NEW ENGLAND REVOLUTION HEAD COACH JAY HEAPS
On the Revolution win:
It is a credit to all our guys. It wasn’t the prettiest game. It showed a lot more heart than any other game I have seen because there were situations where we had to fight and dig in deep. If you look at the possession battle we lost it, but every other battle I feel like we won.
On length of stoppage time [8 minutes]:
[Eight minutes of stoppage time] is an interesting number. We were trying to track it and we thought It would maybe be somewhere in the four or five range. When eight came up we were a little taken back. It was only fitting. We’ve had everything kind of stacked against us with injuries, calls going against us, goals taken back, and we had to just dig deep and eight minutes was kind of fitting to make sure we got through it.
On the New England defense:
Other than an early mistake, where we were trying to open up a little bit and Matt Reiss made a huge save there. We really were tight. I think Matt had an excellent game and was a calm presence between guys who were really trying to fight for everything. Our back line was excellent – A.J. [Soares], Jose [Goncalves], [Andrew] Farrell – a team effort all the way around.
On defensive game plan:
We wanted to open the game up as much as we could in that mid-range transition game and again we didn’t take advantage of it. We had chances, but we didn’t finish real well. Defensively I thought we knew they were going to be a bit more direct, but we did a nice job winning those first balls and the second ones.
On Jose’s Goncalves’ first-half injury:
[Jose Goncalves] played with a lot of grit and he really wanted the playoffs. It shows and now we need to get him recovered because he is a big part of what we are doing.
On Columbus’ motivation for the game:
We just played them last week and played them again this week – we knew they were going to be difficult to play against. They had our number a little bit last week. They outplayed us in the second half and we were able to hang on in that one. They outplayed us again tonight in certain areas of the game and we had to make sure we were able to defend and be compact in our space. When you’re playing against a team in their last home game of the year – and they are a good team – you have to bring everything you have and that is what we did tonight. We brought everything we could.
On the team accomplishment:
Obviously you play for the playoffs. I think that we had our ups and downs this season, but I really think that we are coming together as a group. We are getting our young guys big minutes, big games, and they are winning games. They are finding results. I think that is really important for the development of players. You can talk about developing players and put them in tough situations and I think when you put them in tough situations they do well that learning curve is expedited.
On the playoffs:
We are waiting on results now obviously. We would definitely play at home in the first game whether it is Wednesday or Saturday and so we just wait on the last game – Chicago and New York.
NEW ENGLAND REVOLUTION FORWARD JUAN AGUDELO
On what he was feeling after getting the win and a playoff berth:
It’s great. It’s a great emotion right now. We’re really happy. Columbus gave us a tough game, down to the wire, there were a lot of close calls and they had a great effort. We were able to get a goal and finish it, finish the job.
On his goal:
Me and Lee [Nguyen] have pretty good chemistry and there was a little bit of “joga [bonito]” in there, so that was fun. Those goals are just what builds the team and builds chemistry, when you play like a team and it’s fun.
On how the defense was able to keep Columbus from scoring:
It was the same thing in Montreal. In these last few games, we’ve had to keep the lead, and when I see my teammate make a sprint back, I feel like I have to make a sprint back for him. We’re like a team together. Every time I see somebody work hard it makes me work hard.
On making the playoffs:
There’s definitely a lot [left], but we’re just going to recover our legs and there’s still a lot to finish. We’ve got to finish it off.
NEW ENGLAND REVOLUTION MIDFIELDER KELYN ROWE:
On making the playoffs:
It’s a great feeling. You see the guys in the locker room now, they’re very upbeat. Everyone’s pretty happy, but we also know that we have another game coming either Wednesday or Saturday.
On how difficult it was to defend the early lead:
We knew we needed the win so we were going to go through it. If we had to go 90 minutes holding them to zero we’re going to do it. I though the team did really well. I thought Matt [Reis] was huge on a couple plays. He’s saved us many times. José [Goncalves] went down in the first seven minutes and played throughout the whole game. That’s what you want from your captain, fighting through and you have to keep fighting for that.
On having to make a lot of adjustments due to injuries and substitutions:
I think we did it well. Throughout the week we kind of planned for that. We knew it wasn’t known who was going to start with Chris Tierney out. I thought Darrius [Barnes] came in and did an amazing job. He won many balls in the air. Dimitry [Imbongo] and [Juan] Agudelo held it well enough for us, we’ve just got to get that extra pass. Overall, we got the win and we’re in the playoffs so we’re happy.
