New England Revolution head coach Jay Heaps

Thanks guys for waiting. I had to take care of some administrative stuff, so I appreciate it. In terms of the game, I thought that it certainly wasn’t our best game from a standpoint of how we played. But what I was really excited about was the resolve we showed. We showed that, going down a goal we didn’t hang our heads; we fought back. And I asked a lot of the guys tonight and each one of them stepped up.

Matt (Reis) is one of those special players in this league and longevity is one of those things. One of my big things – a stat they don’t show – is availability. Guys that are that just in the lineup and available for a coach’s selection and Matt Reis has always shown in his career he’s always ready, always available. He’s had some injuries the last couple years and he’s fought back from that. And tonight, you feel confident with him back there, especially in the second half. We have a young back line and Matt shows that he’s confident and can play.

Collective defense (was the key to tonight). We were a unit out there. Unfortunately in the three losses if you went back we probably played more technically sound. But we didn’t defend as a unit. But tonight that was something we asked our guys to do and we gave up a set piece, but other than that, there wasn’t a ton of things when they broke us down and we gave away goals.

It’s a quick turn-around. We knew we were playing Saturday in New York. But collective defense was what we need to do. I’ve talked a lot about where we are as a team. I think we’ve made a lot of strides adding technical players and we show that we have some good players, but I think we lost a little bit of that toughness, a bit of that grit I would say. So that was a big thing this week was how much stronger we needed to be and it showed.

Fernando (Cardenas) has been working really hard. He’s always in our 18 and one of the guys going off the bench. He started the first game of the year. With Fernando, he’s a unique player because he doesn’t really have a position. In Colombia he played on top … in a weird system and he’s kind of elusive in that way. So tonight he was fresh. I was so excited to give him that opportunity because he’s earned it. He’s worked hard in training and kept his head up and I thought that he did a good job as the game went on that it showed he’s probably not 90 minutes fit, but he had a good impact on the game.

Kevin (Alston), for me, was the best he’s played yet. He was great. Unfortunately everyone saw what happened. It wasn’t pretty. He just went into a coughing fit and I didn’t know this before the game. I’ve asked a lot of Kevin because I see the potential of Kevin, so I ask a lot of him. He has the talent I never had as a right back, so I see it and I want it and I want him to keep getting better. And so he played through a 102 tempurature, and when he got hit, he went into a coughing fit that’s why he got sick. By Saturday he’ll be alright. We’re doing assessments right now on some of the other players who came off so we’ve just got to make sure we’re in tomorrow and see what we’re doing – and we leave tomorrow (for Real Salt Lake) so there isn’t much time. I’ll give you a better answer tomorrow. How’s that?

It’s also that we lost three games in a row (in addition to having fixture congestion) so there’s a little bit of everything in that one. There has to be competition. There has to be people who know if they fight hard in training, they’re going to get on the field. Now look, if we won four games in a row, it gets harder. But we hadn’t. We played well but we hadn’t finished any game, we hadn’t torn teams apart. To be honest, I wanted to get guys that deserved to be on the field.

(Saer Sène) is someone I did not want to go 90 (minutes) tonight. I really like how he is in the locker room and around the players. And they get a sense for him. He’s a unique player. You don’t really see a lot of players like him. He drifts, he comes in to play, but he’s always dangerous. I’m telling you guys, I just think there’s more there even. I think you see some spots of brilliance and there’s more. I see more in training sometimes, so there’s a good upside. But tonight he worked hard and did a lot of good things, a lot of the little things, well.

(Playing tough) was important. That was the theme. We played pretty and we’ve given away games. I think that when we analyze the three games, we gave away a game in Dallas in the last second. We gave away the game here when we let the guy come inside – Chris Pontius –and score. And then in New York we gave away the game. So when all of them add up, you’re like, whoa, we felt like we didn’t lose any of those games but you really did. And now it really hit us on the bus back so it was really about forget about the pretty play, we needed to make sure we were tough and that’s what we went out and did.

New England Revolution midfielder Shalrie Joseph

Sometimes I think we lose the concept of what it is to win and what it is to play soccer, and the last couple of games we’ve moved the ball well and created chances but we haven’t gotten the results we wanted. Tonight he stressed on us making sure we get some balls behind them, pick up the second ball and take it from there. Then we can move the ball around and create more chances. Tonight we just dug it out and got three points, and that’s the most important thing.

Going down 1-0 at home, some of us will hang our head a little bit for a few seconds after. Then we caught a break and got the second goal, and it wasn’t the prettiest goal. But we just have to take the three points and run away with it.

We have to keep giving (Saer Sène) chances and he’s going to score. He’s just that good (around the penalty area). He can create chances on his own, but if we can help him a little bit more and get numbers in the box, I think we’re going to get more goals. Tonight we had chances, he held the ball up for us when we needed him to. He said himself that he needed to work on his fitness a little bit by realizing (MLS is) a different league. He’s doing the right things. He’s working and he’s encouraging everybody and that’s what you need from your top striker.

(On Matt Reis’ laid-back reaction to his 100th win) That’s Matt, man. You’ve got to love Matt. He’s just easy going and the greatest teammate probably I’ve ever had in this locker room. So for him it’s just another day, it’s just another game. He’s going to look forward to playing until he’s 50, because he knows how good he is. He keeps encouraging the young guys in the back, and that’s what Matt Reis is about.

Rest up and try to get better (before Saturday’s game in Salt Lake). It’s going to be a huge game, playing a game on the road against one of the best teams in the league. We just have to be ready to play. We can’t be thinking about this win tonight. We have to take the win and smile about it, then go play one of the best teams in the league.

New England Revolution goalkeeper Matt Reis

(On getting his 100th win) It’s kind of a relief. It’s something that, the last three games, it’s been there in the back of my mind but it’s finally a hurdle to get over and focus on the rest of the season.

The focus going into it was we weren’t happy about losing three games and it’s early in the season but we need to get points. We can’t fall too far back in the race and it was an honest team effort. I think that we didn’t play our best in the second half but we got a win, which is the most important thing.

We wanted to make sure we got back to good team solid defending and once that happens then our quality can take over from there.

It’s just the way it is. We knew it going into it and this is going to be a hard week but we have a couple of days after it and we just have to get everybody in tomorrow and go from there.

Yeah, everybody (congratulated me). We had a nice little ceremony in here afterwards and got a jersey with the number 100 on it, so that was nice. I’ll get that signed and put it up in the garage with all my other stuff … It’s nice, and Shalrie (Joseph) had his 250th appearance and it’s all been with the Revs. It always seems to happen that way that the milestones come together, and it’s nice to get it over with.

Colorado Rapids head coach Oscar Paraja

I thought we had a good start. Unfortunately, we failed again and had some mistakes, especially on set pieces. That is costing us a lot early in the season so far. That has been one of our big concerns and then today was no different. After that, we had the initiative and tried to tie the game, and I thought it was our players on the field who looked more for the game, but we couldn’t get the equalizer and we get out of game that we should have gotten more out of.

We had options (in the second half), but we were not accurate in our finishing and that final pass. That last 30 minutes was not quite sharp and the way we wanted. We took a lot of shots and shot well, but we just couldn’t get it. Just one of those days and we came out of game were we were very effective and today we couldn’t find the net.

We keep going, keep moving. It’s a long season and this group is in the process now and we just keep going. We’re looking forward to going to another road game and try to get the result because we need the results. We need to win games.

Every game is an opportunity for the team to keep growing and keep learning but definitely at this point, this is where it hurts the most because in a game like this today and the performances of the players, they deserve much more than this.

When you see a team fighting … and things like that, you always like it. But for me, the style and the way you get things is the most important part. I wanted to try and play and try to make things happen. And sometimes, that’s just not the case.

Colorado Rapids forward Tony Cascio

I think we had a little momentum. We were kind of off to a slow start. We let in, I thought, they were weak goals. And other than that I thought we had our chances we just weren’t finishing tonight.

Overall I thought we had our ins and outs. We had our opportunities, but I guess overall it was an average effort at best.”

It was good. I had a little fan club of about six, seven, eight people. So it was good to have them out here, but UConn’s in finals right now so a lot of them couldn’t make it out.

We’re ice bathing right now, just trying to recover and get our bodies right, get our minds right, and hopefully do well and get a result there (against D.C.)

I just keep going, get experience, just get some minutes every game. (Every game) is a new game and just keep going and do well I guess.

Colorado Rapids forward Omar Cummings

I think we felt good. We felt positive. We felt for sure that we would get some chances. It would be a difficult game. Playing on turf it’s always different. But I think we felt good, no problems.

I think the first half of it was not too bad. We got some chances but also gave up some chances. I think that hurt us in the long run. We tried to get back in the game second half but I don’t think we produced enough chances where we could get back into the game successfully in the second half.

(We’re) definitely going to try to put this game behind us as quickly as possible. (We’re) definitely going to tighten up on our defense and on our set pieces, seeing that we got scored on them obviously. We still have to try to create more chances for us to score goals.