D.C. United Head Coach Ben Olsen
On the game overall:
“It was great to get the goal, but I’m just happy to see our team back with the right mentality. The final third for both teams was a little lacking, but I was very happy with the effort and response from last week. Hopefully, now we can put that type of mentality into every game going forward.”
On Pontius:
“I thought Chris [Pontius] was working too hard last week on the defensive end. Tonight he was in good spots and constantly threatening the back line. As the season goes he will start to do better with those other opportunities."
On Birnbaum’s injury and being replaced by Opare:
“I don’t know about the injury. I know it has something to do with his ankle so we are hoping for the best. We don’t think its gong to be anything more than a sprain, but sprains can be a week to several weeks, so we will have to wait and see."
On Kofi Oprae’s performance
"Kofi [Opare] is a big story line today. He hasn’t had a lot of minutes for us or in the Legaue, but from what I’ve seen of Kofi, he’s a gamer. He has a mentality that he can step in and do the job, and tonight I thought he was great. It was a good match-up for him tonight."
On Doyle’s and Farfan’s performance off the bench:
“Conor [Doyle] gives you energy, and I thought he was brave in his challenges, especially the aerial ones. Michael [Farfan] comes in and gives us an exhale. He can come in and connect passes under any circumstances and we need that out there as well. All three subs helped us in a big way.”
On Olsen’s first win as a coach over Los Angeles:
“It seems like it has been a while since we have beaten them. They always put out a good team. I don’t think that was the best L.A. team you will see this year, and I think it was important for us to take advantage of a team that was missing some key components. But even without them, they are a good team, and they know what they are doing.”
On the team’s response after New York:
“Our team is best when we play fearless. We do a good job of that at home, and we need to find a way to do that on the road in a controlled way as well. It’s a good group. We do respond, and we talk about responding after negative events and putting together positive streaks rather than negative streaks. Now we have a chance to put together back to back wins which is a thing I think all good teams do.”
On Kemp’s performance:
“We asked him to be aggressive, both him and Sean, and to make sure they are getting in to the attack. He gives us a different dimension with his left foot, and I thought he was good all night. He just opens up the field a little bigger for us and defensively he was pretty sharp. All in all everybody showed up tonight. It wasn’t perfection but we had 14 guys show up tonight and do their job. That’s what we have to do every time we step on the field.”
D.C. United Midfielder Nick DeLeon
On the buildup to the goal:
“I believe Conor [Doyle] got rocked pretty hard by the goalie, and the ball came back out to Davy, who played the through ball to me, then I just played it across to Pontius for the win.”
On the goal and the victory:
“I’m definitely excited to get the win. You know the guys feel really good about that, and we have some good momentum going into next weekend. Those are the defending MLS champions so it’s nice to get a win on them.”
“It’s just the effort. If we keep working hard, we keep putting in the work in practice, we will keep getting the results.”
On Pontius:
“Yeah [Chris] is getting sharper and sharper as we go, and his goals will come. It’s good he started early in the year so hopefully he can keep that up throughout the year.”
D.C. United Forward Chris Pontius
On the feeling of scoring after missed chances:
“Not only this game but past games, you know you just have to have short term memory and leave that stuff and keep yourself alive. That penalty kick didn’t feel good, obviously. Like I said, short term memory. I was just focused on the team today. Throughout the game today we were breaking out in the second half, and we just weren’t clean enough. You need to take care of yourself, that’s rustiness of early in the season, but it’s nice to get one at the end of the game and get a win.”
On the assist by DeLeon:
“I thought he was serving it the first time, but then once I saw him dink it over I was trying to get across Gargan in case it came across. It did and I just tried to put if on frame after that.”
On the victory:
“It’s huge, especially going into next week. It’s another tough game going against Orlando. It’s not an easy place to play on turf down there. We are all pretty satisfied with ourselves for this win. We asked ourselves to have a response after a bad loss in New York, and we came out in the first 15-20 minutes, and it was a completely different game than what we put forward in New York in the first 15-20 minutes. So I liked our response tonight.”
On losing Birnbaum:
“Our defenders especially Kofi stepping in for Birnbaum early, that’s not easy to step into a game that early on and I thought he was fantastic.”
On the atmosphere:
“We had a good crowd, especially on a cold night like this and with that Argentina game going on. We were very pleased, and I think they got a show at the end there so it was good to get it for them.”
LA Galaxy Head Coach Bruce Arena
“Our team played very well today, and I thought we deserved to have a point. We have nobody to blame but ourselves, but I thought the referee made a bad call at the end. It was ridiculous, the way he called the game. That is just part of it though and we have to accept responsibility too.”
“The ref was inconsistent and you cannot let the goalkeeper get charged at the end, having said that, we still should have gotten a point today. Losing that game was ridiculous.”
LA Galaxy Goalkeeper Brian Rowe
“It was not the most ideal conditions, but both teams have to deal with them and play in them. Early on they tried to dump a few balls in the box to keep their numbers up, so I thought we did well in the first half with the wind in our face. We adjusted well in the second half.”
On the goal:
“I will have to watch it over again, but it was a ball delivered to the far post and unfortunately we were unable to clear it out.”
“It was just a long ball over the top and I decided to come out for it. I tried catching it but there was pressure on me, so I punched it. You just have to keep playing.”
“I think we have shown time and time again that we have a deep bench and that we have really good guys on our team.”
“I feel confident and comfortable. The more games I get, the better I will feel. You cannot give up last minute goals. I thought we at least deserved to get a point.”
“In soccer stuff like that happens, but I know we will learn a lot from this game and we will be ready for next week.”
