D.C. United Head Coach Ben Olsen
On the final result
“Obviously I’m disappointed to go out of this tournament, especially this early, but the guys gave me everything they had. We didn’t finish some of our chances, and once it goes to PK’s it’s a bit of a coin flip.”
On Durkin and Kamara’s performances
“I thought both were great. I don’t think we rewarded Kamara enough for some of his running. He was in a couple very good spots, even in the box when we got to the end line and we chose to shoot instead of hitting him where he’s naked around the six. He’s in a few good spots and he knows what he’s doing up there and once we see a few different guys around him he’ll have a little more success. Durkin looked good and he fit in well with this group. “
On moving forward after this game
“It’s the [Lamar Hunt U.S.] Open Cup, you want to advance of course but if you don’t you put it to bed pretty quickly.”
On getting to play different players this game
"We’ve been looking for minutes for a bunch of the guys out there tonight. We learned a lot about them over the course of this long game. I think most of them played well and are going to be better for it.”
D.C. United Forward Rob Vincent
On the positives of the result…
“If there is one, it’s obviously that the guys who haven’t played a lot of minutes got the chance to get 120 of their legs, but we’re obviously disappointed. This was a competition that we wanted to do well in. Even though I thought we played relatively well, we just didn’t have that killer instinct to get a goal because I think if we scored it would’ve been relatively comfortable; maybe we would have went on and got two or three. We couldn’t get that first one and you always kind of leave yourself with that 50/50 chance of a penalty shootout, so we’re disappointed.”
On the multiple scoring chances…
“I thought we were the better side. I thought we created, obviously, a lot more, but if you don’t take those chances, you’re always susceptible to a 0-0 finish or going to penalties. It was disappointing and I think we needed to be a little bit sharper in front of goal, but we created enough and maybe on another night we’d put two or three of those away.”
On Chris Durkin’s start…
“It was great. Just looking at him, you don’t think of him as being a 16 or 17-year-old kid. He’s obviously far beyond his years, so he was fantastic, played really well in the center of the midfield, didn’t look out of place and I’m sure he could’ve played a little bit longer if Benny had let him, but he’s a good kid and has been training with us for a couple of weeks now and doesn’t look out of place.”
On deciding where to place a penalty…
“I usually make up my mind late; kind of see if the goalkeeper is kind of leaning one way or another. Penalty shootouts are always a little bit more nervy. In the heat of a game, I’m always a little more confident, but that walk-up is a little bit nerve-wracking. I’ve taken penalties before and I know if I hit it hard in the corner, the chances of the keeper saving it are slim, so I just kind of saw him lean a little to the right, which gave me the chance to put it to his left.”
On Restrepo’s strong reputation in net…
“I think the striker should always score the penalty. I try not to think of penalties too much until I come around. We took a couple of penalties in practice yesterday, just in case this happened, but I think the best way is to just kind of wait and decide when you get there.”
Fort Lauderdale Head Coach, Caio Zanardi
On the team’s performance
“For us, it’s a great night. Tactically, our team was perfect. It’s not simple to come in here and play our way against D.C. United, a big club. Our players, what they did today, what we practiced during the week, we knew the match would be very hard. Our players followed our strategy from the first minute. I am so happy with what they did today.”
On Restrepo’s performance
“Yes, it’s not simple. Even in our league we have great matches. Now we go ahead another step and go to work but I am very happy with what we did today.”
