United Head Coach Ben Olsen
On the effort after going down a man…
“I'm proud of the group. I thought the first half we played well and our energy, commitment and discipline were good. The second half was a different ball game because we were down to 10 men but it took guts and the guys dug in. We were selfless and disciplined in how we defended for the second half. It was a performance that we can build on.”
On the own goal…
“Each game has it’s own story…but, so what? We talked about it and I asked 'what’s your response to all this?' It would be easy for these guys to not be selfless and disciplined in the second half and to throw their hands up, because there’s been a lot of things that have not gone our way this year. But they didn’t.”
On scoring early…
“This game takes a collective effort from the team and if there isn’t a joint effort then you’re in trouble. Tonight was a group performance across the board and that’s what it takes to get points in this league. If we don’t play for each other, dig in and do the little things right then we won’t get points. That mentality was there tonight and it’s encouraging because it’s been a while since we’ve had that kind of discipline.”
On possible new signings…
“There will be a signing or two in the next few days to bolster this group. There are still a lot of things playing out over the next couple of days, both within the league and outside of it. You’ll certainly see a new player or two.”
United midfielder Marcelo Sarvas
On defensive success...
“First of all, I think it’s not the result we deserved today. They didn’t really create anything in front of our goal. There were crosses, but everyone was in good position doing their job. If someone was out of position, the other one was working. So, I think the discipline and the commitment was the key of this game. The message is important that we showed today nobody’s with the situation we’re in.”
On possible new signings...
“We’re in last position. We don’t have the luxury to say we don’t need this or that. … But if the player that comes comes with the same mentality to help everyone here, it’s important. “It doesn’t matter the position, it doesn’t matter what kind of players come, you know? If you come to add something, it’s what we need.”
On defending Bradley, Altidore and Giovinco...
“It’s not easy. You close down Altidore and then you have to be thinking about where Bradley is, where Giovinco is. … Everyone has to be alert [all] 90 minutes and I think we did well tonight.”
United defender Kofi Opare
On being down a man against Toronto...
“It’s tough.Obviously with eleven guys they’re a very potent attacking team and to play with ten men was even harder. But the guys fought, worked for each other and managed to come away with a point.”
On drawing against the best team in the league...
“It instills confidence. It definitely shows that we are capable of playing well. The past few games we haven’t really shown up at all and do this against arguably the best team in MLS right now is a testament to the quality we have on this team, even though, like I said, we haven’t shown it at times. The quality is still there. We are able to put in a good performance.”
On changing mindset for second half...
“As professionals, we have to prepare ourselves for different scenarios. You don’t want to be a man down, but I think everyone understood what we needed to do as soon as we went down a man. Everyone fought for each other and even though it’s not three, it’s a point and we can definitely build off this performance.”
Toronto FC head coach Greg Vanney
On the overall performance...
"We had a terrible start to the game--totally disjointed. You could feel the momentum against us--multiple corner kicks--and obviously we dug ourselves in a hole, 1-0, and then it became trying to work our way out of that. To be fair, them having a red card probably gave them the opportunity to unapologetically just defend with numbers and they did a great job of that. They've got two big guys in the middle, who clean up things when you try to get in the air, but having said that, I thought the timing of us setting up our final ball, the timing of us in the hard run in front of the near post, the timing of all of it, the quality of it and all of that was off and when you don't have much space to work with, with a team sitting that deep and compact as they will with a man down and the score as it was, then we have to be more precise--our timing has to be better, the precision of the ball, the timing of the run in the box--all of those things have to be better."
On the team's overall timing and execution on tonight's game...
"It's got to be better. It's the timing of the pass that releases the wide guy, the quality of the run by the wide guy to then get to the end line or to get behind the back line and it's then the quality of the timing of the near post run that can pull some of the big guys into different areas of the box. Then, the next part is the quality of the cross and the quality of the finish and somewhere in every single one of those plays, we were breaking down in one of those parts of the action and again, when you have two guys their size that are able to defend the front of the goal--their back four was very narrow and they had a lot of numbers, as they should, in front of the goal and like I said, we were breaking down one of those areas every single time we tried to put an attack together. Again, in general, the continuity of the things we're doing needs to be better, it's good to have everybody back and we can start to move forward again. I think some of the start is just a disjointed group trying to get on the field and going together and that probably cost us a little bit early on, in terms of the first goal."
On D.C. United playing with aggression...
"They're a team in desperation and they're going to start aggressive--they're not going to just concede the game to us. I thought we were a little bit casual in our possessions; we were a little bit casual in putting the game on the front foot for us--getting behind their backline, getting into their half, getting deep--things we typically do a pretty good job of at the beginning of the game. We were playing all of these short balls in our half of the field and we weren't getting out of the pressure and they were winning second balls and they just kept attacks going--like I said, they probably had four or five corner kicks before we were 15 minutes into the game and a lot of that is just us not playing the field position game a little bit, pushing them back and respecting that they're home and that they're a team that's going to come out hard."
On playing with a man advantage and creating...
"I thought all-in-all, it was a solid performance, but it's always an asterisk--you're up a man, so there are different expectations. Having said that, we didn't create enough good chances to really say that there was a standout performance or anything like that. I think we were good enough to get the draw, but weren't good enough to get the win."
Toronto FC midfielder Michael Bradley
On the overall result...
"We should win the game. It's a game we should win--there's no two ways about it. We put ourselves behind the eight ball right away, just because we had a really poor start--go down 1-0. Then, we play pretty well for the rest of the first half--can't get ourselves back to 1-1--but then start the second half and get the equalizer right away and have 40 minutes to push and try and get the winner and can't do it. Frustrating result and we're at the point where it doesn't matter whether it's home or away--we feel like these are games that we should win, so there's frustration for sure."
On the team's overall execution tonight...
"I thought at times we put together some good plays and they were able to--with commitment and a lot of numbers in the box--make plays to keep us from scoring. In other moments, we just weren't sharp enough in terms of being able to set up a play that would get us the winner. At times, it's basic things--quality of crosses, guys running across the first post, guys getting enough numbers in the box--buy in large, in terms of some of the other things that are important in games like that, by now we do a lot of those things well, in terms of spacing, patience, guys having the discipline to set up in the right spots. But still, with that, you still have to have guys who, when the time comes, can play the right pass, run in the right spot, finish off a chance--on more days than not, we do, so any frustration is just because we hold ourselves to a high standard and again, regardless of whether or not we're playing home or away, so we feel like we should take three points in every game we're playing. We'll still take this for what it is, which is a point on the road, and then we'll regroup in a strong way and get ourselves ready for a big home game against Portland."
On United's quick start in tonight's game...
"At times, there's no clear explanation other than just a bad start, so they're able to turn a few plays into advantages--we're not able to clear the balls in certain moments, they get a set piece or two--and little-by-little, the bar just kind of tilts in their favor for the first five or six minutes and it culminates with them getting a goal off of a set piece."
