New England Revolution Head Coach Jay Heaps
I thought it went exactly how we thought it would go in terms of, we were going to have a lot of the ball and a lot of possession and the one thing we didn’t want to do was give up a mistake or turnover and we did. We had a mistake and they scored. So, you don’t like to start that way but in the end I thought our conviction was really good and probably should’ve had more. Unfortunately, we didn’t finish it but we were happy to get the win.

I think we were just assessing (Jermaine Jones) at halftime. He had a little bit of a contusion and right now he’s being looked at and we just want to be smart and we took him out. I thought Scotty (Caldwell) came in and did an excellent job.

I mean, (Lee Nguyen’s) special. Look what he did again. I think in terms of his game, in terms of seeing the game and understanding it right now, he’s reading it really well, playing really well, but he’s also creating and I think that’s why he’s so dangerous. It’s not like he’s giving up on plays. That goal came really, I thought it was a really good goal. I thought Jermaine (Jones) looked up, Charlie (Davies) did everything to keep it alive and that was just for me, Charlie and Lee wanting it more and they got it. I think that shows you with Lee his determination and that’s why a lot of his goals come from turnovers and a little bit of a mistake or taking advantage of the other team. That’s what I think is really propelled him this season.

We want (Lee Nguyen) to be a two-way player. And when he does that, I think it shows because he’s got such quick feet that he wins a lot of those balls. When he puts that effort in, no one’s ever out in the clear and that’s what he did. He was able to slow it down and get everyone back.

It doesn’t matter what (Kelyn Rowe’s) doing, he’ll shoot from everywhere. Kelyn has a cannon. He shoots the heck out of the ball. We joke, it’s always when he’s a little off-footed. It seems like he’s a little bit off his footing and then that’s when he gets the most power. It’s not like he’s over-hitting it, he’s hitting it in stride and I think that’s the most important thing with Kelyn. When he hits it in stride, it’s dangerous.

First and foremost we hate giving up that (first) goal. We don’t want to do it and it happens and I think the reactions have been, “OK, we know we can come back.” I think before we all thought we could but, we weren’t positive. Now that we’ve done it a few times there’s that belief. Even going down a goal tonight, it was clear that we were going to get our chances and we were going to have opportunities to win the game. So, I think that it’s not only a belief, but it’s also understanding that we’ve done it so there’s a little bit of experience doing it. I think the teams that we’ve played, they take that goal and it almost propels us to be a little more confident in our passing and they drop off a little bit so it actually helps us a little bit, opens them up a little bit – or not opens them up, they drop in a little bit – and we start to open them up. When we’re passing long and a team sits in, we’re hard to defend.

I think (Geoffrey Castillion) trained really well this week. He earned his minutes tonight. He had really good sessions Tuesday and Wednesday, so, we wanted to get him in. I think he’s still a little bit away from fitness. I think tonight showed maybe we pushed him in a little too soon. But at the same time I thought, to credit guys like Charlie (Davies), I thought Charlie was excellent tonight. He worked his tail off and created a lot out of nothing like that second goal. I thought Diego (Fagundez) went in and did a really good job. I was really happy with the way Diego went in and created opportunities.

I would’ve liked to have gotten a third goal (up a man). I think we were there. I think we were right in there and you get that third goal and it’s really over. Then I don’t have to sweat the last corner kick there at the end. But, at the same time, I thought it was much better dealing with a man-down situation then we did against New York, when we were up a man and then a goal and we didn’t handle it very well. Tonight, we’ve worked on it and we wanted to play a little bit more and pressure them a little bit more and put them on the back heel when you have a man advantage.

That’s because we didn’t (press) in New York. I was disappointed. My staff and I we talk about the New York game as the one game where we were a little disappointed in ourselves. That we didn’t try to get up the field and play and I think you saw that right when the red card came out. We were pretty animated to get forward. 

New England Revolution midfield Lee Nguyen
Yeah it was not the ideal situation we had in mind, but credit to the guys. They fought hard, they were relentless. It takes a lot of heart to come back like that three games in a row, but now we had a good home sprawl. Now we need to go to Columbus and get some points there and hopefully we can get off on a front foot there.

There’s always that belief. That’s what’s great about this team. We’ve shown that we can come back from a goal. It’s great in that aspect, but we need to go back and look at the film. I think we got a little unlucky. (Andrew) Farrell might’ve got tripped up. I don’t know, I thought so. So a little unluckiness there, but we fought back and got the two goals in the first half and got a good little lead to go into the second half. Then with the red card, it kind of eased up the game a little bit.

I played it back to Jermaine (Jones), he played a great little dink to Charlie (Davies) and Charlie did a great job to get above Futty (Danso) and get a flick on. From there, I just had to get to the ball first. I guess on the wet surface it took a little fortunate hop for me and I was able to get around (Troy) Perkins and luckily the dink worked.

As I pushed it past (Troy) Perkins I was looking for the easy slip, but then I saw one of the other center backs coming back. So I figured, try to play it to his back shoulder while he’s still running full speed but it went over his head, so it worked out.

(My confidence) has a lot to do with the guys around me. They’ve been playing great. Defensively we’ve been strong and they’re keeping us in games and that helps us attacking players go forward and gives confidence knowing we can change the game, we can make a play and I think that’s all you can ask for from the team.
That’s our model: 11 guys defending and going forward. So whenever someone can make a play, everyone’s made a play this season so far and I think that’s what’s great about this team going forward. When there has to be a play to be made, it’s not just me it’s every 11 guys making a play out there. Bobby (Shuttleworth) did great out there today keeping us in the game, the two on one in the second half when he saved it off the post. Everyone’s making plays.

I think it’s our mentality and also our will to keep fighting. We don’t keep our head down when we get scored against and at the same time, we’re looking to not only to score one goal but we want to keep attacking. After we got the second goal, you can see from the guys we kept pressing and tried to get the third goal. That’s the fight, the mentality we have on the team.

New England Revolution midfielder Jermaine Jones
I don’t think it’s too bad. I got hit so now we have to look at it day to day. It was swelling at halftime and I could feel a little bit of pressure on my feet and we didn’t want to take any risks, so I went out.

I don’t know the name of that player, but he tried maybe two, three times, without the ball, to kick me. One time he got me and it’s not nice when you feel like you have players that try to hurt you – like this guy tried to hurt me …

In training there was a situation where (Patrick) Mullins stepped on my feet, but before the game it was okay. I was playing and I had no problem. But I’m saying, this guy, I don’t know his name, he plays midfield, he tried two times – one time when the ball was in the air, he didn’t look for the ball, he tried to jump at me. Then the second time, he caught me at my feet and the ball was not there – he hurt me and I had to go out …

I’m not the guy normally to say something – I play hard, too – so I can take it. But this guy today, he was not nice. I hate people who don’t go for a tackle and try to get the ball, if he had tried to get the ball, I wouldn’t have said anything. But he tried two times – the first time the referee called him back and the second time, he had no chance of getting the ball so he got me right on the bone. I hope that the referees will see that for the next time and protect me a little bit more and other players too, when you have a guy like this.

I had x-rays already. Everything is good, nothing is broken. It’s only like a bone bruise. Now we’ll just take it day by day and I hope that I’ll be back out on the pitch.

I think you can see that the team is in good shape. Still, we have to learn that not every game we can come back with a win. We have to be focused and sometimes we give away the goals too easily. As you’ve seen the last few games, we can be lucky and happy that we come back and win the games. We always manage to do it in difficult ways. Sometimes though, we just have to play it easy. When we play the way we know how to play, there are not many teams in the league that can beat us. Everyone has to feel that trust in themselves and play simple.

Montreal Impact head coach Frank Klopas
We had a lot of injuries going into this game, and I’ve never been in a situation like that. Even the guys that we did bring with us tonight are not 100 percent healthy. However, I felt like they left everything on the field. More than anything, I think that we had a good game by the whole team. Also, I am extremely happy for the young kids that got playing time tonight. You see guys like Jeremy (Gagnon-Lapare), Louie (Beland-Goyette), and (Anthony) Jackson(-Hamel) – all kids that we just signed from our youth system that are stepping in doing a great job. They took the challenge, and I am happy for them. They showed me how they can play facing a tough situation. It was nice to see that they were not scared to face anything. It was a little different for Jeremy because he played for the international team, but he’s still only 18. There’s a very bright future for these guys, and I am excited to see what they achieve with the club.

It’s unfortunate that we got the red card. We wanted to rest other guys and be smarter in situations like this, and I felt like Kryz (Krol) should have been smarter. He had a yellow card, and he tackled someone from behind. He left the team with 10 players when we needed him to play for 90 minutes. With that being said, he is also unavailable for Wednesday, and that makes it even harder.

I thought that we played a good team that scores a lot of goals in the run of play that combine well in the final third. I also thought that our keeper made some saves late in the game and we defended well. We had a couple of good opportunities towards the end there, but our legs were a little heavy. It was a good effort by the team, and I am most happy about the young players that got some good minutes tonight.
We have a lot of guys with question marks, and I’ve never been in a situation like this. We always plan about three weeks ahead. When we looked at this game, we knew we were going to make some rotations in the lineup, but not like this. The amount of players that we have out is amazing. We have to see how people are feeling in the next couple of days, and still put the best lineup out there on Wednesday.

It’s been a difficult season. Some of the changes we have made have helped tremendously as the season progressed. We have a lot of talent in the final third, but we also have to worry about other parts of the field that we need to improve on. There is a sense of confidence with the group, and we are playing different right now. If we look in the past, you can tell from the games we lost what we need to improve on, and we know that. Even tonight, you can tell by the chances we gave up and the goals allowed in. I know we’re going to be ready because we know how important this next game is. For us, the season is not over. More than anything, our fans know that we need the biggest support out there. Come Wednesday, the 11 players that are out there will be ready because they know how important this game is for us.

Having Ignacio (Piatti) is very important for us. He has four goals and four assists, and he’s been amazing in the final third. You can see how dangerous he is, he even elevates everyone around him, as well. He had a little bit of tendonitis in his foot, and I did not want to risk him. The same goes for a lot of the guys because we haven’t had a lot of time to get them rested, but now we have until Wednesday. The guys that were here tonight, I know there is no question mark about their focus; it is the guys that we left behind that we have to make sure are ready as well.

The goal in the 13th minute was fantastic. When you come on the road against a very good team and you go one up early, it is very impressive. I thought it was a very unselfish play by Jack (McInerney) as a forward, you don’t see that often, but it was a great pass. Within two minutes, we made a couple of mistakes that we paid for. Obviously, it hurt us going a man down. It made it very difficult for us given the circumstances, but the guys fought all the way until the end. We know we’re a team that can score a lot of goals, and you can see that tonight with the amount of chances we created.

I think goals follow goals. Whether we score or not, there’s got to be something in our mind that clicks. We talk about it all the time, but it’s just hard. There are plays that we should make, that we don’t. It’s just unfortunate that the focus is not always there, but this is something that we have to keep working on.

Montreal Impact goalkeeper Troy Perkins
We have a young team that we throw on the field every game. A lot of these guys haven’t played together; we dug deep and fought hard. We just didn’t want to give another goal away and we didn’t. We wanted to come and show a good effort for the new guys and fight till the end.

First half, it was definitely a fast pitch for everyone, the ball didn’t settle very well. Any time you play on turf when it’s wet, is tough.

No, I wasn’t distracted. The ball just moves a lot and it went everywhere. I saw the hand ball but kept my eyes on the ball the whole time. It was just one of those that I need to do better with next time.

The young guys fought hard tonight, and gave us all they had. At times it wasn’t great but with the team we put out their tonight I’m proud of the guys, the way they fought, and leaving everything out on the field. We could have walked away tonight with a point but unfortunately we didn’t. All we can do now is keep pushing forward and look ahead to the next game.

Montreal Impact midfielder Jeremy Gagnon-Lapare
I think we had a good start – a decent start. We contained their pressure well and were good on the counter, which led to the first goal. So I think the start was pretty good but after we conceded two bad goals quickly that gave us a tough time for the rest of the first half. I think it was good at the beginning but couldn’t contain their pressure.

They’re well organized defensively first. I think we could have maybe been more intense on the pressure but it happens sometimes. They had a good day I think, so it was just hard.

We have to get used to it (the rain), because it’s only weather factor. I think it was okay. Obviously, the ball was going a bit quicker but, no, it didn’t change much.

I think I did good (in my first league start). Obviously, I’m disappointed with the result because it was in my first game. I would have liked to get out there with a good result but that’s how it is so we have to move on to the next game.