NEW YORK RED BULLS HEAD COACH HANS BACKE
On how important it was to get a win:
Well, you could say that we have been unbeaten in five games to be relatively positive. That’s four ties but that’s okay, that’s consistent. No, of course it’s very, very important to get three points in a very strange game. I wonder if I have ever seen that number of chances over 90 minutes on this level. We started phenomenal the first 20 minutes. I think Luke Rodgers had four or five almost 100% scoring chances. We didn’t take the chances so that was one of those days where you don’t take your chances. Of course we got the penalty. A great save from (Greg) Sutton, then we got the own goal from New England so we went in 1-0. Unfortunately for the first 15 minutes in the second half we, I don’t know really why, we looked so unconfident. There were a lot of support passes and side passes and it ended up with Greg Sutton just having to kick it long. That’s not our game but we got dragged into it and I still like the feeling and it is deserved for our guys. Good effort, hard working, a little bit lacking but overall mentally it’s important we got three points, now we are going on the road for four games to the West Coast so it is a tough few weeks for us.
On the play of Austin da Luz and Stephen Keel:
I think that’s pretty normal now. When you are coming in as a starter and you haven’t played for almost a year, you can’t play any football with something like that, of course we dropped a little bit comparing to the last game. Hopefully now with nine days until the next game we can work fitness wise, tactical with the defending game so we look a little bit more solid because I think almost every cross New England had was a almost a chance for them.
On the play of Thierry Henry:
I think it was a phenomenal showing and attitude in this game. As the captain, as the leader, in the last 15, dropping back as a second striker when we were in trouble or in the last 30 minutes, we played almost a 4-5-1 or a 4-4-1-1 with him as a second striker and (Corey) Hertzog as the high striker. Of course if you understand his game, it’s tactical. I think he is just getting better and better and just hope we can manage now to get rid of his knee problem and also his Achilles because we can see that he still has some very, very good quality.
On the response from the team after last week’s disappointing tie:
We started in the absolutely right direction. We could have killed the game very early, so I can’t complain because I still think that it’s difficult to replace four of five starters. You can get two new rookies in when you give them a full chance with a starting lineup but when you get four or five in, it’s a little bit too much to expect that we can control the game and dictate games like we have done before.
On why he took out Luke Rodgers:
It was a problem at halftime. He has problems with his heel, I don’t really know what it is, but he had pain and it was just a question of whether we were going to start him in the second half.
NEW YORK RED BULLS FORWARD THIERRY HENRY
On the victory:
It feels good. Again, we have a lot of stuff to work on. I do not know how many times we are going to give teams opportunities and chances to score a goal. I mean we are literally sometimes giving them a chance to score a goal. Anyways, we won the game. I think we had some chances to score goals. They could have scored too. But overall, it feels good to go home with a win.
On Greg Sutton blocking the penalty kick:
It sounds easy to say, but that kept us in the game. I doubt we would have been able to come back and win the game after that. It seems like we are doing that quite often during the season. Since the beginning of the season we have had to come back, not to win it, but to come back and draw the game.
Sutton did what you want from a goalkeeper. He kept us in the game. The other day he had an amazing game too. I told him that at the end of the game. Without his penalty save, the game would have been another story.
On the Revolution being called offside on a late run at the goal:
I was kind of happy with that to be honest. It seems like whenever there is a cross, it looks like it is going to be a goal. We have to work a lot more on that. We have to make sure we are more aggressive. I do not know if that is the right word, but we have to be better at defending that. We were at the beginning of the season. I do not know what is happening right now. I think we have a lack of concentration sometimes on crosses. It takes the whole team to win a game. We have a bit of luck, so today we won.
NEW YORK RED BULLS GOALKEEPER GREG SUTTON
On the team’s psyche after the win:
We made it difficult on ourselves. But the guys showed some character there, being able to keep (the Revolution) off the board in the second half, which let us gain those three points. Mentally we have been really struggling. I think that the guys can get down on themselves when you are playing well but not getting the results. Considering the mishaps we had last week, it is just very difficult.
We needed these points, especially at home. Now we are going on the road, which we know is going to be difficult with guys missing. Overall I think it was a big victory morally and obviously standings wise.
On saving the penalty kick:
The penalty kick against Colorado, more or less hit it into my body. If he had kicked it into the corner, I think the same result probably would have happened. The one tonight, even though I guessed right, he hit the ball hard. I was fortunate enough to get my hand out there far enough. When you have a seven-foot wingspan it doesn’t hurt, that is for sure.
On the late offsides call that disallowed a Revolution goal:
We needed that call. That would have been another dagger in the heart for sure. That is something we are going to have to go back and work on as well. Making sure we maintain our line. Not only on that play. There were a few plays where they had some free kicks in our end. We have to make sure we stand strong on our line and not get too deep. When we drop too deep, it makes it difficult for me to come out and make a play on the ball. So that is something we will work on this week. Just maintain our line when we have free kicks against us and making sure we stay solid defensively.
NEW YORK RED BULLS DEFENDER STEPHEN KEEL
On the difference between last week’s game and tonight’s game down the stretch:
Obviously we got the result, three points was the end goal and that was what we accomplished. I think maybe the offsides on their goal was a major thing. It’s still not good enough but to kill off the game and get three points, we will take it for sure.
On the call against him that led to the penalty kick:
I think our feet got tangled up and he went down and the ref wanted to call a penalty. That’s how I felt. I haven’t seen the replay or anything so you guys would probably know more about that than I would.
On his thoughts when New England seemed to tie the game:
Digging the ball out of the net is… there were a lot of things going through my head, nothing I can say right now, but the line was good and he was offsides so it doesn’t matter how we get our three points, at the end of the day when we look back on it, we got three points.
On next week’s game at Portland:
Yeah, it’s my home away from home. We have a few extra days off to regroup and try to get back on track. Portland is a tough place. Everyone knows about their fans and their stadium and all that stuff so it’s a tough road trip. I know the guys are looking forward to it. It’s a little extra special having played there the past two years. I’m pretty excited to go back there to see some old friends and old teammates and stuff so it should be pretty good.
NEW ENGLAND REVOLUTION HEAD COACH STEVE NICOL
On his team losing another tough match:
We’ve had chances to win two games, never mind one game. We gave a couple of chances up. I’m being told that at the end we were offside. I feel we still should have gotten something from the game. Obviously the penalty was huge. Number one if we score it, and number two, if (Stephen) Keel gets sent off. I don’t understand why he was given a yellow card.
On Joseph’s penalty miss and its effect on the game:
Obviously one team gets a lift from it, we kind of got knocked down from it. Unfortunately, we then give the ball away in the wrong place and got punished for it. That whole time, they hadn’t cut us apart or anything like that. Anything they ended up getting started from a mistake.
NEW ENGLAND REVOLUTION MIDFIELDER CHRIS TIERNEY
On the Revolution’s second half play:
I think just a little bit of urgency was key. First half we created some decent chances as well. Unfortunately we couldn’t put away the penalty kick. Pat (Phelan) had one dance across the line. We just didn’t get the breaks tonight. I think we played some of the best stuff we’ve played, especially in the second half. We created enough chances to at least get a point out of the game, and it just didn’t happen for us.
On the team’s improved attacking play:
I think a bunch of guys performed pretty well tonight. When Kenny (Mansally) came on that was a game changer, and us playing with two forwards at end I think we looked pretty dangerous. We had some good hold up play and got some balls wide and created chances. It’s getting old to say, but were on the right track and we have to stay positive. We have two home games coming up, so hopefully we can take six points form the next two.
On moving forward:
It’s a short memory in this league. There’s not much between the teams still in this league, and if you put a run of a bunch of good games together, you’re right back in it. We have a short memory, we’ll look right past it and be ready for next week.
NEW ENGLAND REVOLUTION MIDFIELDER PAT PHELAN
On the match:
I thought we were just lacking that last kind of little bit, so we were close. The penalty hurts, it would have changed the game, but it happens. I think coming out for the second half, we were feeling good. They got hat early goal, and we did well to come back after that and put them on their heels. We just ran out of gas.
On the team finding the back of the net:
Absolutely, it’s nice to get a goal in the run of play and get some life back in the team. Had we done it earlier, the game would have changed obviously, but that’s the way it goes. Something to build on, but its still disappointing.
On staying positive going forward:
We have a two game homestand against two teams that are struggling in Toronto and Chicago. I think we feel like we did some good things tonight. They’re a good side, it’s a tough place to play. We could have gotten more out of the game, we should have gotten more out of the game. But there are definitely a lot more positives to take away from this game than our previous ones.
