New England Revolution head coach Steve Nicol

I guess I should be ecstatic, but kind of look at it now and think had we not made the mistakes previously, we’d be in a great position. It’s good to win. We’re undefeated, which is a positive way to look at it, as well. But I think we probably just deserved it. We certainly rode our luck a couple of times - but so did they - with a few more chances we could have scored with. But overall, we’ve got to be happy.

It’s a strange. It’s hard to explain to you, but you get a feeling. You kind of know when it’s your night. And to be honest, I sat there and felt as though we were going to get another goal. We certainly made enough chances to suggest that we’d make more chances. The key was obviously not giving one up. And as I said, I just had that feeling we weren’t going to make any mistakes and let them in. And we didn’t.

It’s really a collective thing. We said to the back four tonight that if they did the job well tonight that we’d win the game, we knew we’d make chances. So it was important that we kept a good line and didn’t drop back. And they did it. And it shows that when they do keep together and they do make good decisions, then we can win games.

On the difference tonight: Better decisions. Better spots and better decisions. We’ll always moan about keeping the ball better and doing other things better. But defensively, if you keep good positions, good spots, and make good decisions when you’re under pressure, then you’ll be fine. And that’s what we did tonight.

No, (Franco Coria) was tightening. Big time. He was tightening big time. And obviously with the experience that Ryan (Cochrane) has, it’s good to be able to slot him in there.

I think the way Dallas play, they’re not that keen – probably until probably the last 10 minutes – to put big balls into the box. But that’s the way Schellas (Hyndman) has sorted them out. And when they’re on their game, they’re good at passing and moving. And they have pace so the best way to use that is to pass the ball well, try to pull the defense out and get it in behind. And they do a good job of that. So, I wasn’t surprised they weren’t banging balls.

On what Monsef Zerka gives the team: The balance he gives us on that right-hand side. You know when he gets it, that pretty much we’re keeping it or he’s going to do something constructive with it and positive, as he did again tonight. He put a great ball in – it’s a great run from Shalrie, as well – but a great ball in and a great goal.

New England Revolution goalkeeper Matt Reis

It’s been frustrating, for sure. Even though we tied the past couple of games, we've still been playing a lot better than we have in the past. That's what we told ourselves. The one thing about this team is that even though things haven't gone our way, we've kept our chins up. We've really tried to improve and we finally put it together tonight. We held off. We got a late goal too to put it away. We probably played our best game of the year tonight.

We did give them some chances and we did slow down a little bit, but, in the end, we still tried to keep the ball. We were still getting chances and we weren't just kicking the ball away so they could come right back down our throats.

I don't think our line has been (too) deep, I don't think our line has been a problem. I think it's just that we all battled and we all did what we had to do tonight. I don't think we've been drifting too far back. Everybody did their job and did it well.

Stevie (Nicol) made some good substitutions. We weren't putting midfielders on for forwards. We weren't just conceding possession. Kenny (Mansally) came on and he did well. Ryan Guy came on and did well. I thought Benny (Feilhaber) played a great game, got us some good fouls at the end and got us to keep the ball.

(The second goal) just showed how we were still attacking. We were trying to score goals. We weren't just sitting back. We didn't play the perfect game, but we got three points and we're not out of it yet.

New England Revolution midfielder Benny Feilhaber

We haven’t been good enough this season to be thinking (about the playoffs). Obviously, mathematically it’s impossible - yeah of course - so I still think we should be thinking one game at a time, putting in a 90-minute performance and we did that today. So now we can look forward to trying and build and I think if we can start putting in some performances together regardless if we get three points every single game. But if we get 90 minutes we’re comfortable with, that’s the first goal. If we get three points here, three points there and we’re starting to climb up the rankings, then yeah, then maybe we can sneak in there, but that’s not where our minds should be right now.

It’s huge. I mean it feels like we’re getting 4-1 lead, a 1-0 lead, a two-something lead in Salt Lake. It feels like we gets leads for fun in the first half, but can’t keep them. Obviously, it was fantastic to see that from the guys. Never in all these games have we let up effort-wise and it’s good to see the guys – regardless of how tough the season’s been – to really put everything into it. The subs were really, really important. Regardless if you’re getting tired, when you put subs in, they have to make a difference and they did today. All the guys that came in did their job and more and helped us all out and gave the guys that were in there more life. It’s really gratifying, the whole result today.

Tactically we didn’t drop into a shell like we have been. It doesn’t work. Unless you’re an amazing team at defending 10 guys behind the ball and you have no brain lapses whatsoever and lack of concentration, it’s going to be real tough playing 45 minutes sitting back and not giving up goals. And we didn’t do that today. Of course they’re going to come at us more – in more games than not the team that’s losing is coming to come at the team that’s winning and the team that’s winning has to go create chances off the counter attack. I thought we did that to some extent today. We definitely didn’t drop in 11 guys behind the ball. We kept two forwards up there pressing their defense and didn’t make it easy for them to build it out of the back. So all those things play a huge factor.

New England Revolution forward Rajko Lekic

We were very happy …. That’s very important to the team to play good in defense because we’ve let in a lot of goals in the last four or five matches, so it’s a very good day for us.

You never know if they only need a free kick or a corner kick to get something lucky in the end.

FC Dallas head coach Schellas Hyndman

On whether he believed that New England set an aggressive tone in tonight’s match…

I don’t know if it was an aggressive tone. There were a couple of hits out there that you normally see, those types of physical plays. It’s the referee’s jobs to take control and I’m sure it went both ways, so I don’t think it was any more aggressive than we’ve seen.

Faster pace? Yeah. I think after the Philadelphia game when they scored four goals in the first half and then get tied. I think there was a lot of soul searching and I think they really needed this game. I think Steve (Nicol) did a good job to get the guys focused and bring something out tonight.

Hindsight’s always great. I probably shouldn’t have put him (Brek Shea) out there. He was very tired, and it showed. But the type of player he is, he wants to always contribute.

We didn’t have Ugo Ihemelu, who was sitting out with his fifth yellow, and we didn’t have Marvin Chavez who got hurt playing for Honduras. It didn’t feel like we had Brek Shea, even though we had him out there. So that hurt us a little bit.

I really think that the two strikers (Milton Caraglio and Rajko Lekic) for the Revolution are good players. They’re good players and you’re going to have to pay attention to them the whole time. And what a great goal by Shalrie (Joseph). Excellent goal. We had the ball, we were keeping possession and we had that one touch and lost possession and it came back across and it leads to a great goal. These are the types of things we’ve been trying to stay away from this whole year - unforced errors and mistakes that lead to goals.

It’s been such an emotional week for us. Losing Bobby Rhine, who we all love, and as I said to the players, if their emotions have been as rollercoaster as mine have been, I can understand just not having it. I thought there were a couple of key opportunities that we didn’t capitalize on and those key opportunities kept up form building the confidence and fighting through it. As a coach, I’m very proud of them, they played until the final whistle, and this has been our team. We don’t give up and we fight hard, and we put everything we had out there. We just ran out of time.

FC Dallas goalkeeper Kevin Hartman

Obviously we are upset at the fact. We have high expectations of ourselves and to come in and to play against New England, I think that we had in our sights that we wanted to catch Seattle tonight and put ourselves in second position. Unfortunately, they were able to put one away early, and as we continued to push they were able to pick up the second one on a corner kick, which frustrates us even more. We don’t want to be giving up set-piece goals. It’s something that we’re going to have to come back from as quickly as possible. We’ve had as big a break as we’ve had in a long time in the past week-and-a-half. It’s something that we are going to work our way back into it and sort out some issues that we have and hopefully be prepared for our game next Wednesday.

When we had our group of four back and we had our guys organized and didn’t have any problems, I thought that off the set piece we had a little bit of difficulty. I think we turned over a ball in the second half and so we were a little bit disjointed. I think Brek (Shea) was the one who came back and sat into a spot, so that’s a midfield trying his best to at least get to a spot and try to help us out. Certainly we have some guys in different spot, working hard and trying to prove their worth. You’re going to miss a guy like Ugo (Ihemelu), somebody that’s been with us for a number of years and has built quite a relationship with George John.

I have a ton of respect for Matty (Reis). I watched the game the other night, and I think they gave up four but it could’ve been like 15. I thought Matt played out of his mind. He’s a very consistent goalkeeper within the league, and I think New England is lucky to have him. He’s somebody I spent a number of years with and developed quite a relationship with. He’s somebody who I think is at the top of the league and somebody who I have the upmost respect for.

It’s emotional. You have Bevan (Rhine) and her family, and Bobby (Rhine) on your mind. It’s difficult. I went to the wake on Thursday night, just to pay the respects. It’s obviously on your mind. You want to win games, you want to dedicate something to Bobby, but when you’re not able to do it because you’re not good enough as a soccer team, you feel like you’ve hurt somebody. For us, I think we need to make sure we have him in our thoughts, but we need to be able to play the way that we want to play. I think it’s going to be interesting to see how we are going to deal with these emotions. It’s certainly something fresh and something that is going to be on your mind. He’s somebody who was a huge part of FC Dallas. I saw guys from the Burn, from 10 years ago, at the viewing. This is something that is not easy to get over, but at the same time, I’m not going to say that that was the reason that we didn’t perform well tonight. I think we made a couple of mistakes, we broke down, and it’s been a long week. We’re going to have to refocus and prepare for a big game on Wednesday. Anything we can do for the Rhine family this week, we are going to do. (We are going to) try and be there and be supportive.

FC Dallas Midfielder Brek Shea

We’re obviously disappointed. We wanted to come out with a win, but unfortunately it didn’t happen.

I was trying to help the attack and help the team and try and get crosses in, shots off - just trying to get an assist or a goal. Obviously, it didn’t happen.

I think as a team, we knew what they had but I think we’re a team that focuses on ourselves so we went out and tried to play our game. We didn’t really focus on what they were doing, but they obviously got a goal, or two.

I’m a little banged up from the past couple of games. I’m dealing with a groin issue – it kind of bothered me tonight, so that was part of it.

I think you saw from the very beginning, that first foul on Ricardo (Villar). They kind of came out playing very physical and they kept fouling us pretty much throughout the entire game. On turf, that’s kind affects the other team, so I think they did a good job of throwing us off.

Everyone’s pretty disappointed. (Bobby Rhine) was a great guy, a great player for this team and really helped this organization. He’ll be deeply missed, and it’s an emotional time for us now.