United head coach Ben Olsen
On the game...
"The second half was pretty gutsy from us and I thought we should have earned a little bit more out of that game."
On evaluating team’s ability to create offensive chances…
"As difficult as this loss is, this is an exciting group and I’m thrilled with the groups’ mentality since we’ve made some changes and additions. I look forward to these guys having to bounce back from a loss."
D.C. United defender Steve Birnbaum
On the overall result…
“The guys kept fighting, which is all you can ask. It’s tough giving up two goals like that at the beginning of the game. They had a strategy and it worked out for them in the beginning and I think we kind of figured it out as the game went on, but I’m proud of the guys for the way they fought. There were great chances out there and we just didn’t get it done.”
On the lengthy period of stoppage time…
“It was crazy. I kept going up to the ref asking for more and more time because they were giving cards out and you don’t know how much time is left on the clock, so it was a weird situation.”
On moving forward from tonight’s loss…
“Honestly, it’s tough losing like that, but we’ve got some good guys in the locker room and guys are fighting which is all you can ask for and it’s going to come and we’re going to start putting a ton of goals away—it could happen at the end of this year or it could start at the beginning of next year. We’re looking forward to the next game and getting better as a group and getting in the habit of winning again.”
United midfielder Paul Arriola
On losing despite strong effort in 100-minute game…
“It’s hard. But in the end it’s on us. I think overall the team has to do a lot better. The second balls we’re going to be important for us to pick up and we didn’t do that until the end of the game when we were able to have numbers on. So I think that was definitely frustrating. It’s tough to keep possession here now in the last couple games here at RFK. You look at Orlando, they played the ball up every time and physically they’re bigger and they’re looking to flick balls on and that’s what they did. If they weren’t able to flick the ball, Kofi got a head on it. And that was something Ben talked about and we didn’t execute. They get a little fortunate with the type of goal they get with the second one. Like I said, we have to finish it off and Kofi was able to put one away but sometimes the time runs out and you aren’t able to get the way we should’ve got done.”
Orlando City head coach Jason Kreis
On tonight’s win…
“Obviously, very happy to get a result after so long—after feeling like the team has deserved it for so very long. To get the result tonight was the most important thing and probably the only important thing.”
On the long period of stoppage time…
“It felt like it was going to be another sad night. It felt like we would concede and it just felt like everything was going against us for those five or ten minutes and I’m really happy that the guys continued to fight and got the job done.”
On Seb Hines’ red card…
“I couldn’t see anything. I did see him push the opponent down, but I figured there had to be some sort of altercation happening to force Seb [Hines] to do that because Seb’s a very smart player and he wouldn’t just do that out of the blue.”
On Barnes, Dwyer and Larin’s teamwork tonight…
“I wanted to see those three players put together, to be honest. I just really wanted to see if we could go with what I thought was a little bit fresher legs and a little bit more athleticism in this game.”
On altering the lineup this week…
“The whole week, we were just trying to make a decision. That’s the way we’re going to be, that’s the way we’re going to operate now when we make decisions on lineups until we feel like we have to. We can train and we competed and laid it out there for the guys and we went through the guys that we thought earned it throughout the game.”
On Seb Hines’ overall play in tonight’s game…
“I thought he was a really important player for us tonight—I thought he did a really nice job. He’s always in the right spot to win tackles and headers and made the big plays for us tonight. I’m really disappointed he ends up getting ejected and maybe there will be a situation where we can appeal it.”
On missing three players in the next game…
“We’ll see. In thinking about the lineup we put out next week, I think we’ll be okay. I think we’ve got plenty of guys that can step in and do jobs and we’ll rely on those players to do it and I think we’ll be okay. At the end of the day, I’m not happy with the two ejections, though, because it shows a lack of discipline. I thought Servando [Carrasco] to go into that tackle after he already had the yellow card was not good and not smart. I thought Seb [Hines] to react the way he did, even if he got punched in the back of the head, is not good and he needs to be more intelligent in those moments.”
Orlando City Forward Dom Dwyer
On the overall result…
“It was tough. Obviously, we’re very happy to hang on to the game—it got a bit crazy, the last ten minutes and obviously the 25 minutes of stoppage time at the end was a bit long, but we got the result, so we’re pleased.”
On playing with an altered lineup in tonight’s game…
“It was fantastic. We started very lively, we got ahead of them in the game and obviously we held on to the lead.”
On the team’s overall mood following the result…
“It’s a good vibe in the locker room right now. Everyone’s happy, everyone’s a bit buzzing, we needed this result—it’s good for team morale and we can finally smile a bit and hopefully have a little run.”
On playing with Cyle Larin…
“I’ve been saying it for a while, but I believe we can have a really strong partnership. We’re still learning from each other and growing and we’re taking good steps.”
On playing in a different formation since joining OCSC…
“It’s different. You’ve just got to get used to the players. Obviously, I didn’t have the ideal start and the nose set me back a little bit, but things are starting to come together and obviously, we have a very good side here and I believe in this squad.”
On the two red cards and Kaka’s accumulation of yellows…
“We always take three points—we don’t want to look too far ahead. Luckily, we’ve got a deep squad, so we’ll fill those gaps and look forward to the next game.”
