Head Coach Ben Olsen
On if the team were fatigued…
“Absolutely. It was going to be a long night after we conceded the first goal. We’re coming off two days rest after a physical matchup against the Red Bulls. Maybe that took more out us than I thought... and it was also 90-something degrees out there. However, all of the players gave me everything they had so that’s a positive. We had a couple of early looks on goal and we needed to get that lead then grind out the rest of the game. Chasing the game was always going to be tough in this heat.”
On bringing Brillant and Segura on in the second half...
“Fred [Brillant] was a tactical switch. Fisher has a tight hamstring that we didn’t want to make worse, and I thought Paul [Arriola] did well at right back. Fred [Brillant] comes in to help with some of the passing out of the back and to be a little bit more aggressive. I also thought Ulises [Segura] was eventful when he came on. Again, we just lacked quality on the night and a lot of that is fatigue. We got in good spots but we just didn’t have that extra bit of power… it was just a little stagnant. The team are trying and they worked their tails off so I’m appreciative of that… the loss hurts, though. But, they're a good team [Philadelphia] who are well coached. Because of their spacing and athletic guys in transition, they’re a tough team to go down a goal against.”
Forward Wayne Rooney
On the match...
“You have to give credit to the opponents tonight. I thought they played a really good game, they made it difficult for us with their movement and the passing. Obviously, it was a hot day, hot for both of us so there are no excuses. That is a team that tonight, deserved the win.”
On not scoring over the last two games...
“I think we had chances and I think you can see on their second goal, that was probably the first time in the second half that they got into that position, a little bit of quality and they punished us. We were maybe in that position five or six times and we watched the cross. So, I think tonight we were a bit sloppy but again you have to give credit to the opponents, they deserved to win tonight.”
