New England Revolution head coach Jay Heaps
On the defense with Jose Goncalves (suspended) and Kevin Alston (injury) out:
It was obviously a theme for us this week, when you lose two starting guys from your last game, you’ve got to make some adjustments and I really thought Darrius (Barnes) and Jeremy (Hall) came in and did a great job. I don’t think we were under as much pressure, but I think at the same time we dealt with the counter and those are the more important things to deal with, was taking up the right positions when we were in the attack to stop any counter. I thought our guys did a great job with that.
On the importance of Scott Caldwell:
Yeah Scott (Caldwell) played a great game. Positionally sound, broke up a lot of plays and it was really important that we worked on that all week, was just really being in the right pivot spot to make sure that, especially before they lost the man and how dangerous they were with Oduro on one side and McInerney coming in – he’s dangerous – so we had to make sure we dealt with that.
On bringing on Charlie Davies and shifting Juan Agudelo wide:
It was something we worked on, Charlie (Davies) obviously is returning from an injury so his minutes have to be limited but he was great all week in training and was buzzing. I thought there was some space for him; I think we underplayed him a couple of times. Charlie’s got some wheels and he can really open up back fours and I think a couple of under hit balls, and if we’d over hit those he would have been in and that also allows us to now play Juan (Agudelo). Juan I think did a nice job when he went out while he was able to occupy a defender; we had a lot of play through him once we moved him out wide.
On Darrius Barnes’ performance in central defense:
I was really happy with Darrius (Barnes), Darrius is the kind of player that helps a coach sleep at night because you can put him anywhere and you know he’s going to be up for the game and he brings it every day in training and he brought it today in the game. There’re a lot of minutes out there for Darrius and whenever he gets them he does well.
New England Revolution midfielder Diego Fagundez
On the game:
It was actually really good, knowing that we were (playing our) home opener, we were all excited. We know the fans were excited. It was just tough to leave with a tie, not what we wanted.
On the team chemistry building game by game:
I think the chemistry’s there between all of us. I think all we need is luck right now – one ball to just bounce to someone’s foot and someone to tap it in. We’re creating so many chances it’s just no one can finish one or no one’s had the chance to just touch one.
On if the first goal of the season is the hardest one:
To tell you the truth, I think it is – the first one’s always the hardest, but after that I think we can definitely score many. We have talented players and of course overall, around the whole defense, goalie, and our players all over, we have a talented team that we can definitely score more goals.
On the challenges of breaking down Montreal’s 10 men:
When it was 10 men, I thought we were going to be able to score one, but they just went straight defense and it was kind of hard to get in the box. We were playing around the box and trying to get chances in, but we just couldn’t get one in.
New England Revolution defender Andrew Farrell
On the defense coping with Jose Goncalves and Kevin Alston:
Yeah, it did alright. We have, you know, the capable guys: Darrius (Barnes), Jeremy (Hall), guys like London (Woodberry) on our bench usually, that don’t usually get minutes but when they do they have a huge impact. I think Jeremy (Hull) and Darrius (Barnes) kept us in it. Bobby (Shuttleworth) had another great game and it’s progress from the last two games. Keeping the shutout is huge for us. The finishing wasn’t there but it’s the same as last year: we lost the first two, didn’t score until after an own goal, we scored at San Jose in the fourth game and made it to MLS Cup so we have the players and it just takes a while sometimes. So we’re staying positive and taking the positive from each game and moving forward.
On if previous seasons’ slow starts put recent results into perspective:
We don’t want to become complacent. It’s not fun to not score goals and not win games. But I think we know that we can. I think with the capable players here to make that happen it’s just going to – I think once we get that first one I think all of the next are going to come. You’ve got to stay positive. It’s good to get a shutout at home and build off the last two disappointing results but you’ve got to keep moving forward. You can’t lull on the past and I think we’re going to look good – we’re going to be good.
On the importance of the side’s first shutout of the season:
It’s huge. Didn’t feel too good about the last two results. Moving on and getting that first shutout of the season feels good and (we need to) keep on improving. We know we had some mistakes there we got to clear up and move on to the next game.
Montreal Impact head coach Frank Klopas
On the team’s defensive performance after the red card:
I think we were super as a team the whole game, I think we deserve to get a result. The team showed incredibly character and team spirit together.
On Hassoun Camara’s two yellow cards:
I don’t want to talk out of emotions, but obviously with the way the referee was giving cards to us today, I think we have to be more careful and smart because I saw similar fouls or cards, that did not get called.
On playing defensively after the red card:
The way we played we knew that Lee Nguyen was going to be an important part in the middle. The way they played 4-3-2-1 and Nguyen finding those pockets in the middle, so we played 4-3-3. We knew down the middle was going to be really congested, so our ability to move the ball quick and try to attack more the wide areas, and when we did that we had success. The Revs do a good job in the middle when they want to force balls to win it.
Montreal Impact midfielder Calum Mallace
On if a draw is a positive result after the red card:
It’s definitely solid result here. It’s obviously a good team and a difficult place to play with the turf and stuff and under the circumstances the red card was obviously difficult and for such a long time as well so we’re definitely happy with the draw here.
On regrouping after the red card better this year than last year:
Yeah, I can agree with that. You know, this is obviously a brand new team, we reiterate that all the time. Frank (Klopas) talks about the new players we brought in and everyone’s buying into the system and everyone’s working together as a team and I think we’re definitely in a better place this year right now than we were last year and I hope the fans can see that and we’re going to continue to grow and improve.
On if the result is a good building block going into next week’s home opener:
Yeah, definitely, as I say it’s a difficult place to play against a good side and with the red card it shows team character and team development and so we’re definitely going to build off that moving forward.
Montreal Impact midfielder Maxim Tissot
On the difficulties of playing with 10 men:
We knew they would have a lot of the ball. So we would have 10 men behind the ball and we accepted that and we defended first, and we tried to counter when we had our chances and the guys did very well. We played very well with 10 men and it’s a point that feels like three actually, because of the way we grinded it out.
On if getting a point on the road is a good result:
In this league, playing on the road especially down to 10 men, getting a point is fantastic, we’ll take it any day. For sure, we would have liked three but we’ll be satisfied with one.
On Montreal’s week after the midweek Champions League victory:
We’ve gotten more games than the other teams so we’re starting to gel as a team. We have a big game next Saturday against Orlando, our home opener and we need to get three points in that game.
