New England Revolution head coach Jay Heaps
On the game plan after going down to nine men:
“Well to win the game I really felt that we were going to be in good blocks and I think that they only had one clear chance to score and they scored and that’s credit to D.C. Look, we were just getting set when, you go over, you practice being down 10 men, and I’ve got to be honest with you we don’t practice being down nine men, but we just had a 35 minute session so we’re alright. It’s hard because you’re asking guys like Teal (Bunbury) to cover a lot of ground, Scottie (Caldwell) covered a lot of ground, Jermaine (Jones) played excellent in there and so it’s a hard situation, but I think we even had moments to get another goal, but at the same time had to be smart. So you’re looking to take advantage of turnovers and see if you can make it a little bit more of a break game, but not give away anything and unfortunately we gave away a situation where I thought we actually had the numbers to defend it, but unfortunately they scored.”
On the team’s offense after the red cards:
“Pace and positioning. I think Teal (Bunbury) did a nice job and Charlie (Davies) did a nice job of finding the gaps, but it was all about hard work at that point. I mean Jermaine (Jones) had a lot of wins of winning the ball and keeping it and spraying the ball and also Scottie (Caldwell) so it was really, they were pushing numbers, could we catch them on a counter, I thought we had chances too and we almost did, Teal (Bunbury) going one on one against Perry Kitchen, we’ll take that all day long, and he fouls him and those are the situations we’ll take in those scenarios.”
On if Andrew Farrell back in defense and Jermaine Jones back in the midfield helped the team get a result:
“Well I guess, I mean you hate to see it because look, I think for 55 minutes I felt that we were, or 52 minutes, I thought we were really good. I’ve got to be honest with you I thought we were, you’re playing against the number one team in the East and we were toe to toe with them and I thought we were controlling the game and putting chances in and defending well, but you have to be smart against a team like D.C. because they can strike at any moment. I felt like they didn’t have many chances, I don’t know how many shots they had up to 52 minutes, I don’t even know, but I thought there was nothing that was really dangerous, a couple of set pieces here and there.”
On the team’s reaction after the red cards:
“I thought our composure was really good and I think that was, from Wednesday night to tonight, it was much better, but I thought our blocks were really good. I think we limited space and you know there’s a lot of communication from our center backs and outside backs, when to go and how to limit the space and I was really happy with that. I hate that we gave up the goal because I don’t think that we were under a ton of pressure and that’s what bothers you because if there was chance after chance after chance, you give one up and it’s okay. We just felt like we may get out of here with the three points and I think that’s why we’re disappointed, not that we got the tie, that we could’ve got three.
On the team’s approach to playing D.C.:
“I think what they have, it’s not tangible, you can’t look at it all the time on film and I think on film they show vulnerabilities, but at the same time their X factor of having this senior group of guys that know how to win games and tie games, comes from, I don’t know how many chances they had tonight, but they scored a goal to tie and for me it’s the guys like Bobby Boswell and Davy Arnaud. I think Perry Kitchen is just excellent, I think he’s just a great player. So the group of them with the additions of a Rolfe and tonight Arrieta scoring the goal. You put those group of guys together you can’t really say, oh he plays like this every night, they are versatile enough to be deceptive, but I think it’s the collective strength of the group that makes them good, that X factor of knowing how to win a game or how to pull out a game or not to extend too much here and hit them later and not overreact and all those things that you want your team to be, to be winners, they are.”
On Andrew Farrell’s progression:
“That’s Andrew. I mean that’s how he trains, that’s how he plays, that’s how he is as a person, I mean he’s a gamer. Every time he steps on the field you know he’s going to give everything he has, it could be a five v two or full 11 on 11 he’s going to put it all out there and that’s why when I get asked about it I almost, I just expect it from him now and I think he’s shown he’s an excellent center back with his feet, the way he’s positioning himself, he and Jose (Goncalves) had a great night tonight and I continue to like that partnership.”
On the motives behind making the substitutions that he did:
“I think the first one was to get a defender on the field, we lost a defender and so at that point you have to sacrifice something so Juan (Agudelo) came out and so we wanted to be solid and that’s Kevin (Alston) coming in so we can keep a back four. Then the next sub was freshness, who’s going to be fresh and I thought Kelyn (Rowe) was going to be fresh coming into at least do what Scottie (Caldwell) was doing, the two of them could work the outsides of the three. They had to cover a lot of ground; they were doing 50 yard sprints every time the ball was switched. Then Sean (Okoli) coming in at the end was more or less a like for like sub for Teal (Bunbury) just to give us a little more size up there, a little bit of power, a little bit of strength and speed just to keep them – they had to worry about him so they had to keep two guys on him. If you noticed that’s where we thought we won the game, we were smart and left one high and so they have to deal with that. So now it becomes a one man advantage that we were able to manage on the backside of that.”
New England Revolution midfielder Scott Caldwell
On the approach to containing D.C.:
“We knew we just had to just keep them wide, we couldn’t let them down the middle. I just tried to stay inside and then as the ball went wide, try to get as much pressure as I could so it wasn’t an easy service. Try to make it easier on the back line, but that was as much as we could do. We could pick off passes, try to do that.”
On the team’s physical play after the red cards:
“You just know you can’t be stupid, but there’s not much to change. You’ve still got to go in hard, you can’t ease up or anything, you still got to win the ball, still got to try to counter attack.”
On the mental aspect when grinding out a difficult result:
“A lot of it’s mental, just trying to push through, and when you see guys right away, within a minute, Jermaine (Jones) had won a ball, a hard 50/50. That kind of got everyone going knowing that we can still make it through this game. Unfortunately, we couldn’t hold the lead, but keeping 1-1 was okay.”
On taking set pieces toward the end of the game:
“I’m not typically on set pieces, but with guys out, Chris (Tierney) and Lee (Nguyen) started the game (and are) the guys on set pieces. But I’ve been on them before, so if I need to, I can.”
New England Revolution defender Andrew Farrell
On how the New England Revolution reacted to being down by two players:
“It was tough. I think going down one man’s really tough. You know, two guys – especially guys like Chris (Tierney) and Lee (Nguyen) who help us so much going forward. It was tough then. I think the guys did well. I think it was hard for the guys who went 90 minutes on Wednesday. I got a rest and so I felt like I had to give a little bit more and it was impressive. You know guys like (Jermaine) Jones and Scott (Caldwell), when Kelyn (Rowe) came in and Teal (Bunbury) – they were going hard, so I was like hey, you know, we’re all in this together. Strap it up and let’s go. I thought it was a good effort.”
On D.C. United scoring a goal to tie up the game:
“Yeah, it was unfortunate. I thought we did well to limit that. We knew when they brought in (Taylor) Kemp they were just going to whip those balls in. It just takes one miscommunication, one mistake, and they tied but I think like coach Heaps said, it’s one of the best – It’s a great one point.”
On the team’s strategy once they were down to nine players:
“I think the balls in between the outside backs and the center backs are tough to defend so we kind of wanted to force them wide and a ball in the air is a little bit easier to predict so that’s what we were trying to do. It was a lot of work for the guys in the middle and then Charlie (Davies) up top and Teal (Bunbury) went up top and even Sean (Okoli) came up top and did a great job when we went on the counter. They got fouls, got stops, made it tough for them. It was huge, not just the back four, but Bobby (Shuttleworth) was great and, like I said, the midfield was great, making them break us down. It wasn’t easy. The two-man advantage sometimes wasn’t shown.”
On the how important it was that Charlie Davies scored a goal:
“I think I said even being up a goal was huge I think for us. I thought we knew we could hold them off for a good – kill a good amount of time. We had the three subs: Kevin (Alston) came in, did a good job. I think it was one of the best efforts I’ve seen from our team since I’ve been here and it felt good to be on the field with the guys giving it their all who had even given it their all on Wednesday, so I think it was a good performance.”
On how he reacted to seeing two of his teammates get red cards:
“It’s tough. It’s part of the game though. We’ve been in this situation before. I think it was last year or two years ago – (against) Montreal. You’ve just got to keep going. You can’t really change it after he makes the decision. I think a lot of the guys just put in great effort. Like I said, it was huge to be up a goal. It would have been a lot tougher being – defending having only the tie to play for but, not to say we had the goal handicap, but we knew that if we gave up a goal, we’d still be fighting and have that one point to defend.”
On how he felt about resting mid-week:
“I want to play every game that I can. I was just playing a lot of minutes and in a new position, I think Jay (Heaps) wanted – we had a big game against D.C. obviously and then LA again coming up and then away to Portland. So we got a tough couple games. He just wanted to give me a little bit of rest. I obviously wanted to play and just I understood and, like I said, I had to give a 180 minute performance in 90 minutes tonight and I think all the boys did that.”
D.C. United head coach Ben Olsen
On the result despite the amount of cards given:
“I’m not sure what to say about that game. 1-0 down at half, I’ll take the tie right? But at 1-1, up two men? It’d be nice to get out of here with a win. Look, I think it’s a game where certainly they were the better team in the first half and they looked a little bit sharper with the ball and I felt physically they were pretty imposing. We didn’t necessarily match either of those parts of the game. Second half, I thought before they had the two red cards, our response was good, I thought our passing was better, our physicality was better, and then the cards happened and then it becomes a bit of a show and we did an okay job at times to break it down but certainly if I would have known we’d be up two men I would’ve worked on 10 v eights a little bit more this week. It’s a tough thing to prepare for. We’ve got to understand now that what has made us good is that we do all the little things right and at times we’ll get away from that for a half here or there and that’s not good enough anymore when you’re sitting at the top and you’re going to get the best from everybody and it’s not just the physicality and energy, it’s the soccer part too.”
On what was missing after going up two men:
“Look, credit them. They dug in. There’s a lot of guys on their squad that were doing everything it took to make it difficult on us. I thought we could’ve just played with what’s there. 10 v eight, you just give it to the next guy, side to side and eventually you’re going to get your looks or you’re going to get service in better spots closer to the goal, in and around the 18 and the passing was a little bit off at times but I thought Facundo (Coria) came in and did a good job and obviously Taylor (Kemp) – the introduction of Taylor helped from a service standpoint. So look, all in all, I don’t know how to feel to be honest with you. I’m a little confused right now.”
On managing the injuries through a tough upcoming schedule:
“We draw it all up during the week and it all makes sense until someone goes down like Michael (Farfan) and then you have to reshuffle, so I’ll have to look at it tonight a little bit and then make some decisions to go to Portland and then obviously there’s a quick turnaround after that – a bit of ridiculous turnaround after that – to come home against Philadelphia so we’re going to have to make some tough choices but the good news is that I’m excited about a lot of guys that will get a run in Portland and it’s a chance for us to take a look at them as well.”
D.C. United midfielder Davy Arnaud
On the result after being up two men for the final 30 minutes:
“I mean obviously we would, once we get the equalizer, we would then like to go and get the second goal to win the game. But, it can be tough. You do drills that are similar in training where you’re kind of up a man or two and you’re trying to break a team down and they’re sitting deep in their own half.”
On how the game changed after the red cards:
“It clogged the middle of the field; it can become a little more difficult if that makes sense. But, I thought once we got the goal we were still a little bit impatient at times. If we had just moved the ball a little quicker to the next guy, that’s where the goal comes from, that’s how you find chances. But, we get a point at the end of the day which isn’t bad.”
D.C. United midfielder Perry Kitchen
On the result:
“I think it’s a decent result. At least we come out with something. Saying that, I felt we were all not sharp enough tonight, whether it was passes were a bit off or late to plays. Saying that, we found a way to get a big point tonight and we move on quick to Portland now.”
On the team’s quick schedule turnaround:
“(It’s) a tough turnaround. I know Portland played today in Toronto, so they have tough travel too. It’s a tough stretch for us. We are going to need everybody, but we’ll be ready for it.”
