D.C. United Head Coach Ben Olsen
Thoughts on the result…
“I think the first half could have gone either way, right? They had some good looks and some good bouts of possession. I thought we started the game well. But they took over for portions of that first half. Then the second half hit, and I just thought that we were a different team. We did a good job of locking them, and we were getting a lot of service. I thought our movement off the ball was good again. Our back four were spectacular: Taylor [Kemp] and Sean [Franklin], going against two very dynamic players, and I thought Bobby [Boswell] and Kofi [Opare] were very focused and tuned in. I’m glad Bobby got a goal. It’s been a while since we got one straight off a corner, and I’m glad it was him tonight. Sabo [Saborío] comes in and helps us out with possession and of course the goal, Fabi [Espíndola] gets on the board – things went our way tonight.”
On starting Opare over Birnbaum…
“We were in a bit of a tough way there for a while - nothing necessarily to do with Steve – and Kofi came in last week and we won a game. Sometimes it’s as simple as that. He seems to be a guy that when he’s out there, we win games.”
On the team’s improved form with back-to-back wins…
“I think we’re headed in the right way. Again, I think it’s a day where things went our way, but I think the energy and the focus from the group, and the attitude that our group has right now, is a good one. I think we’re heading in the right direction.”
On clinching a home game in the playoffs…
“That’s important, and it’s important for a whole bunch of reasons. First and foremost our fans get to see us in a playoff game, here at this building. I’m looking forward to seeing RFK again on a playoff night. That’s always, always a special night.”
On Pontius’ improved form…
“He’s changed the way we can play right now. Again, I said it before, he’s playing very simple, he’s connecting passes and he’s moving without the ball. Sometimes when you do the simple things right, you get rewarded. He’s anticipating plays, defensively he’s putting in real shifts. So I’m happy for him. It’s been a long year. It always seems to be a long year for Chris. He finds his way through it, and coming from a guy who’s had a lot of injury issues, it’s not easy. You root for these guys and I’m happy for him tonight.”
On the chance to clinch the No. 2 seed in the Eastern Conference against Columbus…
“It’s a crazy league, right? It’s big. They’re a very good team. I think they’re as good as they’ve been, or we have in the East. They’re down two important pieces next week, but our mentality will be the same. We’ll go out there and try to improve our group and win the game.”
On using Álvaro Saborío as a substitute…
“Going forward we will keep evaluating our group, evaluate both who we are and who we’re playing, and what lineup we decide to go with. It might change. I thought against Chicago, that the lineup was right tonight, and the guys backed me up on that.”
On Nick DeLeon…
“Nick always gives you both ends of the game. Going forward he’s a threat, and he always puts a defensive effort in that we are proud of. He’s physical. We’re always asking for more goals and assists out of Nick, but he’s a guy when he’s out of the lineup you know it, and you understand that he’s a big piece of what we are doing.”
D.C. United midfielder Chris Pontius
On the goal…
“I think it was [Chris] Rolfe who pressured their center back, and the ball just popped out. I was just quick to respond, and then I was just going to touch it past Busch, then someone on my back side pushed it further in front. From then on out, I was just seeing if I had any angle to shoot, and if not, I was going to let it run out for a corner kick. When I got to it, I saw an angle, and I was just trying to put it on frame.”
On how the match progessed…
“I thought in the first 15 minutes we were very good, and then we sat back and got away from what we were doing, and they had a good spell when we couldn’t get out of our half very well. At that point, especially going into halftime, that’s a pretty key moment in the game. It gets you going into halftime on a good note, and then from there, we created some good opportunities. Fabi [Espíndola] put some balls in some very good spots, and we got some bounces to go our way.”
On confidence from the goal…
“It’s not me, it’s Rolfe making that play, his reaction. I thought for the most part, we were good – when we turned the ball over, if we had them in a bad spot, we were after them, and we were trying to pick up the ball in good areas. I thought our reactions when we turned over the ball were pretty good tonight. There was just a bit of a spell in the first half, maybe 20 minutes, when I thought we weren’t as sharp as we could be on the ball, our decision-making, our defending, we weren’t getting out to people enough. I thought they had a couple of chances that were dangerous, but other than that, it was OK.”
On the match vs. Columbus…
“Columbus is a very good team, and they moved the ball very well against us last time. They spread you out, and they get in good spots. It’s a huge game for us. They’re a good team, and their system just allows guys to plug in, and they all know their roles. It’s a crucial game for us, but we did our job tonight and put ourselves in a good position.”
Chicago Fire Interim Head Coach Brian Bliss
Opening statement…
It certainly was the furthest thing from what we expected in the way we trained during the week, the effort that was put into the training and the mentality during the week. Today’s performance could not have been further from it, and I think if we had gone into the half at 0-0, it would have been a different ball game, not that 4-0 is something to wipe away. It was a bit of a soft goal in terms of two plays from us that led to that goal. It was two of our touches that led to Pontius’ goal, not their touches. The game is what it is and it ended up 4-0 and we have to take responsibility for that.
On D.C. United’s performance…
Their block of eight is pretty robust, and they made it difficult for our guys to hold onto the ball when it came into Gilly, Harry and later on David Accam up front. We could never get any kind of possession going in the other end of the field. We had some possession, but it was more around midfield and the back part of our field. It’s very difficult to play against; we lost a lot of second balls today and in general I would say the fight wasn’t there.
On Harry Shipp…
Obviously, everything is good for him and there’s stuff he can put in the bank, in terms of his learning process and playing in that area of the field. It’s not like he hasn’t played there before, he just hasn’t done it with us too often. I thought the first half he got on the ball and got us out of trouble a few times and it was one of the brighter spots in terms of him helping us keep it with the limited possession we did get in the first half. We kind of lost our way a little bit in the second half, and I brought David [Accam] up front a little bit and thought maybe his pace and speed is something we’d get him in behind and put Harry in the midfield. Obviously, it didn’t work out.
On the positives to be taken from this match…
Not many. We had a couple of guys that I thought really got after it, played to what I would say their capabilities are and we had probably most if not all, other than those two, who didn’t get out there and get after it and give a good performance. We can always say that if things are going well out there for you on the ball, everybody can fight and we did not bring that today.
On the team’s upcoming final game of the season…
It’s not going to be easy, obviously. If you come out of here with a better result then you can go home and go into that last game feeling better about yourself. But we’ll look at some guys who probably haven’t had as many minutes as some others this year, try to mix up the lineup a bit and give some of the other guys some opportunities to show what they can do. Hopefully, the playing ability, along with the mentality, will carry the day for us.
Chicago Fire Goalkeeper Jon Busch
Opening statement…
It just sums up our season right there. The first goal comes just off of a broken play again and one of our defenders toe pokes it on to Pontius and he is in and around. Again, it’s on us. Not to take anything away from them, because they are a very talented team, but the only good goal they got was off of the header on the corner. We battled hard the first half. We had some good chances, we didn’t take advantage of those and the second half just kind of fell apart. The third goal is deflected, he’s trying to cross the ball and it’s just a freak thing and it goes in. On the fourth, somebody takes a long shot, it gets deflected, pops up right to Saborío and he is just there to hit a rebound. In all honesty, that just sums up our season right there. We do some good things during games, especially in the first half, and then it just falls apart in the second half like that. It’s frustrating for the boys.
On moving on to the next game…
You have to. We’re at a point where nobody is safe. Nobody knows what is going to happen next year, and this is a gut check time, this is for boys to show if they want to be here next year for whoever the coach is. It’s frustrating, but this is the profession we live. This is what it’s about; it’s about winning games. The first half, we were decent. The second half, we weren’t good. We put ourselves in those positions, too, by being sloppy with the ball and things like that. We have to pick ourselves up and guys individually have to prove that they want to be here next year. I want to be here next year and other guys need to step up and take that same attitude because that wasn’t good enough in the second half tonight.
