D.C. United Head Coach Ben Olsen
On the pieces all coming together…
“Satisfaction is a good word. I’m glad we hung in there with that group of guys and continued to grow and not panic. We are better off for it. We created a ton of chances in the first half and we were unlucky not to get more than one. There were no poor performances and the guys connected passes and read the game very well. When we play like that, we are a very talented team. And when we play as a team, on both sides of the ball, then we will get results.”
On playing with an increased sense of urgency…
“I think we played with a sense of urgency last week. I don’t think that part is new to tonight but I do think it was a good night overall. I thought everyone, from an effort and soccer standpoint, was at a high level. When you put those together you will have a night like this.”
On Birnbaum’s performance…
“His confidence is very high right now and I think he’s pushing himself internally to having a bigger role on and off the field. He has good leadership qualities and going with the national team definitely helps. He’s brought the high level of the national team back to us and that’s not always the case when people come back. And for a young guy, that’s important.”
On Saborío and Acosta off the bench…
“They did exactly what we needed them to. When we create space for them to move, guys with their qualities can do what they did. There are a bunch of different ways to skin this thing and it’s good for them get points on the board.”
On Rolfe’s and Espíndola’s performances…
“Both were fantastic. Rolfe doesn’t get enough credit with that partnership because Fabi [Espíndola] starts to fade out wide and create plus ones and very few players understand how to play with him in the right way. I thought both of them were very good tonight. Fabi [Espindola] played what was there; he played simple when he needed to and when he needed to pull some magic out he did that as well. From a defensive standpoint they set a very good tone and he [Fabi] doesn’t usually get the number nine scrappy goals and that’s just a product of hard work and being hungry.”
D.C. United midfielder Chris Rolfe
On the difference between today and the past few weeks...
“We scored. I think we’ve been building up to this moment. We knew it was going to happen eventually. We love playing here at home and I think over the past two years we’ve had some great games at home and a great record here. Overall, I think everybody had a great game, we believed in it. We’ve had some good halves this year, and that was a big challenge coming out in the second half and getting a good start to that half; I think we did a great job. I think the first ten minutes of the second half we put them under pressure; we were composed on the ball and made them defend a little bit. After that it made the rest of the half pretty easy.”
On the first goal...
"All I can remember was that I was off the shoulder of [Kendall] Waston as Patrick [Nyarko] had the ball. Whenever Patrick [Nyarko] has the ball you know something good is going to happen, so you’ve just got to get in a good spot. We combined a lot like that when we were in Chicago together, so I knew at some point the ball was coming. It was a fantastic pass and I took a shot and tried to hit it back post just like our coach teaches us. There’s a rebound, Fabi’s [Espíndola] there and it’s a great effort by him and that all comes back to Patrick [Nyarko].
D.C. United midfielder Nick DeLeon
On the overall result…
We were going to take it to them from the get-go, make them feel uncomfortable, press them and I think we achieved the game plan to a T. Like I said, we’ve just got to get a couple of days off to recover, go back to training and move on to Toronto next week. We build on each other by making practices sharp, high focus and high intensity and if we continue to do that throughout the week we’ll be in really good shape moving forward.
D.C. United forward Lamar Neagle
On the overall result...
“Now we finally got the win we want and it’s definitely one that we needed. It was a 4-0 win where we got the shut out. We worked hard when it was a tough game towards the end when they were pushing and we were defending the ball together. So it was definitely a win we needed and it was nice to do that at home.”
Vancouver Whitecaps Head Coach Carl Robinson
On the overall outcome of the game…
They out-forced every department; the midfield areas, defensive areas, attacking areas and they outshot us. So credit to them, they got what they deserved and we got what we deserved.
On the absence of players…
You can use the weather conditions, the travel, the two flights we took to get here, you can use missing players…I don’t use excuses. We’ve got good enough players in there to get a result and unfortunately we didn’t today. As I was saying, we were the second-best team the whole game.
On D.C. United’s performance and the dynamics of the game…
The league is very close, the teams are very close and there are teams without wins and D.C. picked up their first win today. It’s a good team with experienced MLS players and you go through runs in this league; good and bad. We knew that if we could go the first 30 or 40 minutes without conceding, we’d have a chance to weather the early storm with a good goalkeeping performance. Unfortunately, we conceded one goal. We wanted to push, but gave away another silly goal. At 2-0, the dynamics of the game changed and we probably had our best period after 60 or 65 minutes, but 20 or so minutes we hit the post and things didn't fall for us in the box and then conceded in the 34th, 88th and 90th minute.
On David Ousted’s performance...
He’s good every week and if you’re a goalkeeper, you need to come up big sometimes, especially in tight games. Today wasn’t a tight game. Today was a very one-sided game with D.C. United, but you still come up big and he made a number of good saves on 20-plus shots and we had six or seven. So, when that happens, you’re more than likely not going to win the game.
Vancouver Whitecaps goalkeeper David Ousted
On the overall result...
I’m very disappointed, obviously with the result, but even more with our performance. We didn’t look like a team that came here to play. We were slow with starting and it wasn’t a performance that was up to the standards that we try to hold ourselves to, so I’m not happy.
On the team’s injuries and holes in the midfield...
It’s no excuse. I’ve said all along that this squad has depth; the guys from the bench are coming in and are talented soccer players. This is about mentality, this is about stepping up when you get a chance to step in the lineup and today, collectively as a team, we failed.
On Fabián Espíndola’s second goal...
The second one changed the game because we’re not suddenly chasing one; we’re chasing two. Again, with the second one, he gets a header off, I get a little bit of it, it goes off the bar and into one of their guys and it’s those little details that change the games. We have to be honest with ourselves. Today we didn’t deserve it; we weren’t good enough.
