goals. But at the same time we are not idiots. We have to defend our goal. And I think that was the difference in this game."
