D.C. United Midfielder Felipe Martins
On the game…
“It was the first game of the season. We are going to take a very hard look at this game and make sure we get rid of the little mistakes, and see what we can improve on. I think we showed that we are a team who can build and play. We are going to try to improve game by game.”
On the game being level going into stoppage time…
“In games like this we need to make sure that we are hard to break. We need to stay compact and play as one because we know at some point that we are going to score. Today unfortunately that didn’t happen. It is the first game of the season, and it is unfortunate to start the year like this, but we had a good first half we can build from.”
D.C. United Captain Steven Birnbaum
On the match…
“It’s really disappointing because I thought we had a solid first half. We started with energy and created more chances than them. In the second half we scored the goal on the set piece but they were the better team in the second half. We weren’t good enough and giving up a goal like that in the 90th minute is pretty tough. Not the way we wanted to start the season. We are going to take a look and see where we can get better.”
On the defense…
“We are not used to giving up goals and giving up two in the first game is not what we want. We are going to have to button that up and take a look at the film to see where we can get better.”
On the first half…
“I thought Ola did a good job of holding the ball up in their half which created chances for other guys to run in behind him. That's what we probably should have done more of in the second half.”
D.C. United Goalkeeper Bill Hamid
On the match...
“We kept possession of the ball and put them under pressure in the right spots. We were unfortunate to get a goal called back, then we took the lead. Closer to the end of the game, maybe in the last 15 minutes, we just gave the ball away a little bit too much which gave them a little bit of juice. It is a learning lesson, everybody knows it’s a new group with a lot of new pieces in here. I think it's a big positive that we were able to implement our new gameplan. Playing out of the back, trying to break things down, I think we did that very well.”
On Edison Flores…
“He kept possession for us in critical moments of the game and in critical spots of the field to help us advance the ball. He was dealing with a little bit of a knock so we didn’t have him for the full preseason, but I thought he did well today.”
D.C. United Midfielder Russell Canouse
On his goal…
“It’s always nice getting on the scoresheet and being able to help the team, not only defensively but contributing in attack as well. It was a corner kick and I just took my position trying to block the goalkeeper and then once Julian approached the ball I just peeled back post trying to lose my man. Luckily the ball popped up at the back post and I just put it in. It’s great being able to get on the scoresheet, but after a result like this it doesn’t feel as good.”
On the last 20 minutes…
“We weren’t patient in our shape. We were kind of in between trying to press on and holding. That kind of gave Colorado the ability to have more control over the game and they ran our legs off a little bit and put us under in the last 20 minutes. We have got to look at that and figure out how we can utilize the last 20 minutes and figure out how to close games out. We did that well last year and we have to do that going forward.”
Colorado Rapids Forward Jonathan Lewis
On starting 2020 with 3 points...
“We couldn’t dream about a better start. We came in here, we had to fight and I know it wasn’t a pretty game but we got the result.”
On Coach Frasers words before the game:
“He said ‘You're going to get one chance and I know you’re going to take it.’ and that literally happened. He called it right.”
On next weeks home opener against orlando and setting the tone with 3 points...
“It shows that our home is a fortress, that no one can just come in and win games, so we’ve got to set a big tone over there.”
On what changed with Robins arrival and how much of that can be carried over to the season...
“I think we’ve just got to stay focused, you know we can’t get carried away. We know we’re a good team but we can’t get carried away. We also have to work the same way that we did last year. We know how it felt to be bottom and we also know how it felt when we made a good run and we were close to the play-offs. So we have to have that balance right there so we know that we have to fight every game but we also have to know that we’re not crap and we can play with all the big teams in this league.”
Colorado Rapids Head Coach, Robin Fraser
On starting with 3 points to set the tone for the rest of the season...
“I think it’s huge, I mean everybody wants to start off on a winning note. Obviously not everyone can but it just puts you in a much better mind frame than if you don’t. So for us it was a really important start, important win for our group that is a really good group and that’s going to get better with confidence.”
On getting the guys to adjust to the wind/ other conditions...
“It’s really an effort in concentration. Making sure that defensively we are constantly working for each other and supporting each other because on a day like this, the ball could end up anywhere. And then on the attacking side, just getting the ball down and play and do the things that we’ve been trying to get better at all preseason.”
On words of advice to Jonathan Lewis...
“John’s got great base and he has a nose for the goal and just continue to do the work you need to do defensively and do everything you can to try and get behind a couple of times.”
