D.C. UNITED HEAD COACH BEN OLSEN
On his team’s effort:
It’s funny; it was basically my pre-game speech. Let’s godown and swing it, let’s show the people that we are completely committed outthere and we’ll need to push it to the limit to get this result. [Portland] didtoo. I think both teams tried to give it their best effort tonight.
Overall thoughts on the match:
It was a bit of a blur those last 20-30 minutes, and thewhole second half. But I am extremely proud of the guys tonight – I can’tbelieve nobody scored down that stretch. The amount of chances that were gonein the end were pretty remarkable. I have to look at it, but it seems that wehad the better ones. It just wasn’t our night. Troy [Perkins] came off with acouple of saves, and they did well to put their bodies in front of us.
I am extremely proud of the guys. Extremely disappointedthat we haven’t made the playoffs. Again, I apologize to the fans and theorganization. I’ll take the blame for it. I can promise you I’ll get better asa coach, and this team will get better.
On the team’s process:
We said at the beginning that this is a year to really findout who we are. What young guys we have, what guys we can rely on, and this isa process. It’s tough to sit here and talk about that because of thedisappointment, but I still think there’s a lot to this team. A coupleadditions, get healthy next year, and I think we are going to be a tough teamto beat.
On Dwayne De Rosario:
He’s a pretty remarkable player. I don’t know many guys withhis commitment and sense of the game – it’s amazing. He took a knock, and it’sbeen a recurring theme in the last couple of weeks. It seems like it’s a newone every week – they are just kicking the [expletive] out of him. I would dothe same thing if I was playing Dwayne De Rosario. It’s what [other players]are doing, and they [the referees] have to protect him a little bit. He’staking all these knocks, and he labored through the first half, and somehow hefound a way to put us on his back.
But it wasn’t just him tonight, there were a lot of guys outthere. Like [Josh] Wolff, with the amount of work he put in and the minutes heplayed. And Perry Kitchen – it’s exciting to have him in this organization.He’s a big-time player and he’s got a huge heart. It’s really nice to see himplay.
On the young players:
We got three rookies out there and two guys younger thanthat. Perry [Kitchen], [Chris] Korb, and Ethan [White] all played like mentoday. Andy [Najar] was terrific; one-on-one he is still as feared as anybodyin this League. It was just that final piece that was missing tonight. It’sdisappointing because there was some pretty good stuff.
On Bill Hamid:
He had some big saves down that [final] stretch. For thosetwenty minutes or so, or an hour and a half, however long that portion of thegame was. I thought Bill did well.
On other performances:
Tino [Quaranta] came in and gave us some life. Blake[Brettschneider] came on and did some good things, and Joe [Ngwenya] had thatchance in the end – he is always in good spots. He was just unlucky not to getthat one in.
On Brettschneider’s disallowed goal:
Yeah, he’s offside. I didn’t think so at the time, but itwas a good call because Troy [Perkins] is out. So basically you getone-versus-one back there.
And then the one when Dwayne [De Rosario] gets around andhits the guy’s shoulder, hand – whatever. I have to look at that one too. Itwas an exciting 20 minutes.
On the decision to take Charlie Davies off the field:
He was fine; he put some work in. It just wasn’t clicking.There are certain games when I think Charlie can really help you. But withteams that drop back, it takes away his space in behind. There were some bigboys, some trees back there, and we needed guys that could combine and weneeded to play soccer through them. I thought Blake [Brettschneider] did a goodjob. He is young and he brought in some good effort and energy – we picked itup around that time.
On the upcoming match against Sporting Kansas City:
We want to win. We don’t want to end this year on a loss. Wewant to reward our fans with something to cheer about. We will go at it withthe best team possible – that’s still walking after this game. They are dead,they were absolutely dead out there – both teams. They were absolutely fried,and that’s what you want. That’s the way you want to go down, every guybasically not being able to walk after a game. So, I am proud of that fact.
On what to improve:
We have been haunted by similar things throughout the year.Balls whipped in; we have probably given up more crosses than any team in theLeague. But that is something I know now, that is something we need to work on.We have recurring themes that I need to sort out. And that is on me to figureout. Next year, who’s here, who’s not. We will do that – we will make a betterteam next year.
D.C. UNITED MIDFIELDER DWANYE DE ROSARIO
Thoughts on the match:
It was disheartening. It is but it isn’t [disheartening] inthe sense that we showed some fight… It was another learning opportunity for alot of us. We’re happy that the supporters stuck with us through the wholegame, that means a lot to us as players.
On his shin injury:
I’ve actually been kicked in the same spot about three gamesin a row now, and at halftime I didn’t think I would be able to make it.Sometimes you just have to suck it up and play for your team.
On Blake Brettschneider’s disallowed goal:
At the end we were unlucky to have that goal called offside– I don’t know if it was or wasn’t [offside], but it’s frustrating. It’s been along year.
On the game’s frantic finish:
Yeah it was basically both teams having chances at the end.We definitely had some great opportunities, and if we had a little more hungerand a little more fight, we finish those chances. Those are things we reallyneed how to learn – to commit to that final ball and get your body behind it…In saying that, our guys did try 100 percent tonight.
D.C. UNITED FORWARD BLAKE BRETTSCHNEIDER
On having a potential game-winning goal ruled offside:
With the whole rush of the play I tried to get myself in agood position where [Dwayne De Rosario] played that ball across [the penaltyarea] and I could tap it. Unfortunately [Portland’s] defense stepped up.Whatever it was, I was just a bit offside. It’s heartbreaking because ofeverything we put into that game. To have a goal like that taken away,something that could possibly keep your playoffs hopes alive, I don’t think I’llever forget that.
Overall thoughts on the draw:
Unfortunately we gave up an early goal and spent a lot oftime chasing the game. I think we were really unfortunate to not score there atthe end. It could have gone either way, both sides had plenty of chances, andour defenders played incredibly well. Hats of to Perry [Kitchen] in the middlepushing forward so much. Right now it’s hard to think about, it’s hard toswallow knowing that we fell short of the playoffs.
PORTLAND TIMBERS HEAD COACH JOHN SPENCER
On Dwayne De Rosario:
If [Dwayne De Rosario] doesn’t get MVP of the League there’ssomething wrong. Plain and simple. For the last three months of the seasonsince he came here he’s been the best player in the League by far – a countrymile. He needs to win MVP.
On the game:
I think there was obviously a lot of chances at the end ofthe game. Two teams were just gambling trying to get that win because both ofus felt that we needed it. [D.C. United] probably needed it a little bit morethan us obviously because they had to win to keep their season alive. We haveto go to Salt Lake this weekend and try to get a result there.
On his team’s performance:
I thought we played well. I thought in the first half wecontrolled the game. I think it was the middle of the game where we lost threeor four minutes of possession, which was expected. [D.C. United] was the hometeam and they were fighting for their lives. Apart from that I felt that wewere well worthy of the 1-0 scoreline at halftime. And then obviously we cameout in the second half and [D.C. United] was a little bit more impetuous andwent after us and got the goal to get them back into it. From there I think wewere very unfortunate – as they were – not to score three or more goals.
PORTLAND TIMBERSGOALKEEPER TROY PERKINS
On D.C.’s final push to score in the closing minutes:
It was expected to be honest. [D.C United] was coming outleaving four or five guys up high and just trying to defend with three or fourguys. We knew it was coming. It was a big hectic and a bit crazy, but you’vegot to do what you’ve got to do.
On playing his former club:
I wanted to win obviously. It would have meant a lot to theclub and the guys in this locker room. A point on the road is a point on theroad, but now we just have to go and hopefully the result tomorrow [between NewYork and Philadelphia] goes our way and we can go and get a result against[Real] Salt Lake.
PORTLAND TIMBERS FORWARD KENNY COOPER
On the game:
We got off to a good start going up 1-0 into halftime.Obviously we wanted to get three points out of this game, we’ll take the onepoint and keep pushing forward and keep believing and continuing with the sameattitude and approach that we applied to the game tonight.
On players stepping up:
I think this team has a lot of depth. We lost two qualityplayers in Darlington [Nagbe] and Sal [Zizzo] not being here, but EricAlexander stepped in and did a fantastic job. Rodney [Wallace] came in andplayed incredible and had a good assist. So, this team is really strong andreally deep and is capable of doing different things and playing in differentformations.
On D.C. United:
[D.C. United] is obviously a quality team. With DeRo [DwayneDe Rosario] they have a really special player and they’re a good team. Theyhave a lot of dangerous players, so you know the game’s not over until thefinal whistle is blown and I think we’re aware that with every game you playyou’ve got to play the full 90-plus minutes.
