United Head Coach Ben Olsen
On the overall match…
“[Christos] came out with a bunch of energy and commitment, and they have a few dynamic players. These matches are never easy…it doesn’t matter who you play…and the Open Cup is always a circus. Ian [Harkes] and Lloyd [Sam] affected the game well, and now we live to fight another day.”
On Christos F.C….
“Facing Christos is a little bit of a no-win situation. Everyone was expecting us to win, and win big. I give Christos a lot of credit and their group should be very proud of the effort they put forward tonight. In the second half, the game just started going our way, and our additions came in and brought quality play. Christos is a great group, though, and they should be proud of their run.”
On the U.S. Open Cup…
“As the U.S. grows into a soccer country, this kind of match is going to happen more and more. There are going to be more, better-quality amateur teams that can make these kinds of runs, and that’s what's great about the Open Cup. These stories can happen, and I’m sure they will happen even more in the future. As the amateurs get better, so does our league, so does USL, and NASL, and so on. The bigger picture is that soccer in this country is continuing to move at a good pace and is getting better every year."
On Julian Büscher…
“Julian [Büscher] made plays on the end that mattered tonight. Since the day he got here, he’s been making plays. He can produce goals and assists.”
On the match’s atmosphere…
“I prefer this kind of environment and I think the guys prefer it too. It’s great to play a team that is just down the road from us that brings suppporters and helps bring the match to life. Their goal was a great moment for them, and if you're a Christos fan you have a lot to be proud of.”
United forward Sébastien Le Toux
On the match...
“It was difficult; we know what this cup means and I’ve been in that place to be the leader of a team, to be the big one. [Their first goal] was a nice free kick. We tried to come back and the game changed and we reacted well, and we were confident that we could come back, so it was a bit difficult, but we knew what we could do and we did it.”
On Christos F.C...
“They didn’t really pressure us, but we just lost a lot of chances, lost track of time. It took some time to get into the game and in the end we got the best out of them and that’s all we can ask for.”
On the next round of the U.S. Open Cup...
“I mean it’s a cup, every game is different, now it's onto the next one. There are four games to be in the final and if we want it more we’ll win it.”
D.C. United Midfielder Julian Büscher
On the result...
"It was a tough game. All respect to the opponent, they gave everything out there, but we have to be the better soccer team and we have to show it, take it serious and I think it didn't look like we wanted it as much as they wanted it in the beginning, but we figured it out and at the end of the day we won this game."
On adjusting after scoring the first goal...
"It definitely makes it easier. We just kept playing and figured out solutions. It was a new formation together, so it wasn't that easy, but afterward we got better and better, and again, we found the result."
On facing a lower-league team...
"As simple as that--we are the professional team, we have to win this game and we won it, so that's all I can say to that and it's one of those games, which always happens against a lower-league team. They come out, they give everything and we have to respond. I'm glad we found a way--it took us a lot longer than we wanted it to, but last year we didn't get out here with a result, so we're better than that."
On moving forward after the victory...
"I mean, ideally, we will all use this game to get confidence and it's a chance for the guys who don't play that much in the regular season, so I'm glad I could use that chance. I gave my part to the game, scored two goals and it feels good--so now we'll try to take that feeling into next week when we look at Toronto."
Christos F.C. co-head coach Bryan Bugarin
On the difference in tonight's match...
"You could tell it was fitness. These guys train every day and that's the key with them, I think. You could just tell we had tired legs at the end."
On the differences between amateur league play and MLS play...
"Honestly, to tell you the truth, coming in we don't really have any pressure on us--they're an MLS team. As far as soccer-wise, we've never gone in saying 'hey, we can't play with somebody.' We have a lot of guys who actually played in the USL, guys who were drafted. Jalen [Robinson] has played with a lot of these guys on our team, so it's one of those things where we said 'hey, how long can we last fitness-wise?'--especially with the three subs--because in the amateur part of what we play in, you get seven subs. Once you're done, you're done, but you still get seven subs."
On coaching a team he used to play for...
"I actually played a little professional soccer in Baltimore, and when I was done, I played with Christos--so, it hit home for me because it is a club that I played for when I started playing amateur soccer. This is one of those things where it doesn't happen very often. Some of the guys on our team who are thirty-years-old now, they're probably done, in terms of something like this. It was a great run while I was there--we had a lot of press, which was awesome, because it brought a lot of notoriety to the club. I was just talking to Ben [Olsen] and he was saying, 'I was trying to get away from soccer last night and I turned on the news last night and you guys were the first thing on the sports section, so it's awesome for you guys.'"
On playing in front of a large crowd...
"It's crazy because Baltimore is such a big soccer town, but you hardly get anybody ever out there on a Sunday afternoon--we hosted a national tournament last year for a team from Chicago and we might have had four or five hundred people...maybe."
On coaching the current group of players...
"I can't ask for anything more from those guys. I've actually coached two groups of them...I've watched these guys play their whole lives since they were teenagers, so I know what they can do. It's great for everybody else to see what they can do and I can't ask for anything more than what they gave tonight."
Christos FC midfielder Mamadou Kansaye
On his goal…
“The goal was fantastic. It was good team play first of all, to get the ball up there and once we got there, I just thought, ‘this is our one shot. Just put it on target and see what happens’ and thank the Lord, it went in.”
On their chances after the goal...
“I mean, obviously they’re a top tier team [with] great quality players. But at that point, we still thought it was a [dog fight]. We’re all competitors, but after the goal we thought, ‘[let’s] just hang in here and get to half and see what happens.’ Obviously, we couldn’t pull that off. Great individual play by [Julian] Büscher to go finish the goal. Then their quality and their fitness showed a lot more than ours did.”
On returning to normal life …
“I’m a full-time youth coach, so we just finished try-outs. The past two, three weeks have been a nightmare. I mean, it was absolutely horrendous for me. But now I get to relax a little bit. Maybe, possibly, drink a beer. That would be good.”
Christos midfielder Cody Albrecht
On blocking nine shots…
“That’s Baltimore. That’s our M.O. We go hard for each other, blocking shots, making tackles and the extra effort plays are what make Baltimore teams, Baltimore teams. … I think that’s one of the reasons we stayed in the game for so long is we were able to make those extra effort plays and really stay as a unit until the end, when I think our fitness ran out a little bit.”
On being the Cinderella story compared to being on top at the University of Maryland...
“It’s been awesome. I mean, to leave college and leave that game and be able to get the press we’ve gotten, you know, guys doing interviews after their day jobs. It’s been a lot of fun for us, coaches [and] players included. You can see with the support tonight. Being the Cinderella story and having all the support from Baltimore was awesome.”
On going back to work tomorrow…
“I will be. At 7:30 AM, so pray for me.”
On playing opposite his Maryland teammate Odoi-Atsem…
“We exchanged a couple messages; I said, ‘I really hope you’re not on my side, because I was gonna struggle. But, [I'm] really happy for him. Couldn’t be happier, he’s a really nice guy and you can see how much more comfortable he’s getting, you know, playing with an MLS side. I think as he gets into the team more, it’ll really show his quality."
