Postgame Quotes: NYRB

Jay Heaps vs. Vancouver Whitecaps FC





NEW ENGLAND REVOLUTION HEAD COACH JAY HEAPS

On the end of the match:
I’m really proud of our guys, really am. Came to a tough place, gave up an unfortunate goal in the first half, fought back, every inch of it was fought back. Credit their goalkeeper [Luis Robles], I thought he made two huge saves, and then the last minute of the game I still, I want to watch my words here because I don’t like talking about officiating and I won’t, but I’ve never seen a player being asked to leave the field on the last play of the game. You give a red card, I can live with it, you don’t call a penalty on the second one – I can live with the calls of the game. I can’t live with you [the referee, Fotis Bazakos] taking our guys off the field on the last play of the game. Go back and look, show me tape on when in the world when you’ve already got a red card you take another guy off. It’s impossible.


On if Andrew Farrell was bleeding on the final play:
I don’t know [if there was visible blood]. I think there was the collision, wasn’t anything to do with his head, wasn’t anything to do with that. It was to do with I guess there was maybe – it was no blood dripping, there may have been like a shorn skin, so there was redness, but there was no blood, it wasn’t dripping.


On what Fotis Bazakos said to him on the sideline:
He said nothing. There was no conversation, it was just he can’t go in and this is the last kick of the game.


NEW ENGLAND REVOLUTION DEFENDER ANDREW FARRELL

On the last play of the match:
He said I had to clean my face, I don’t know, I think it was more of a scrape so there’s obviously going to be blood there, but I couldn’t see my own face so I don’t know what it would look like, but feel like we’re down, we had a red card and they send their goalie up so they’re up two men and then they have to take me off. Three-man advantage on a corner is pretty tough odds to put a team on at the end of a game. It’s disappointing, the boys fought well, Matt [Reis] came up with some huge saves, Diego Fagundez with a great goal, and the team fought well second half after not starting and playing our best first half. We have to move on from here, one point, we’ll take the points right now, we got to keep going.


On the team’s response after halftime:
Yeah, yeah no we found some rhythm. I think that Scotty [Caldwell] had a good first half after having a little miscommunication and bringing in [Andy] Dorman, a veteran player, getting in tackles was huge for us. You know, they got some chances, but like I said Matt [Reis] came up huge, had I think two or three big saves. You know, we got some chances, our guys, (Juan) Agudelo played great when he was on there, Dimitry (Imbongo) came on and created some chances. We played a great second half, I think. Kind of like that Montreal [Impact] game when we were down early and kind of fought back. I think that it’s a good grit that the team has and if we put that together with another first 45 of that intensity, I think we can be a really dangerous team. So hopefully we move on and learn from this and keep going.


On the current attitude of the team:
Right now I think if we had come away with no points this game, I think it’s tough to get back together kind of after such an intense game, but we get the point, we were up until the last play, a questionable call here and there, so I think we’re good. We’ll have a week when we go to Montreal, who hasn’t been the best right now so far, and I think with this last 45 minutes we’re feeling confident in ourselves that we can play with the best in the league, and even a man down. So, we got to just keep pushing, you know, tweak some stuff here and there that we got to look at the first half and see what we could have done better. I didn’t do well, I was a little flustered but we’ll keep going and I think it’s good determination from the team.


NEW ENGLAND REVOLUTION MIDFIELDER DIEGO FAGUNDEZ

On the final play:
You know, I think we all wanted to go for the win. We had the lead for a couple of minutes and then a last minute call, and then of course (Andrew) Farrell with a bloody face, I think he had to get off the field, and then we were down another man. It was really eight on 11 and it was tough.


On his goal:
Well, when we came in here we said that we needed to pressure them. We knew we were down a man and we were looking for that win. We pressured their backs and then the ball loose and of course I just went for the one-on-one and finished it.


On the second half play of the team:
We knew that if we put them into pressure they were going to get mistakes and then I think that once we went out there we definitely battled them and tried to get every tackle we could and then of course, the goal came.