D.C. UNITED HEAD COACH BEN OLSEN
Overall thoughts on the match:
[New York] is a good team and if you make mistakes, they punish you. They got guys who know how to punish you and we didn’t do a good job on Thierry [Henry] in the first half, we let him make the game. [Henry] had too much space to make the game but I was proud that they didn’t quit at 2-0, at 3-0, even at 4-0, the guys worked their tails off in the second half. This is a process, and right now [New York] are a better team than we are. Are they 4-0 better than us? I don’t think so, but on the night I suppose they were.
On the halftime substitution of Branko Boskovic for Dax McCarty:
Regardless, who’s on the field at that point you need a little change, you need a spark and I felt [Branko] Boskovic came in and did pretty well and his passion was very effective and his effort was very good. It’s not been an easy ride for him, he’s been an absolute pro, whatever his role has been, he has done a good job for us.
On the Red Bulls as a team:
I think they are a very experienced team. They are in a different spot than we are right now. It’s not an excuse, we could have been better tonight. I’m certainly not happy about tonight’s result and I don’t think there is a guy in the locker room right now who is feeling very good about themselves so we’ll lick our wounds and get back to work. 1-0, 4-0, it’s a loss. We can put this behind us and move on. I’m not as alarmed as I thought I’d be at a 4-0 loss at home.
On Perry Kitchen:
I thought he did okay, I thought there were some okay performances on our end. No one had a great night and against a good team you need a couple guys to have a good night.
D.C. UNITED FORWARD JOSH WOLFF
On the loss:
It’s disappointing obviously. We expressed before the game what a big match this was and what a big opportunity, and we came up a bit short. The effort was there, guys were committed throughout the entire game, but we made some mistakes and New York has an attack that punishes you. You talk about good teams in this League that can capitalize on some mistakes, and they did a great job of that. At the end of the day I take responsibility as well. There were some passes I missed that maybe could have gotten us back in the game, for that I’m disappointed. Losing 4-0 in front of your own fans is embarrassing, and we’ll look to rebound with our games next week.
On missing offensive opportunities:
It wasn’t a lack of opportunity, there were some decent opportunities there tonight. Their goalie made some great saves in the second half that could have got us on the board, but we could have showed a little more patience and a little more savvy in the first half, but in the second half we had some good service and some balls were blocked and tipped. We put in a good effort and to not get anything is disappointing. We’ll put in the video and continue to work, for us it’s a process.
On moving forward:
There’s no time to rest, no time to sulk. You brush yourself off and get on with it, that’s the name of the game and it’s part of the gig. Hopefully we don’t have too many bad [games] like this. Tuesday against New England we’ll role out a good lineup. When you play, you play for your club and you represent your organization and look to win.
D.C. UNITED MIDFIELDER CHRIS PONTIUS
On the game:
We made a couple of mistakes and they [New York] has some great players. They punished us for our mistakes tonight. We did pretty well in possession, but our final ball wasn’t good enough. When you push up numbers, you get exposed on counter attacks, and that is what happened tonight.
On United’s offensive struggles:
New York is a good team. It’s tough to beat them and to beat them you can’t make mistakes and you need to finish your chances – we didn’t do either of those things tonight.
NEW YORK RED BULLS HEAD COACH HANS BACKE
On the game:
Today we were very effective and perhaps it sounds a little bit strange, but I would say D.C. is the best team we’ve played against so far. It sounds strange when you win 4-0, but the way [D.C. United] plays, the way they defend, we got them on the breaks, but they played well. We had trouble today…They played really well I must say, I’d like to credit them for the game.
On Thierry Henry:
I think it’s a lot with the health issue definitely [making him play better] because if you have some pain, you can’t be as explosive as you want to and you can’t run the way you want to.
On the rivalry:
I think [the rivalry] is probably more for the fans. I think if you look at our players, many have only been here for one year and they really don’t have that history with the rivalry. I think it’s good for the game, for the League, for Philly, D.C., and New York. Of course it was important [to win] because it was a Conference game for us.
NEW YORK RED BULLS FORWARD THIERRY HENRY
On the victory:
I told you guys at the beginning of the season, once we start to score, I think we’re going to score a lot. The most important thing is that we won. We scored three the other day and we scored four today. D.C. United played well I thought. I don’t think they deserved to lose 4-0 today, but we put the ball in the back of the net.
On D.C. United:
I don’t think it was easy [to win]. [D.C. United] played pretty well. I don’t think they deserved to lose 4-0. They definitely deserved to score a goal or maybe two, but they didn’t. It was a difficult game. I don’t think the final [score] reflected the way the score showed.
On his team’s defensive play:
Jan Gunnar [Solli] was more than active on the right hand side. He created a lot for us tonight. Teemu [Tainio] was Teemu. He’s going to fight and give 100 percent. But overall I think we had to defend well tonight even though [D.C. United] created some chances. They hit the crossbar, they hit the post, and Bouna [Coundoul] had a couple of saves, but we didn’t concede a goal and that’s what is important.
NEW YORK RED BULLS MIDFIELDER JOEL LINDPERE
On the result:
I think the first goal we score was good. We have changed the way we play a little bit. We got more players in the box and we know that if we have three or four guys in the box all the time and we get early crosses, then we are dangerous. As [D.C. United] started to play, it was too late for them. I think it was not easy for us, but I think we were more dangerous.
On his goal:
I think I got a chance to score in the last game. I haven’t practiced shooting far corner too much down low and I was thinking if I do it, maybe I’m not good at this and in my mind I thought maybe I should do it the other way. So I took the ball in and just put it in with my right foot. I just need to keep working and practicing.
