D.C. United Head Coach Ben Olsen
On game management after letting in an early goal…
"It’s not the way you want to start a game. Out of the gate it’s 1-0, you have to chase the game for 90 minutes. I give them a lot of credit. They were very well-organized and committed and held off the storm in the first half. In the second half I thought, because we are chasing the game, we got a little leggy going towards the end. We tried to bring some guns in, but we were a little bit out of sync. We’ve got to get back to trusting each other and ultimately that will get us more chances."
On whether the trend of letting in early goals is a mental issue…
"Lack of concentration is a mental issue. My opinion is that it is an alarming trend that has continued a few times this year. So I’ll take blame for that. It’s not something we don’t know about, or that we don’t discuss. It’s not something that we go out and say, we can take the first five minutes off. But we have to get better in that aspect, because everything you do all week has now changed because of one minute."
On team’s defensive performance against Giovinco…
"Well, he scored. But yes, overall, I thought we contained him and Jozy pretty well. Again, I give them a lot of credit and this isn’t all on us. Sometimes you go against a team that defends very well, and I think they did that. It was boosted by an early goal but there’s still a lot of good to what we’re doing. I still like the way this team’s playing, and I think there’s still some tinkering that I need to do and figure out exactly what makes us at our best. But that’s part of the season, that’s part of this journey over the course of the year. We’re still excited but I’m disappointed in the loss at home in particular, and I’m disappointed we gave up an early goal."
On Nyarko’s substitution following his injury…
"He was going to come off anyway. Toronto did a good job on Patrick. Patrick’s a guy that’s having success for us and teams are seeing that, and they’re getting numbers over there and doubling and sometimes getting a third guy on him. And he’s got to move the ball quicker and now move off the ball as teams start to do that. And he looked like he got a little leggy there."
On the disappointment of losing after a big win…
"Any loss at home is extremely disappointing. We’d like to put back-to-back wins together. Playoff teams, you find, are able to put together some winning streaks, more positive streaks that negative ones. And there was an opportunity that we didn’t take and put together back-to-back wins, and that was an opportunity we didn’t take tonight."
D.C. United midfielder Patrick Nyarko
On looking to bounce back next week...
"Absolutely. I keep saying, we’ve got enough experienced guys in this league to…mentally get back for… next week. At home… we were expecting to pick up three points today but we couldn’t. But we just need to make it up next week. There’s no excuses, we just need to come out and… play like we played today and try to get the points next week."
On whether conceding early hurt United...
"Definitely. You get a team that came in looking to do that, where they got the goal and sit in. That congested a lot of the middle, and it’s hard to penetrate. We became too predictable and played into their hands. They’re a very good team with smart players on their team, and that deflated us. I think we picked ourselves up, but their game plan definitely worked after their goal."
D.C. United Defender Steve Birnbaum
On conceding early goals…
“That can’t happen. It happened last year too much and this year we’ve tried to do a better job, but it can’t happen and it ended up costing us a win. We were chasing. Again, I thought the team played well overall. We had good possession and decent chances, but we just couldn’t finish.”
On the team’s next game against New England…
“We need three points next week; it’s a big game for us. We’d like to win at home and it’s an important game. We’re disappointed tonight, but we have got to move on and focus on the next game.”
D.C. United midfielder Nick DeLeon
On what was missing from the team’s play...
"I just think it was the final touch and being more precise in the final third… we could have been dangerous on a few more crosses. The final idea wasn’t good enough."
Toronto FC Head Coach Greg Vanney
On the quick start…
“Yeah [it’s] tough not to be pleased with that start, it was good. It’s always positive to start that way but I think as the game went on we had to dig a little bit for the rest of the game but we did what we had to do. That’s a sign of this team growing from where it was last year to where it is this year. We’ve proven we can defend as good as anyone, we can protect our goal and we can play on the road and work our way through games and win them in multiple ways. It doesn’t have to be like last year we outscored a lot of teams this year we’ve done a great job of protecting our goal. Six games on the road and were at less than one goal a game average on the road and that’s pretty good.”
On Altidore's performance up top…
“I thought he was outstanding. I thought he was physically huge in giving us a target and a guy to play to. He was competing his tail of and taking and giving I guess in physical battles and abuse both ways just trying to survive. I thought his work rate both in attack and defensively was outstanding. It was a first class performance from Josie and the only thing I wish he would’ve got in the end was a goal for all of his hard work but I think a win will suffice and he’s pleased about that which is usual in getting a W.”
When asked about the starting center back pairing decision…
For me it’s important to keep three center backs ready to play, keep them sharp and engaged. We’ve got three center backs that I think are of quality to play in this league. Drew was sick early on which gave Josh a chance to play in Kansas City I thought josh did well in that match. Damien’s played four-five games in a row, which gave us an opportunity to get that duo of Josh and Drew a game. It’s unfortunate that as the game progressed Josh started cramping up in both calves but I thought Damien came in and was excellent. He controlled things in the air and gave us some really good minutes. It’s not easy coming on the field as a center back in a game when you’re under a fair amount of pressure but I thought he was excellent.”
On the performance of Toronto's midfield…
“Yeah, great. We readjusted sort of our alignment from the first half to the second. I thought the midfield three, specifically Michael and Will, put in a ton of work to protect. I thought our outside backs did a lot of work. Again, I think over the course of the second half, I could be off I haven’t looked at the sheet. I thought they put balls in dangerous areas but they never really had any dangerous chances. In the grand scheme of things we definitely had to defend and protect our box and our goal, which we knew was going to come with early service and balls being whipped in the area. But between that group of players and I thought Clint was massive too in his ability to come out and play a little bit more off his line and punch balls away and manage balls that were hung up in the air. Listen, everybody for the whole group, several included, put in an incredible defensive shift today. They saw that that was going to be important today and they put in the work so I’m very proud of them.”
On United's plan to cross the ball into the box…
“Yeah I mean I felt like they had a lot of crosses but a lot of their crosses came from deeper positions. They weren’t from towards the end line, which are the ones you really want to try to eliminate. But the ones that are coming from a lot higher on the field or closer to half line then you’ve got to be able to deal with those that are coming in in a way that as a defender you have the opportunity attack the ball and clear it out. I thought we did a good job of that. A big part of that is Justin and (other outside back) not letting them get to the end line and forcing balls to have to come back and be crossed from deeper positions. They did a great job and the guys in front of them did a good job of condensing the middle and not letting them play through the middle so they had to hit balls from deep and wide so we were ok with that for the most part.”
On the team’s confidence after getting 8 points in 6 games…
“Yeah our confidence is there. The challenges grow because the trips get to be a little bit cumulative from trip to trip. You know you get home and you turn around and you’re right back you go again. So it’s important to get as many points as early through this process as we can. But the confidence is there, I think unlike last year at times when we were a little uncertain on the defending side of things as a group, not just our defenders but as a group, I think we’ve gained a lot of confidence over this stretch that our defending group is solid and is there and we can continue to evolve out of that. Again, I think from Clint all the way to the top we saw an entire defensive effort today and we know we can get results and that’s what we have to do.”
Toronto FC defender Drew Moor
On the overall result…
“Yeah, a shutout and three points on the road, you can’t ask for much more. I think there’s a deeper theme in this game. We’ve got some real class players who can play some beautiful soccer at times, but I think we’ve shown, at times on this road trip, that we can grind out wins as well. We have a bunch of guys that, no matter how good of soccer they can play, they dig deep, they work hard, they’re competitive and they want to win games. That’s huge, especially in the MLS. Sometimes, the games are not going to be beautiful to the eye, but on the bus, three points in hand is a great feeling.”
On having a string of road games…
“It’s weird, we’re used to playing on the road. We’re used to going into hostile territory at times and it’s just something that you never expect to do, but every game is on the road and we’ve gotten used to it; we’ve gotten used to the travel. We used preseason to get used to it and we can’t wait to get home, but right now this is the hand we’ve been dealt and I think we’re doing well with it.”
On the backline…
“I think the backline is doing well, but a lot of people talk about defensive improvements on this team. It’s not just the back four and the goalie, it’s the entire squad, in my opinion. All preseason, we work on defensive shape and just being difficult to play against and it’s not just the defenders that have to defend. Everybody from the top, all the way from the midfield to the back has to defend and I think we’re doing a very good job of keeping the play in front of us and being difficult to play against. We’re going to surrender goals and, in my opinion, you can’t let one goal turn into two, turn into three and I think that was maybe some of the problems last year, but if you give up a goal, don’t let another one go in, especially right afterwards.”
On coming back to RFK after being injured there…
“I tried not to think about it too much. Obviously, it’s impossible not to. I certainly feel a little better walking away today but you’ve got to move forward and I’m going to be back here, so it’s a place that I have to come and continue to compete and try to put that behind me when I’m here.”
On adjusting to a new club and city…
“It’s an amazing club and they take such good care of their players and there’s some big players here that want this organization to do well and, again, from day one, when I stepped into this organization, just everybody wants to win championships. It goes above and beyond to be sure the players are taken care of, that everybody’s putting their best foot forward and it’s a great feeling. Hopefully, that’ll continue to translate to wins on the field.
