United head coach Ben Olsen
On needing to keep getting better…
“Effort is not our problem. The will is there and that’s not an issue. A little bit of belief and quality are the difference. This is a long season and you go through these stretches. We’ll keep trying to get better. In the next week or two we’ll get a few pieces back and that will help."
On the group being able to respond…
“I know this group and what some of the players coming back will do for us. We’re realistic and know that that we need to do some things to get better, and we will get better in the transfer window. It’s the combination of all these things that give me belief that this group will be okay. I think there are a lot of men in our locker room that are pretty disappointed, and historically we’ve been able to respond.”
On Chicago’s goal…
“[David] Accam’s a nightmare for linesmen and centerbacks because of his pace. It was tight and probably could have gone either way. It went their way, but we have to score some goals. It’s easy to just highlight that one, but we have to take a little bit off our defense, and the few chances we create, we have to finish. It doesn’t take ten chances to win games in this league. We have one or two where we should score.”
United midfielder Lamar Neagle
On the final result…
"It’s frustrating. I think we played a little bit better but we’re still figuring things out for ourselves and trying to find the goal. They had a few chances and we had a few chances, but they put their's away and we didn’t."
On what needs to improve before heading to Vancouver and Orlando next week…
"We have little mistakes here and there that add up. One guy makes a mistake on one play, another guy makes a mistake during the next play, then we’ve lost two plays at that point. Little things like that add up. We just need to get sharper, we need to focus and realize that we need to make a run here. We all need to pick it up."
United defender and captain Steve Birnbaum
Overall thoughts on the match…
"They [Chicago] had a lot of possession. They had some good chances and Bill came up big with a couple of saves, but it’s frustrating. We have to figure some things out. We have to score some goals and just play better overall. We’re better players than we’ve shown lately, so it’s tough."
On preparing for Vancouver and Orlando next week…
"We’ll talk about this week and we’ll watch some film to get ready for two big away games. We didn’t pick up any points in our last three homes games which is obviously tough, but now we go on the road and hopefully we can pick ourselves up and get some away points."
D.C. United defender Chris Korb
On how he felt after his first start this season...
“I felt good. My fitness isn’t where it was [before], but it’s getting there. I felt good, and my knee felt good. It sucks to get another loss, but for me, it’s good to get another 70 minutes in there and keep progressing forward.”
On needing to move forward...
“There have been ups and downs my whole career here, and you can’t dwell on it much. You have to just keep moving forward. We have to watch the film and take a little bit from each game and work on it to get better. We are getting some chances and once we get that first goal I think it’s going to turn some things around. We just need that one.”
Chicago Fire head coach Veljko Paunovic
On tonight's performance...
"Obviously, I’m very excited and very happy for three points but more than just the result, we’re very happy for the performance and for how we played. Our style that we developed in this game, is something that we’ve been looking for in these two seasons, and now finally the pieces are coming together. The performances, like this one, will help to forge the character and the identity of this group. Right now, for us, it’s a really enjoyable experience to see the team playing the way it is and winning, most importantly. We have another game in four days against one of the best teams in the league, Dallas, so Monday we have to go back to work and prepare for the game."
On David Accam's play tonight...
"He’s doing very good. We always like to say the performance of individuals has to be put in as the same performance of the group. Individuals will have the opportunity to score the goals and David (Accam) is doing the things that we are very happy about. He’s helping the team, not only in scoring goals, but also helping the team be solid when we don’t have the ball, when we have the possession, and he’s doing all the things we are asking of him…very happy with his performance."
Chicago Fire forward David Accam
On contributing to the team's first road win of the season...
"For me, it feels good because now we believe that we can win any game--for us to come here and play the way we played is amazing. On a different day, I think we'd score like two or three goals because we played very well and for me the way we played is the best thing about today."
On his goal...
"I think I saw Luis [Solignac] with the ball and I just made a good run behind him. I was lucky, but I made a good run, got the ball 1v1 and just put the ball inside the second post."
On the team's mentality after today's road win...
"Win every game. Especially playing at home, we don't care--anyone we play at home, we will try to win every game and that's what we will do."
Chicago Fire midfielder Bastian Schweinsteiger
On the team's first road win of the season...
"It's a great feeling--a clean sheet is also something very good. We did great defensive work; everyone was working for the defense. What I liked was to see the reaction on our bench--everyone was into it and we were like a team. In our matches, which we played in the past, players who came into the game changed or helped the team at the end of the day. It's very important that everyone is there and we have to try to keep going--it was a very important win for us."
On the team's overall level of progress this season...
"I think we are still in progress of developing a game style which matches to other clubs. From my first match until now, we've improved a lot and we have chances in our game, we have control in our game, we have good defensive work in our game, we have the mentality, we want to win and we just have to keep it up. Still, there are things from which we can learn and do better to make it easier on the pitch for everyone, but we just focus on our improvements during the training sessions."
On the team's recent road trip and more on the win today...
"In Los Angeles, we should have won the match. In New York, we should at least have played a draw, so it wasn't so bad. We played against a team [today] that plays a lot of long balls--is very aggressive--so it's not easy for the referee as well. We wanted to play soccer, so that's what we have to do first of all, but we also have to fight against these kind of teams and to show that we are there, can fight and that we can defend our goal--that's what we have to do."
