D.C. United Head Coach Ben Olsen
On the Black-and-Red’s performance
“I’m obviously pleased. A shutout, a few goals, dominating possession and some good attacks. Overall, very pleased with the night. I think we’ve got to be somewhat realistic about the energy level they brought, and they were obviously missing some key guys. But, you know, I thought we took advantage of them on an off night and I thought we did a very good job. I thought Rolfe and Fabi were very very busy and I thought Lewis Neal really helped in the midfield overloading and giving us the advantage centrally for possession. Outside backs were aggressive, center backs dealt with their big boys very well and Bill made a save or two that kept us in, so all around a good night.”
On decision to play Rolfe up front
“That’s actually his normal position, so it’s certainly not a genius move by the coach. That is where he has played and he knows what to do up there, obviously. But again him and Fabi worked pretty well together and Rolfe has a great ability to fill in the holes and play with guys with different attributes, whether its in Eddie whether its in Fabi, he really knows what the game needs and where to go, so he has been a big pick up.”
On biggest difference between 2013 and 2014 seasons
“An entire team. For the most part, we have added seven new starters and the guys that stayed around are very good soccer players and competitors. They are experienced, you know, I don’t have to rev this crew up as much again they have been doing this along time, so they know how to manage themselves and how to get up for games.”
D.C. United Midfielder Chris Rolfe
On the result
“Good result for us, I thought we worked hard. For us the important thing is keeping the clean sheet the guys in back did a great job and Bill came up big for us as well.”
On playing alongside Fabian Espindola
“Tonight was the first time we played both together [as forwards]. I think in the first half there were a few plays where I could’ve been a little bit more on the same page as him, but I think overall for playing for the first time, very well. And obviously we both got a goal and an assist, so it was pretty good.”
On starting as a forward for the first time with United
“It felt good. I haven’t played there in a long time, but I enjoy playing there, so I was excited to play there today and I think that helped with mine and Fabian’s chemistry and got us on the right foot from the beginning.”
On the natural feel of playing as a forward
“Over the course of my career of my 23 years that I’ve played the game most of that time has been playing in that position, although my professional career is probably been a little bit tilted more towards an outside midfielder. I think with either position, I’ve learned to enjoy them both and make them one and the same.”
On the team’s preparation against Houston
“We were trying to exploit the space in front of the centre backs and I think we found that space pretty well. Along the same lines, we knew that if we made the right runs space would open up out wide. I think we did pretty well with that, so you got to give the coaches a lot of credit cause they had another great scouting report that got us the win.”
D.C. United Forward Fabian Espindola
On the recent form of the team
“I don’t think we changed much, we played kind of the same. We tried to keep the ball moving and we did it more often tonight and we finished chances that we had.”
On teaming up with Rolfe up front
“[Rolfe] is good with the ball and he’s good moving and finding space and I think we did well.”
On his high assist mark so far this season (5)
“Sometimes I try to find the ball a bit under the line of forwards. I don’t mind [passing the ball], I just want to play.”
On Rolfe’s goal
“First I was trying to hold the ball but then I saw [Rolfe] and I played the ball to him and he was going 1 on 1 and he has good feet.”
D.C. United Defender Bobby Boswell
On the team’s strong performance
“The guys in front of us defended like crazy and made our job a bit easier. I think Houston, missing some of their key components, we were able to take advantage.”
On Rolfe and Espindola’s impact on offense
“To be honest, they played angry. Fabi was determined. [Houston’s defenders] are bigger guys than him but at halftime he wanted us to make an adjustment to play him the ball more, not less. Any time you hear your guys say that, it’s obviously a good thing. The biggest thing to take away is a complete team performance. We weren’t real happy with how we played [against Montreal], so being able to play early week game and take care of business is great. Now we just got to get ready for one of the hotter teams in the league [New England] on the weekend.”
On the depth of the team being an important factor every week
“It’s huge. Every week some guys are in and some guys are out, but the product keeps getting, I think, better. We’re still growing and we’re still learning and we are learning each other’s tendencies. We got a deep team, and I’ve been saying that all the time. It’s times like this where you get tested. We got CONCACAF and US Open Cup coming up but we’re just happy to be winning right now. Like I said, we got a hot team on the weekend [New England]. We got to turn around and get on the grind again tomorrow cause you’re only as good as your last game.”
Houston Dynamo Head Coach Dominic Kinnear
On what is coming up next week
“We have San Jose on Sunday.”
On talking to players before San Jose
“Lets go win on Sunday.”
On strikers injury update
“He has hurt his knee and we will get more diagnoses later on.”
Houston Dynamo Defender Corey Ashe
On mindset going into San Jose
“I mean, the mindset is to win the games; three points and we’ll be fine.”
On what went wrong
“Two mistakes, you know, they punished us for them. They came out, they were organized and they kind of set the tone and obviously doesn’t help with the injury to Mark. But credit to D.C., they came out, they stuck to their plan and they put their opportunities away.”
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