New England Revolution head coach Steve Nicol

I think the first half is about worse as I’ve been here. It was like watching a bunch of schoolboys. As bad as we were, if we hadn’t given the two goals away, we might have gotten it nil-nil. But we didn’t deserve it. The two goals are basic stuff. The first one, center backs are letting the fullback come straight through and it goes straight to the wide guy. Page one, rule one. The second one is the same thing – set piece, pick up your man, and we don’t pick up the man. I mean, what do you expect is going to happen when you do stuff like that? So real basics - we’ve been pretty much like that most of the season. We haven’t done the basics of the game well, and every successful team and every team that wins games, at the very least, they do the basics well and then they add their own quality on top of that. We just individually as much as anything else aren’t doing the basics well. And it’s a domino effect after that.

You guys call it flat. We talked about it before the game – about growing a pair. And that doesn’t mean you can run fighting with people and kicking people, it means that you do the basics well and you do your own job well. To do that, part of playing the game is communications. So when you have no one on the field talking, particularly when you’re under pressure, then it just becomes twice as hard. And then as I said, the two goals are basic schoolboy football losing the two goals the way we did. Clearly halftime they got a roasting. And obviously second half we changed it and put up a better fight, and then obviously Benny (Feilhaber) getting the red card totally kills that. Not that we were playing like superstars anyway, but at least we were actually competing, we were actually in the game, had we snuck a goal in the 65-, 70th minute, we may have stolen something from the game. But then obviously the red card makes that impossible.

We need some new faces, which we’re trying to do. Again, we made two offers over the weekend of which one we thought was done and the final hour we find out the player signed for someone else. That’s happened two or three occasions already over the course of the season – we’ve made offers, of which players have asked for and we’ve agreed to it, and the final minute they go somewhere else.

I think you look at the first half, (missing Shalrie Joseph is) exactly what we did. Shalrie will open his mouth and will get people into the places they should be and all the other stuff. So when you don’t have that and everyone’s kind of relying on someone else, guys need to take responsibility and we didn’t do that first half. The only positive was second half we put up a bit of a fight, made it difficult for them, but the red card made it difficult after that.

They’re professionals. They get paid to be professional. But on top of that, we need to see what’s inside them. It’s about heart. Having ability and all those other things is fantastic, but if you don’t have the heart for a fight, and you don’t know how to fight for yourself, and your teammates … so that’s what we’ll see on Wednesday (at D.C.). It’s time to step forward and show what you’re made of.

New England Revolution goalkeeper Matt Reis

If I knew the answer then it wouldn’t be happening. We talked after the Salt Lake game that everybody needs to take a look at themselves and we really have to get on the same page. We have guys doing a bunch of different things, we’re losing goals on set pieces and it was very uninspired out there. We didn’t show all the stuff that we needed to do. We didn’t fight and all in all it was a terrible game.

When you’re missing a presence like Shalrie (Joseph) out there, it’s tough to replicate what he does. So guys have to step up in those positions and we all have to step up as a team to cover for him, but that didn’t happen. It was dead in the locker room before the game even started, so for us, we’re obviously on the bottom of the heap looking up and it’s not looking good.

I think everybody needs to realize that they’re playing for their jobs. It‘s their livelihood. I think everyone is out here thinking everything is great and everything is fun but in the end if we keep sucking like this, then guys are going to be out of jobs.

Not wining since May has been awful. After a while, if you’re on a winning streak things seem to go your way and if you’re in a losing streak things don’t seem to go your way, so it’s going to take something special to get us out of it and we really have to dig deep here because we’re going into two places that are really tough to play.

New England Revolution defender Chris Tierney

There’s no two ways about it, we sucked. We came out flat in the first half, made dumb, schoolboy mistakes, gave up two goals and we were pretty much (sucked) from there.

We’re fighting for our lives at this point. We need three points and nothing less and we’re not playing like it. I think we’ve been getting on each other’s case a little bit, there’s frustration setting in, but at the end of the day we got to fight harder and work for each other and we seem to be doing the opposite right now. So, I think everyone needs to just take a long look in the mirror, including myself, keep plugging away and make it better

You just try to put it behind you. It’s tough, but hopefully you let this feeling motivate you and you use it as fuel to really get stuck on Wednesday. If nothing else, just go there at RFK (Stadium) and make it miserable for them. At this point, we got to take some pride in trying to at least fight and do the little things right.

We just came out flat, no two ways about it. We just weren’t ready to play. I think we didn’t really have a game plan, we weren’t sure what we were doing, we weren’t on the same page, we couldn’t connect, we weren’t fighting and that’s the biggest thing. I think when the game starts you got to be ready to fight and there wasn’t one of us out there who really was.

New England Revolution defender Kevin Alston

It’s not good enough - All around: defensively, offensively. As a team we weren’t playing together, we weren’t keeping the ball. Especially in our own field, they’re painting around us and we were just chasing all game.

We didn’t come out with, I guess, a distinct game plan. I guess we didn’t come out and try to put the game in our hands. We kind of just let them dictate it early.

Any time you lose a guy like (Shalrie Joseph), you’re going to miss him major and he makes a huge difference in the middle, but that’s how the game is. Sometimes, you’re going to be missing players and you need to be able to step up and fill that gap and we just did a poor job of that.

We just got to get it together. We need points, this is the point of the season where it’s do or die, so we just got to find a way.

Philadelphia Union head coach Peter Nowak

It’s always challenging against the Revolution and they don’t like to be in the position like that. We knew that it was going to create a lot of tension on the field so we handled this very well. We didn’t come with the challenge, we got the ball pretty quick with our feet and that’s where we created those chances.

We said from the beginning it was going to be a very important game for us because we knew that New England is very desperate on points and they’re going to put everything they can on the plate. The start was very good and I think we played very good soccer as a team. There was a lot of ball movement (and) a lot of guys that created some chances.

I think those two goals set up the game the way we wanted, so I think it shows a lot of potential. I think the second half was a little bit different because those guys are not still experienced enough to keep the same passing patterns, the same movement of the ball, so it was a little bit hectic. With the red cards we know that halftime is going to be a physical game because you don’t want to be 2-0 down at home. So we knew it was going to come for the first 20, 15 minutes we held up pretty good, but there was not too much offensive side.

I think we need to do better with the ball in the second half. It’s good to have the points we have, it’s good the position that we’re in right now and we need to work again in the same fashion. I think the first 45 minutes was very good game from us. We created a lot of chances, the ball of the movement, the passing patterns. Everything was there and the goals we scored were fantastic, so it’s a lot of things to be proud of.

Philadelphia Union forward Carlos Ruiz

Great game for us, great performance from everybody. Winning this game away was very difficult, but we stayed on the first position and that’s a great job for everybody.

We have to go step by step. First New England, after Everton a friendly game, who we are thinking to play good, after Real Madrid, but it’s very important to stay in the first position, that’s the main point of this team. To stay in the first position and try to make a playoff.

We tried to keep the possession of the ball. We came here and knew it was going to be difficult because of the heat and the turf, but we scored first, we came aggressive in the first half and after the goal I think we came out and delivered on the game.

I think we created opportunities and we scored three. Also we played like a big team, that’s everything you know. Try to come to play like we are playing at home.

(New England) tried to play hard, but we play, like I said, we play good and we play smart and I know the frustration of them because losing 2-0 in the first half that was hard for them, but soccer is like this. When you make mistakes, you lose these games.

Philadelphia Union defender Carlos Valdés

For us, it was a very good game that leaves us pleased because we came looking for the three points to help us earn the first place position in our conference. We can relax now as we go back home. We thank God for giving us this joy and now, on to the next opponent.

(Facing New England) will always be difficult. We came here with a lot of respect for our opponent because we know that even though they are a team for which things have not been going well recently, it is a team with very good players. If you do not respect them, they will surely walk over you. We tried to respect them and I think the team (Philadelphia Union) played like a big team today and won.

For us, it was important to keep the ball, try to move it around the field, find the spaces and take advantage of those spaces to then score goals. I think that in the first half, we handled the task well and that allowed us to have the advantage early on. Afterwards, (New England) obviously reacted (to some plays), but we handled that phase well defensively.

When we dedicate ourselves to put forth everything we have and play good football, we can achieve important things. We can surprise and give the spectacles that the fans enjoy with good football. I think that for us, that’s the most important thing that we can take home, aside from the three points.

Philadelphia Union defender Sheanon Williams

I think we played really well in the first half. We dictated the game and played how we wanted to play. The second half was a little different. We felt like we had control of the ball but stayed pretty sharp defensively.

Any time you play Sunday-Wednesday-Saturday, it’s going to take a toll on the legs, but these are the games that you dream about. These are games that you can test yourself against some of the best players in the world with (Cristiano) Ronaldo, Kaka, Tim Howard on Everton. It’ll be a great challenge for us, but we’re really looking forward to it. We’re going to have a lot of fun this week.

I grew up here (in Boston) but I was really looking for any team that gave me a chance. I was here but I couldn’t sign with them for MLS reasons. They have a good team. They are struggling a little bit this year, but I know that they’ll have better years. In the East, anything can happen.

The coaching staff here at Philly has giving me a great opportunity. I’m going to be thankful for what I have and keep moving forward.

We’ve got to get points. We’re in a tight race at the top with New York and Columbus. We want to separate ourselves. All year we’ve been saying that we want to be number one, and right now we are, so we can’t take these games lightly. (New England is) desperate for points. They want three points out of the game. They are at home, so we’ve got to come into the game and fight.