NEW ENGLAND REVOLUTION HEAD COACH STEVE NICOL
I think it speaks for itself after the week we’ve had. We basically got robbed the three points last weekend. We were real unfortunate on Wednesday in the (SuperLiga) final. But to come back from those two games – the third game in eight days – and go about it the way we did I think says all we need to know about the players and their attitude and the commitment and how they stick together. It was fantastic.
On getting three goals after going down a goal …
We felt we were pushing it, which we wanted to do. We had some chances and couldn’t take them, and obviously going one behind was disappointing to say the least. But the players just kept pushing and we got three goals in the end. But we deserved to win. No doubt about it.
If the dust-up between Patrick Ianni and Shalrie Joseph invigorated the team …
I think we were pushing anyway. The whole thing has come out and is happening anyway because we were pushing the envelope and putting pressure on them. It’s always good to see the guys sticking together, but I think we were pushing them anyway. And we just continued to do that.
On Kheli Dube’s performance at right wing …
First time he’s play there for us is Wednesday. He obviously learned a lot and picked up some good positions tonight to start it going forward and get the ball and go forward himself. It’s a great goal.
On Chris Tierney getting his career goal …
We did say he was “unlucky” with the first one.
NEW ENGLAND REVOLUTION MIDFIELDER CHRIS TIERNEY
It’s just a matter of getting the ball in the net, simple as that. We had a couple of decent chances in the first half, I thought. We played some good stuff tonight. We just - the story of the season - we just couldn’t, that last ball was just missing a little bit. We knew that if we just stuck to it, with the way we were playing tonight creating chances, we were going to score goals eventually.
Impact of Shalrie Joseph and Patrick Ianni incident …
It lifted us a little bit, if anything. Shalrie (Joseph) doesn’t go down easy, so you know something went down. I think that they thought that after they got that goal, they were going to, if they could mix it up a little bit, it would take our minds off of trying to get the ball in the net, which it didn’t. We stuck to it and played hard and got goals.
On first career goal…
I don’t really measure my game by goals to be honest. It’s always good to get on the score sheet and I’m happy to get the first one. Now I get that zero off the stat sheet. It’s just about the performance tonight. All around we were pretty good tonight, and we deserved to win.
NEW ENGLAND REVOLUTION FORWARD KHELI DUBE
It feels good when you score a goal and today was the day I felt that I would score a goal. When I got the chance I made sure it was a goal. It was good to get a goal, it’s been a long time now. Playing on the right side, I think I’m getting used to it.
On being down 1-0 in the second half…
When you fall, you get frustrated. But you’ve got to keep going, trying to make sure that when you get the chance, you score a goal. And in the second half, we created a lot more chances and converted the chances.
Describing his goal…
The ball came from a defender and when I got the ball, I realized Ilija (Stolica) was up there. And Ilija is a big guy, so I played one-two with him and he set me up good.
SEATTLE SOUNDERS FC HEAD COACH SIGI SCHMID
I thought we were okay, until we’re up 1-0 and the altercation occurred between Shalrie (Joseph) and Patrick Ianni. At that point, I thought we lost our composure a little bit and gave away a couple of goals that we shouldn’t have given away. Obviously the game turned and they scored their chances and the game was over.
We haven’t made mistakes back there in a while. We’ve been pretty solid and I don’t think we defended the throw-in well. We had just cleared one off the line right before. Nobody took charge of it and figured out that they were going to do the same thing again, so that was bad. The second goal, I really can’t say anything about it in terms of that it was one of those plays – bang, bang and actually our player (Osvaldo) Alonso tipped it through to them. The third goal was a bad clearance by Ianni.
I’m not happy about it, but on the same token, we have players that are constantly learning and we have young players. I’ve seen guys make multi-million dollars at Juventus and watch a ball bounce inside the 18 and the other team scores a goal. So to say it’s something that should never, ever happen … unfortunately it happens. A lot of goals are scored off of mistakes and we made some.
SEATTLE SOUNDERS FC MIDFIELDER STEVE ZAKUANI
I think that was probably the turning point with Shalrie (Joseph) and Patrick (Ianni). There was like a five/six minute delay and we just scored and after that, I think we maybe – as our coach told us – lost our composure a little bit. We tried to get it back, but they just really built off that. They scored the first goal and then the second one came just a bit fortuitous for them. As much as I said that we lost our composure there, we were pretty disappointed.
Despite some of the things that went against us, I think that when you’re up 1-0 on the road after you’ve been playing, usually we’re very solid team defensively. Today I think we had a few lapses and it’s just a case of we let them carry too much momentum. You could just see their spirit and confidence building and we didn’t respond to that. It got to the point where we were just chasing the game later on and they’re just a big physical team they’re going to just keep the ball away. We’ve been winning, haven’t lost in a long time but now we’re going to see what we’re made of. How do we respond from there?
SEATTLE SOUNDERS FC FORWARD MICHAEL FUCITO
On playing in front of his family and friends …
It felt great. This was my first game back, too, after my knee surgery. I wish it were a different result, but it feels good to come back and have my family and friends come out. It’s been a while.
