Head Coach Ben Olsen
On the atmosphere of today’s match…
“This game was always going to be a battle. They are a little bit lower in the standings but they’re a very good team. The way they [Chicago Fire] unbalance you with good soccer in their defensive half makes them difficult to press. It’s not formulaic and Bastian [Schweinsteiger] has the freedom to do what he does… we struggled with that at times today. It was a battle for possession because of the heat and each team was trying to wear each other out then break the other team down. Over the course of the game we did a slightly better job at that. That coupled with the belief we have right now pushed us through.”
On how he feels about his team’s playoff chances after the win...
“I feel the same way now as I did before. We have to keep pushing because we have another 'most important game of the season' next weekend against Dallas. That’s just how it has to be for the rest of the year and that’s okay. I trust our guys and know they’re up for it. I don’t think we had the greatest performance today but there is a belief in the group that on days like this we can still get out with three points. That’s extremely important and that’s something we lacked earlier in the year.”
On the character of his team this late in the season...
“Over the last two months, there have been games where we are not at our best but we were still able to get three points… Wayne [Rooney] has been a huge part of that. The guy is a winner and that rubs off on the other guys. There is also other personnel on the team that play a role in that. Whether it’s Russell [Canouse] and Júnior [Moreno] commanding the center of the park or other guys being efficient in production on the offensive end. It’s also Bill [Hamid] coming up with a couple of saves a game and having Lucho [Acosta] on fire. There are a lot of things that I like about this group. There is real belief but we have three good teams coming to the building over the next few weeks in Dallas, Toronto, and New York City. They’re all as good as they come in this league so it will be a huge test… but we’ll be up for it.”
United Captain Wayne Rooney
On what pushed the team through in the second half...
“Once they scored we became better as a team, it was just a matter of time. Even in the first half we had the better chances. They scored and we responded really well. These are games that we have to win sometimes when you are not at your best. You need to make sure you get something out of the game obviously ideally win the game and thankfully we have done that.”
On the strong mentality of United when being down late...
“It is not what we want to do. We knew the performance of today’s game and I think the character of the players to come from behind, it is easy to almost try and get the draw and you can see after we put the first goal in you can see the determination was to try and get the win and thankfully we did it.”
On the importance of the home crowd...
“It is great and it is important to have that but we know that in the league we only have one away game left in Chicago. If we progress we know we will have to be better away from home. So yeah the home crowd is great but the challenge is to be better away from home.”
On the first goal he scored...
“As a forward you have to try and anticipate when the wide man is going to cross it or shoot and try and get across the defender. Obviously you need a little luck of the ball to come across you. I got a touch on it, the keeper made a good save and thankfully it came back to me.”
Chicago Fire Midfielder Raheem Edwards
On the match…
It was a tough match, we all knew that coming in. We had it for a little bit and just let it slip through our fingers. Good thing about it is we have them in the last game of the season at our place. We’re looking forward to that and possibly playing spoiler and impacting the playoff race in the East.
On his goal…
Katai set me up well, he beat a couple of guys and played me a ball. I just cut across, kept going across, and scored.
