NEW ENGLAND REVOLUTION HEAD COACH STEVE NICOL
Bruce [Arena] and David [Sarachan] have been here enough times to know that the one thing that they’re going to get is that we’re going to stand up and be counted. I think we defended well. We hit numerous balls across the goal, which would’ve been nice to get somebody on the end of it, which we did manage to do. Eventually we got a break on the second goal- you know we haven’t had a break all season. We got a pretty corner, which obviously made it easier, and it was two-nil.
I think we pick up more second balls in the second half than the first. Shalrie [Joseph] was one of the first to the balls and challenging them. We just didn’t read the second ball well enough in the first half. I think we did better in that second half. That made a difference.
Edson Buddle’s having a good season. He puts himself about. He is not going to blind you from the sides, you know what you’re getting when you play against him. He just happens to be on the top of his game. Darrius [Barnes] handled him well tonight. They won the fair share but more importantly they challenged properly.
We wanted to play the game in their half of the field tonight. I don’t think that was any secret. We’ve done that, and we’ve got the points, and we can start building from there.
I think it’s huge [to get some forward momentum]. We’ve had a bad run, no question about it, but they came out and fought as hard as they could. I think in the end we deserved to win the game.
I think he [Sainey Nyassi] had a good game tonight. He put some miles in tonight. I think he’s been good all season, but I think he can get better as well. I think he can make some better decisions at times and once he sorts that out, he’ll be dynamite.
What can you say, it was a fantastic performance by Darrius Barnes, but we need to be careful because obviously the first game’s the easiest one. The adrenaline is going and all of that other stuff. It’s the next one we need to make sure that between now and then, he needs plenty of rest because obviously he doesn’t have that much juice in the tank after all of that treatment. So it’s important that he’s ready for the next one.
It’s huge to get that first goal, it’s definitely a relief but it’s also pleasing that we deserve to win the game…. But at the same time, had we not won the game tonight, I think we would have been hard done by.
Impressed yes, surprised no, that our guys kept attacking with a one-goal lead. As I said before, we got the turnout and we were determined to get a result tonight. And to get it against the best team in the league at the present time, it’s just even more pleasing.
NEW ENGLAND REVOLUTION CAPTAIN SHALRIE JOSEPH
It definitely was a little persistence and we talked about it at halftime and even the guys who haven’t been playing like Taylor [Twellman] and all those guys were encouraging us to keep pushing and pushing and I think we had a more direct plan.
Eventually a game was going to break our way. If we kept pushing and pushing and keep battling hard and we talked about how we didn’t work hard enough the past couple of games and we needed to stick to our game plan to keep up the hard work. We showed a lot of mental and physical strength out there as well as heart and I think we definitely put on a good show.
I think the team meetings we had during the week just emphasized what we needed to do tonight and what we were playing for. It is all about heart and giving 110 percent every game. We had all agreed that we were not trying our hardest and I think tonight everybody tried their hardest and the result went our way.
NEW ENGLAND REVOLUTION MIDFIELDER SAINEY NYASSI
We worked really hard tonight. We had a game plan that we came up with and we started in Salt Lake for twenty minutes. We played well and then fell apart and fortunately the same didn’t happen tonight for us.
I think the second half; I got more balls than I did in the first half. We got the ball down more in the second.
It’s always good to score first and them to concede a goal and try and come from behind. It always helps so we can hold the ball and play as a team and do whatever we want with the ball, we don’t have to force anything.
Shalrie [Joseph] was solid and really helped us in the midfield and he was a part of our game plan while using him up top. Shalrie was able to share the ball and it enabled us to get some good chances, which was great.
On the goal, I knew Shalrie was going to pass it, either pass it or take a shot and then all of a sudden I was at the right place at the right time and I hit it in the right area for the goal.
We still have games to go and this result certainly helps us. We have played seven or eight games without winning or scoring goals. I think if we keep playing the way we played tonight, the rest of the season is going to go our way and I think that’s all we need to do and we will be fine.
NEW ENGLAND REVOLUTION DEFENDER DARRIUS BARNES
The ball was heading towards the goal so I decided to throw my body after it and take one for the team and get some rust off, but there was no chance I was coming out after that.
We finally got a good start to the game and I felt like we were on the front foot for the majority of the first half and we had them under pressure a little bit and we were able to play the ball well in their half and relieve some pressure of our back half.
I feel like the whole back four did a good job of keeping their attack in front of us. That was our goal coming into our game and we were not looking to fall behind and we wanted to keep the ball in the midfield and not let them get too many chances.
It felt great to get out there and play. It was good to come in and get some touches on the ball and get that confidence back because when you’ve been out a while and the timing is off a little bit and I just wanted to do the simple things and to get myself back into the game.
The three points definitely helped out a lot and it’s a confidence builder. I mean we can’t be happy with just four wins and we need to keep doing what we did tonight. We have SuperLiga next week, which will help us get some momentum moving forward into the rest of league play. We can’t be satisfied with this and we can definitely play better and we are going to keep going up from here.
LA GALAXY HEAD COACH BRUCE ARENA
He (Landon Donovan) hasn’t been around for two months, that’s not an excuse. He hasn’t been here for two months, why would that be a reason?
Tonight was one of those nights were I think the team that made the fewer mistakes would win tonight and we made a couple and the Revolution took advantage of it. So it was a deserving win on their part.
Of course we were aware that the Revolution was in a slump. We’re not as dumb as we look sometimes. We knew they would play a hard game and obviously coming in on this surface with the field slick and the short field it tends to be the kind of game you saw tonight. The ball bouncing all over the place and that’s part of it and there’s no excuses for us to not be up to the task and to deal with the game. We were here last year and we came out favorably, so there’s no excuses with any of that stuff and yes we did know they were a team that was down and we did know we were playing on this field and there’s no excuses. We lost the game.
Well I don’t think they (LA) were pressing more than they should have after New England scored the first goal. They (LA) were trying to get the goal.
No I don’t think the Revolution were different in the second half. They didn’t look any different in the first half.
LA GALAXY DEFENDER SEAN FRANKLIN
Well we knew it was going to be a tough game, especially with them coming off a 5-0 loss. They aimed to pressure us tonight and they did just that, they beat us in key spots on the field and scored two goals against us. We had a chance in the 2nd half, but we just didn’t play well enough tonight and we just have to put this game behind us and get ready for DC next week.
Yeah definitely is disappointing to give up two goals for the first time all year. We have been playing really well and have not been allowing goals and this is the first time anyone has scored two goals in one game on two shots we should have been able to prevent. Yea it’s disappointing, but like I said, we should just put this behind us and keep doing what we have done all year and take that into D.C. and the rest of the season.
No I don’t think we were too tired, yeah we had a game on Wednesday in Seattle. Some of the traveling might have tired out legs but that is no excuse for not showing up and playing well. There just wasn’t enough quality out there tonight and no I don’t think fatigue was the issue, but just that we weren’t as tough as we usually are out there.
LA GALAXY FORWARD EDSON BUDDLE
Yea definitely, I felt 100 percent out there tonight [after leaving the Seattle game early]. I just got to keep working and get back into shape. I just got to keep playing and getting ready for next week and each morning just work to get better.
We try to take something from each game, at the end of the road we didn’t get the result we were looking for. The first goal came on a set piece, which put us behind for the rest of us 2nd half, and forced us to have to try and crawl back into the game. Like I said, we just have to take some positives from the game and just be better next week.
We missed both Landon [Donovan] and Omar [Gonzalez]. Both guys make us better you know, and we don’t want to miss either one of those guys.
Well right now I would say that I haven’t ever had someone feed me the ball like Landon . I have been playing real well ever since I got to LA, and I have been here four years now and just want to get better every time I step on the field. We definitely missed him tonight and definitely could have used him. Well it looks like that when it’s working, when everything is going well but when we are not winning people are going to question and it’s easy to take notice. When the combination is working and you are winning it just makes it all that sweeter.
I really didn’t know about the Donovan rumors and I am expecting him to finish the season and I have heard that he has had talks but don’t know if he is entertaining them. I really have no idea.
Looking at it down the road I would say yes I would like to have another shot with the national team, but right now it’s tough to tell because I just went through the experience of not knowing if I would make the team and I just keep working and hope to get the call.
