D.C. UNITED HEAD COACH BEN OLSEN
Overall thoughts on the match:
Luckily, somehow, we were ahead in that game. Because fromthe way we were most of the second half we should have been losing. Somehow, wefound a way to get another goal, but our ability with the lead is just not goodenough. We have a long way to go.
In the first half it looked like we had some good chances,we should have probably been ahead – but [Houston] had some good chances too.We are still giving up a lot of opportunities.
At halftime we talked about the silly fouls, not giving awaycheap ones so they can’t play to their strengths and whip balls into their bigguys – we didn’t get that part. Then we come out and we come out flat.
I just thought overall our energy wasn’t great tonight. Wefound a way to be up 2-1, so we should have three points; but we didn’t doenough to finish the game.
On Charlie Davies’ performance:
[Charlie Davies] scores goals and he is in the right spotwhen we need him. Give him credit, he had a pretty good night overall and heprobably could have had two or three [goals].
On Andy Najar’s performance:
I thought Andy [Najar] pulled off a pretty good play for thegoal. But overall, I thought too many of our guys didn’t get what the gameneeded at certain times.
On Josh Wolff taking the captain’s armband:
It’s not that big of a deal. While Dax [McCarty] was hurt,Josh [Wolff] kind of had it, and it was working. We talked to Dax and he understandsthat right now it’s probably more important for him to be dealing on gettingback from the injury and doing his stuff on the field. He gave a pretty goodeffort tonight.
On Chris Pontius’ goal:
Heck of a goal. He is creating good chances each game and heis a handful – it’s nice to see him coming into his zone, and he was one of theguys tonight that for sure put it out there.
D.C. UNITED FORWARD CHARLIE DAVIES
On the draw:
It’s a game where I think we worked extremely hard. Weoutplayed them and we deserved all three points. We gave up a slack goal withfour or five minutes left, so it’s extremely disappointed. At the same time, wehave to be a little bit proud of ourselves for how we conducted ourselvesthroughout the game. We have to learn from these experiences at home, we haveto kill of games and it’s something that we really need to harp on – especiallywhen you’re up 2-1 at home.
On his eighth goal of the season:
Andy [Najar] was fantastic on that whole play. It’sextremely special when a player can do that, he was able to basically get up tothe goalkeeper and round him, and the ball bounced out to me. It was abasically a birthday present and I wasn’t going to miss that chance. Kudos toAndy who made that play happen.
D.C. UNITED MIDFIELDER CHRIS PONTIUS
On his overall impressions of the game:
We worked very hard and unfortunately [Houston] scored late.We have to be tougher defensively – you have to know how to handle thosesituations and it’s unacceptable for us to give away the lead like that.
On scoring United’s first goal of the match:
I thought our pressure as a team was good tonight. We hadpressure in the box and I was able to pick up the ball and hit it hard onframe, and it was good enough to beat [the goalkeeper].
HOUSTON DYNAMO HEADCOACH DOMINIC KINNEAR
Overall thoughts on the game:
[The game] was back-and-forth. We weren’t doing ourselvesany favors by making some mistakes that led to goals, but I thought we createda lot of chances tonight – unlucky to not go up 2-1 when it was 1-1 for awhile. [D.C.] United got a goal and the guys battled back hard to get into thegame. [It was] good team spirit by the guys to go down 1-0, come back, and Ithink it was one of those ones where we left a couple chances out there.
On earning the draw after defeating D.C. United 4-1 twomonths prior:
Yes, [I’m happy] because we were down 2-1 with minutes to goand no [I’m not happy] because like I said, I think we left some chances out onthe field. Obviously that game was two months ago, so both teams are different.I don’t think you’re ever going to see a score replicated. I’m happy that webounced back from 2-1, but a little bit disappointed because I thought at 1-1we created some good chances and we left some out there.
On changes to push for the equalizer:
[We] just went to a more attacking formation and I think itwas good that we kept swinging balls into the box. We got a little bit of luckon the goal, I’ll admit that. It came off a deflection, but I thought thepressure that we tried to put them under with balls in the box finally paidoff.
HOUSTON DYNAMO MIDFIELDER BRAD DAVIS
On the game:
I thought [the game] was entertaining. Obviously [I’m] alittle happy that we came away with the point, but I thought we played goodenough to win the game. I thought we created a lot of chances, got a lot ofballs in the box in dangerous areas. We were just unable to capitalize. In thesecond half, [D.C. United] came down and really that was the first chance theyhad and they scored on it. So, that’s the way it’s been going for us this year,but we fought back and were able to get out of here with a point.
On coming from behind to tie the score:
[Coming from behind] has happened a lot this year if youlook at our record, coming back and getting a point after going down. We’velost games, but we still feel like we definitely need to get on a roll and weneed to figure out a way to start winning some games. All in all, when you aredown a goal, all you can do is continue to fight until you get back in [thegame] and that’s what the guys did tonight.
HOUSTON DYNAMO FORWARD BRIAN CHING
On his goal:
At that point, it’s about getting the ball into the box andjust trying to make a late run. I think I kind of made a late run, so a lot oftimes when you do that late in the game, [the defense] really doesn’t pick youup. Colin [Clark] played a good ball and [we were] a little bit fortunate toget a deflection that kind of crossed the keeper up, but I thought it was adeserved goal in that we had so many opportunities to tie the game.
On his team’s perseverance:
It’s not a position you want to be in down a goal, but Ithought we showed some heart to battle back and not give up – we came backtwice. It shows that the team is fighting, but we want to kind of limit havingto come from behind. It was good from the guys to battle back the way we did.
