NEW ENGLAND REVOLUTION HEAD COACH STEVE NICOL
The conditions were pretty tough to play for both teams. The wind was playing havoc with the ball - makes it difficult to connect your passes. But obviously, we won the game, and we’re delighted with that.
On the early goal …
It’s always good to get your nose in front, as long as you can keep it that way … we got ourselves ahead because we were pushing, and we wanted to keep pushing and try to kill the game. But human nature, when you get something, you don’t want to lose it. Sometimes you never do back off, but certainly you don’t want to do that.
On the goals …
On the first one, we probably got away with one there. I think most people on the ground saw what happened. Then the second one, Pat (Phelan’s) being positive and attacks the ball, get a step ahead of the guy and straight-forward kicked him.
NEW ENGLAND REVOLUTION MIDFIELDER PAT PHELAN
On the early goal …
It was huge for us last week, and to get that second one was even more important. Opening night, first home game and good crowd, I think it was monumental for us.
On a rivalry game with D.C. …
Being in this league a couple of years, you know a game against D.C. is going to be like that no matter where it is. It turned into a circus, but cooler heads prevailed. We sucked it out; we made some poor decisions, they made some poor decisions, and they made a few more.
On the favorable early results …
It’s huge. There are so many doubts coming into the season off of our results from last year. Would we have enough quality to get the points? And it’s still really early in the season and we shouldn’t be holding our heads too, too high, but we are flying high and we’re excited now. We’re looking forward to next week.
NEW ENGLAND MIDFIELDER STEPHEN McCARTHY
On the game …
It felt really good. It was definitely tough, especially toward the end. I’m really glad we pulled it out … It was a battle, definitely in the middle. They had strong guys that could get into tackles and so did we with Pat (Phelan) and Shalrie (Joseph). I think it was very hard fought.
On getting ahead early again …
It’s the most important thing. That’s what we’re trying to do so hopefully we can keep that alive, also.
On what to keep working on …
Communication is the key right now. Everyone’s trying to get used to the spots. We’re doing well right now, but I hope it keeps getting better.
NEW ENGLAND MIDFIELDER SHALRIE JOSEPH
The way I play, I’m physical. I want to hit somebody, I want to get in on tackles. And the same with Pattie (Phelan) and Stephen (McCarthy) a little bit. In the midfield, we know it’s going to be physical. We want to send a message early that it’s going to a battle in the middle. Tonight Pattie was outstanding, along with Stephen especially in the midfield, with not allowing Fred and Dax McCarty to play. We closed them early and limited their space …
D.C. UNITED HEAD COACH BEN OLSON
Overall, I think it began with our team. It wasn’t good enough today. The way we started the game, it looked like we thought we had arrived because we had one game at home that we were fairly good. All week we preached about moving on, and making sure that the same energy and commitment that we had last week was there this weekend. That’s what professionals do - they show up week in and week out. We didn’t do our part in that manner.
On trailing 2-0 early in the match…
(A penalty kick) early changes the entire game. There was some good stuff. Our final ball wasn’t there but I thought (during the) build up, we got into some dangerous spots and just failed to connect in that final third. I was proud of guys like (Santino Quaranta) and Fred coming in and giving us a boost. Charlie (Davies) coming in and giving us some energy, so there were some positives. I hope we learned a lesson from today that (in) this league, you have to match energy, you have to match commitment and then we can become the team we want to be. But that has to be first. The amount of second balls we lost in the first 20 minutes was unacceptable, and a lot of that to me is desire to win balls. That was lacking.
On whether Charlie Davies will be a starter in the near future…
We’ll see. [Josh Wolff] is struggling with a little hammy, but I had plans to bring in Charlie anyways. He’s done well off the bench for us. He’s done a very good job of being the guy off the bench for us. Will he be a starter for us eventually? That remains to be seen. But, his attitude, the energy he brings to this group has been fantastic.
D.C. UNITED MIDFIELDER SANTINO QUARANTA
It’s the type of game where we have to recognize more of what the game dictates. It was a scrappy day. We didn’t come out the best in the first half. We can all put our hands up and say we could’ve been better in the day but overall it’s a learning experience. We have to come off of an emotional win like that. You have to bounce back and respond in this league. It got better as the game went on, but it was a learning experience for us. We’re a young group and we have to understand what the game dictates, and it dictated a lot of emotions, it dictated scrappiness, direct and we recognized it a little late.
It’s scrappy, it’s turf, it’s windy. It’s one of those games where we have to recognize and understand what the game dictates. It wasn’t going to be a day where everybody is going to be playing and it’s going to be a pretty game. When we play New England, they’re usually not. Again, it’s a learning experience for our team. We’ll try to get better next week.
Moving on from today’s match and to prepare for Colorado…
(Colorado’s) one of the toughest places to play in the league. You bounce back, you have to move on, and show some heart. It’s unacceptable - you can’t start a game like this. We’ll move on and get better.
D.C. UNITED FORWARD CHARLIE DAVIES
We’ve just got to play better. We started the game off flat. We didn’t come out with enough intensity. They beat us to a lot of balls. It’s just a learning experience - better now than later. For the next game, we have to forget about this - but learn from it - and come out with much more intensity and much more will to win the next game.
On his performance coming in as a second half substitute…
I think I could’ve done more. I tried to just put balls in the box and add to our team’s play and be more effective on the offensive end. I think I was able to make some good runs, and get the ball in the box. I need to do more. I expect more of myself, but every game’s another step in the right direction.
On his goal from a penalty kick in the 89th minute…
I doesn’t matter if we don’t win, and that’s the way I look at it. If you score a hat trick and you’re team loses, it’s good for nothing. Our main goal and focus is to win the game. We should’ve won. We have the level, we have the quality to win these games, and we just have to play better.
D.C. UNITED MIDFIELDER CHRIS PONTIUS
Obviously, I thought we were pretty poor in the first half - we got beat to every second ball. We found ourselves down 2-0, we battled back, but it’s hard to come back from two goals down. I thought (in) the second half, the effort was there. A couple things didn’t go our way in the game and it’s better to learn from these games early on then later on in the season.
On the struggles early in the game…
Sometimes, I don’t think it was our mentality, and I know everyone gets up for every game. I just think we just didn’t figure things out fast enough. They played three guys in the middle and they were able to control a lot of the game, dictate it. They beat us to second balls, which is huge. From there, we came in here sorted it out at halftime. It’s a big hill to climb - two goals down. Obviously, we are disappointed, but we’ve got to move on, we’ve got a big game at Colorado next week.
