D.C. United Captain Wayne Rooney
On going down the middle for the penalty kick…
“I’ve done it once in my career actually. It was for Everton against Liverpool. In the last couple of weeks against our keepers with the penalties we’ve practiced... a few have been down the middle so I knew where I was going, on the penalty. I thought tonight, I didn’t play well. I understand that and obviously the goal makes you think, people think, well he scored but I wasn’t satisfied with my performance tonight and we got lucky to get away with a draw.”
On the play in the final third…
“Yeah, I think just a bit of composure and a bit of patience in the final third. II understand because I have played this game for a long time and just a night like tonight is frustrating but I am happy that once the game is over we came away with a point because we probably didn’t deserve it.”
On the heat in Dallas…
“I know it’s hot in Dallas. I was there a couple weeks ago and in the heat there. We will be fine, I think, you just have to make sure you stay hydrated and be ready for the game. So I am sure we will be fine.”
Toronto Head Coach Greg Vanney
On VAR review…
“It’s not the VAR decision because to me the VAR decision is you get to look at it 100 times and you get to find a reason it’s a foul or not a foul, where you get to look at it. It’s a foul on Richie Laryea before that leads to the corner kicks that lead to the goal, right? But he doesn’t want to call the foul on Richie Laryea which is what leaves us open to those two corner kicks that end up being the goal. It’s a foul. It’s a simple call. On the other side, Ayo [Akinola] gets fouled in the box, potentially fouled. He doesn’t even go look at the VAR. Go look at the VAR, take a closer look, make your own decision. Because to me? The player gets fouled in the box. And I had the same or a very good angle at it-- it’s worth taking a look at it. For me, there’s enough contact to look at it and he doesn’t even look at it. So, clearly there’s enough to look at in our box, but not enough to look at in their box. I just don’t understand it and how Richie Laryea-- I’ve got ten texts to say Richie Laryea is fouled, how does that not get called? And he’s made that call earlier in the game. How does he not call it? It’s simple: make the call, nobody complains, and it doesn’t put a team in jeopardy to now have a discussion about this whole thing.”
On the overall performance…
“The first thing I said to my guys: what an incredible effort. To come here and to battle like that and work together like that to defend. They deserved a shutout, we should have got the shutout, and I’m very proud of them. We were on a good run in terms of our effort, our energy, and the way we’re performing. I’m very pleased with them. They should have had three points tonight.”
On Nick Deleon’s goal…
“I think Nick [Deleon]’s performance every day is that of a man and of a professional and a guy who puts his heart and soul out there every single night. It’s not gonna be any different when he comes and plays against his old club. I think he has that much respect for D.C. and for the club here that he’s gonna give his best and he does that every single night. So, I was happy he got the goal and I wish we would have taken all three points.”
On mentality…
“I think the guys are working really hard. Through the course of the game, not everything is perfect, not everything is clear, we’d like to have had more possession at times, but when we weren’t able to have possession, we did turn it over, we were immediately able to block and we just defended hard. And guys do a little extra running, they do a little extra work, and they compete just that little extra that they need to to keep these games in a position where we can hopefully win them. Unfortunately, we didn’t win tonight.”
Toronto Midfielder Nick Deleon
On the VAR decision…
“I don’t think it takes away from the performance. I think we were a good, collective unit today. We defended well. We did pretty good taking care of the ball as well. Just a little unfortunate with the VAR again, but I think the guys are proud of the result, proud of the effort. Obviously, the result-- that close, a couple of minutes from taking three points.”
On coming back to D.C…
“The goal was nice. I was definitely highly motivated for this game. When I first got traded, I circled these dates on the calendar and I was looking forward to playing here. I thought we did good. I thought it was a good team performance and just a little unfortunate on the result.”
Toronto Defender Richie Laryea
On the performance…
“I thought we played very, very well. Everything-- attacking, defensively, we were very good. An organized performance for an away game. It’s unfortunate once again this VAR and whatnot is holding us back from today three points, other days one point or whatnot so it feels we’ve been robbed in some sense.”
