D.C. United Head Coach Ben Olsen
On the game being reminiscent of 2004…
I actually thought about that during the game. It was like an old-fashioned New England/DC dogfight. It brought me back a little bit to the 2004 game. So yeah, a great night for us. A lot going on in that game. I don’t know if I’ve processed all of it. But certainly a gutsy performance from us, and a gutsy performance from them, too. That game in a lot of ways could have went to New England. I felt Bill really kept us in there during that couple-minute stretch where they were all over us. We obviously had two great chances with Rolfe and Fabi in the first half. And the second half was again anybody’s game, but I thought we still were the better team in the second half.
On the handball call and handball no call…
I haven’t seen ours. It’s tough. I don’t know. I have to look at them to dissect those. They can go either way. I don’t even know what a handball in the box is anymore. I really don’t. Ball to hand, hand to ball. I don’t know. Some of it’s grey, some of it is in the referee’s hands.
On Rolfe’s performance after missing the penalty kick…
I’m so happy for Chris because he’s been our best player this year. To miss that and not redeem yourself, I know that would be painful for him. He put his head down and kept working. I’m happy he found the winner, I thought it was a great play.
On rebounding on short rest…
I was worried at first. A few of our guys, in particular Nick DeLeon, looked a little heavy. They had more changes than we did and they seemed to have a little bit more juice. Sometimes we find in a back-to-back game once you get that out of your system and you come out in the second half, you’re flying. I thought Nicky in particular was very good in the second half.
On Hamid’s saves after the Revolution goal…
Huge. If you go down 2-0, you’re pushing the game now and leaving yourself wide open, more open then you should be at that point in the game. Bill just makes two unbelievable saves. Then he makes a great one at the end. But that’s why we have Bill. This is what he does for us.
Concerned with Pontius hamstring tightness...
We’ll see. We will evaluate him tomorrow. He said it cramped up, and it felt like it was going to go so we got him out. Maybe we got him out in time, maybe not. We’ll just have to wait a day.
Other teams/coaches in MLS that would have handled Sunday differently and rebound like you did-
Is that a compliment? I’ll take it as a compliment. I think any time you have a loss like we did everybody has to evaluate themselves. More times than not, you get a response from that and usually it is a positive response. You see more anger, more of a chip after a loss like that because it hurts and you want to prove that’s not who we are. I’m proud of the guys once again for dealing with some of that adversity. Again I thought they did very well tonight.
On choosing Birnbaum over Opare…
I thought Steve was good. Agudelo is such a handful. He is just so physical, I thought Birnbaum was great tonight against him, I really did. I just decided that Birnbaum and Bobby have had a lot more games together. The line seems to be a little bit sharper, just again out of pure experience with those two. But physically I thought Steve handled one of the tougher guys in the league tonight.
On the rain, whether it helps D.C. United…
I was very excited to see the forecast earlier this week. Not that we can’t win when it doesn’t rain or isn’t a little bit sloppy, but I don’t mind it.
On preference for conference semifinals…
I don’t care. I’ll just wait and enjoy the games and see where we fall.
D.C. United Forward Fabian Espíndola
On the team’s mentality and Rolfe’s missed penalty kick…
Just to keep going. With penalty kicks, you know how it is. Rolfe has been excellent and it happens, so you have to keep going and it ended up well for us.
On teaming up with Nick DeLeon on Rolfe’s goal…
It was nice movement from us. He went for the 1 v. 1, the guy defended him well, so I overlapped and saw Rolfie come up, I tried to put the ball there and he just finished.
D.C. United Forward Chris Rolfe
On the win and his overall play…
It’s huge. I wasn’t disappointed in how I played. I thought I played pretty well and created good chances. I was just a little off on my finishing. Obviously, to get that late goal was huge for me and for the team.
After missing a penalty kick…
I was actually pretty calm, and I just kept believing that I was going to get another chance and that I was going to score. There was a split second there, maybe a minute or two, after the PK where it was running through my head and I was saying ‘Wow, it’s just one of those days, I don’t know what’s going to happen, I haven’t played 90 minutes in a long time and I don’t know if they’re going to take me out.’ I just cleared my head, tried to stay optimistic and kept making runs.
On Fabian Espíndola’s setup on his goal…
It was fantastic by Fabi, I don’t know how he saw me. There were like four defenders in the box and then me? It was unbelievable. I felt that if the game had ended in a tie and had it gone to PKs or had we lost, then it’s on me, so to get that goal meant the world. I thank Fabi again for that one.
On the team’s transition from the Columbus match…
We still don’t know what it is. We’ve been talking about it all year, but I think we do respond well. It worked again for us tonight. In Columbus, I thought we had chances. We had chances to tie that game up before halftime, chances to take the lead before halftime and it didn’t happen. They scored the second goal and against a team like that, it’s tough to come back at their place down 2-0, especially the last game of the year when you’re trying to figure out if you’re going to play Wednesday, Thursday or Sunday.
On Pontius’ goal before the half…
It was huge. I think we’ve had a couple of games where we get late goals right before the half that kind of bring us back in it, whether we’re down 2-0 or down 1-0. That’s a game-changer. I think we would’ve been confident coming into the locker room at the half without scoring, but with that goal, obviously, we said ‘it’s for the taking.’” We’re a great second half team and we know that, so we had a lot of confidence.
New England Revolution Head Coach Jay Heaps
On the overall result…
It’s a disappointing night, and you hate to go down that way. It’s frustrating; guys were pretty upset about the way in which the game was managed from the referee. It really felt like there were at least two penalties at the end of that game and [we] didn’t get them, so frustration boils over and that’s a tough part of the game.
After the called penalty kick for D.C. United…
That’s the dagger because it was marginal at best. It was right in front of us and you can give it, but I just felt like after we scored, we were playing against another group out there as well.
On the rhythm of the game and form of the team…
That’s on us, and I think the night was soggy and we could have been better on the night. You guys started with the questions about the referee, but in terms of where we need to be better, we knew it was a quick turnaround from Sunday to Wednesday and we could’ve managed the game, kept the ball better and done a little better. I was really upset with that first goal because it was something we completely worked on and did not want to be isolated 1 v. 1 to cause a foul, so we could’ve been better and it is something that we have to look at first and foremost.
On the timeliness of D.C.’s goal and on the opponent…
Timely goals are what D.C. is all about and I give them credit, I give Ben Olsen a lot of credit and I tip my hat because it wasn’t a game where we gave in or anything like that. Those guys went out there, in terms of D.C. United, they fought hard. They had a game on Sunday and they bounced back well. I credit Chris Rolfe’s response; he misses a penalty kick and then scores a goal. That’s pretty good from the kid.
New England Revolution Midfielder/Defender Chris Tierney…
On the overall result…
Yeah, we’re very disappointed. I honestly thought we did enough to win the game. A couple of unfortunate breaks and a few lapses in concentration here that have cost us games this year and did tonight as well. It’s very disappointing, but it’s the situation we put ourselves in--one game and you’re out. Unfortunately, in a one-game playoff anything can happen and it didn’t go our way tonight.
On the team’s chances tonight…
I thought it was an amazing goal from Juan [Agudelo] and I thought we had a lot of chances to make it 2-0, which I thought would have really put us in a strong position. Unfortunately, we did not take those chances and we conceded a soft one on a set piece, so it did not go our way.
On giving up a 1-0 lead…
It’s difficult, but it’s playoff soccer. You’re just in the moment trying to make plays and unfortunately, they made two and we made one. Like I said, we are just very disappointed. I thought we did enough good stuff to win, but it didn’t go our way.
