D.C. United Head Coach Ben Olsen
On the win:
“I think New York came here with a little bit of a watered-down team, and it showed at times. We’re going to see a much better New York team when they get a little healthier and the guys that are on suspension come back. We’ve got to take the win with a grain of salt, but I feel we took advantage of that. That’s what you have to do. Throughout the season, you’re going to have games like this where you’re playing a team that’s a little down, and you have to step up and take advantage of that. I thought we did a very good job from start to finish of putting them under a lot of pressure and not letting them get comfortable.”
On forward Chris Pontius:
“He set a great tone early. I thought the entire team was buzzing early and the ball was moving. The field was wet, so it was a nice night for them to play. Chris does a little bit of a shimmy and bangs one in. I thought he had a good night. He still doesn’t know how to play forward though – that’s the scary thing. He’s still new at the position, and his movements can get a lot better, but three goals isn’t too bad.”
On forward Maicon Santos:
“He’s a big boy. He is a handful, as we all have seen so far. He put in another good day. I keep preaching to him, consistency and being a handful and being strong and keeping the ball for us. He always has times where he’s facing the goal on his left, and his left tag is a nice weapon. A little bit of an individual, just gutsy play on his part to create that goal.”
On Chris Pontius coming off the bench for several games to start the season:
“There wasn’t much communication. There was enough, I think, from my end. He was patient, to a point, and then he was chomping at the bit. We had a good meeting. With all the subs that want to get on the field, you have to take advantage of your opportunities. He comes into the New England game and makes the most of it. Again, it makes me make some tough decisions. He did that, and we gave him a run, and I thought he did well the other night. Tonight, he was pretty darn good.”
On what the key was to stopping New York’s offense:
“You can still see, even with a watered-down group, there’s still a lot to deal with up top. [Thierry] Henry and [Kenny] Cooper have been pretty successful so far. Henry’s just so dangerous every time he gets the ball. I think, again, if they had a little bit more quality on the field tonight, they would’ve been much more dangerous. But the key, to answer your question, is Henry. He makes them go, so you try to deny him the ball, you try to get double teams out on him. You try to frustrate him. He’s still that type of guy, that he can change the game pretty quickly.”
On the defenders:
“I thought [Emiliano] Dudar had a really good game. In particular, the way he deals with Cooper and Henry in a physical way. He had a very good game. The whole back four was solid; they were connected. We didn’t get caught in behind too many times. They defended the box very well. I was very pleased with the way they’re coming along.”
On midfielder Dwayne De Rosario:
“Dwayne’s doing enough. We all jumped on Dwayne’s back last year and said, ‘Look. Take us. Take us to the playoffs.’ And he tried, and he did a pretty unbelievable job at it. We said in the offseason, we can’t rely on one guy. We need to get help around him so we don’t have to rely on Dwayne. Dwayne being in the midfield, he’s doing a lot for us, and we’re going to continue to score goals with him in the midfield. Dwayne doesn’t care. Of course, you always want goals and assists; we all have egos. But ultimately, you’ll see a smile on his face in there. He doesn’t care, he wants to win. He’s got a lot of individual honors. When he sits back at the end of the day, his trophy case is just fine, in his individual and team stuff. But he wants more team stuff, if you ask him.”
D.C. United midfielder Nick DeLeon
On the win:
“Last game, we had a slow start and that’s what we preached really hard for this game. We can’t afford to have that start, so we came out banging and were fortunate enough to get three goals in the first half. And from then on, it was just about trying to hold that lead and maybe sneak in a couple more. Overall, it was a good team performance today.”
On the rivalry:
“I got a sense of the rivalry right when I started warming up. It was pretty cool, especially to get the result that we did, that made it even sweeter.”
D.C. United striker Chris Pontius
On the win:
“I thought it was good. We talked about what they did to us last year. We didn’t forget about that. I thought that the first half was some of the best soccer we have played all year and we got three goals. It’s always nice to be playing with a lead like that. The whole team did well.”
On 2012 versus 2011:
“I think we’re a more mature team. We close out games better, we see out plays better, and we make a lot less stupid mistakes.”
On his first goal of the game:
“Benny [Olsen] and Chad [Ashton] have been harping on us as forwards to double-down on midfielders and as Henry picks up the ball I’m able to pick it off of him, and I’m running at the back line and see a chance to put it on my right foot and hit it.”
On adjusting to playing striker:
“I have always said that I just want to be on the field. The game is different. Different defenses offer different opportunities for you to get in behind. Sometimes its underneath, this game I had success just moving off the ball and creating space for myself and Maicon [Santos] and DeRo [Dwayne De Rosario] to run into. We were able to find each other today.”
D.C. United defender Robbie Russell
On the win:
“It was a great result for us. They still got one [goal]. I think that as a defensive unit, we want to start priding ourselves in getting zeroes, so that’s something we have to look to improve on. We want to get zeroes. That’s one of the goals we set at the beginning of the season and I want us to remember that.”
On Chris Pontius:
“Chris is always a threat. Whether he is coming off the bench or starting, he’s a threat. I think it’s a testament to him that through the ups and downs, he’s maintained his mental composure and performed brilliantly today.”
New York Red Bulls Head Coach Hans Backe
Overall thoughts on the match:
“I would say that we gave away four goals. Every goal from DC, it’s one pass, then goal – all four of them. It’s absolutely phenomenal that they don’t need to combine anything, it’s the first time I’ve seen this in a game, four goals coming after one pass.”
On the defensive performance:
“In terms of defending, we gave [the goals] away. [D.C. United] didn’t need to work for them. I would be very happy if we could get those kinds of goals in our attacking game. Of course, when you are three down, it’s a long way, but I think we responded quite okay in the second half, but normally a game is over when you are already three down in the first forty five [minutes].”
On the team’s missing pieces:
“We are a little bit short-handed. If you look at it, the centerline is usually the most important in a team, and we were missing [Wilman] Conde, [Rafael] Marquez and [Roy] Miller. Anyhow, these are the guys that need to step up now and we’ll see if we can turn this around already for next Saturday.”
On the team’s midfield:
“We don’t have the best balance in midfield; we are missing physical strength. We have a lot good footballers but physically we are losing a lot.”
New York Red Bulls Forward Thierry Henry
On New York’s defensive performance:
“It’s been terrible defending the way we do defend, we were going to get punished and we got punished today.”
On missing some key players:
“No excuses, they won. And they deserved it. They were good, scored early and kept putting pressure, putting us in trouble. Finally, they were missing that, putting the goal in the back of the net, and they did that today. They could’ve scored more, so like I said, we need to work harder and see if we can [get a win] against New England.”
On whether a foul should’ve been called in United’s first goal:
“I don’t have anything more to say about this type of thing. The referee didn’t think it was a foul, so move on.”
On Chris Pontius:
“Pontius is a great player; he did what he had to do.”
New York Red Bulls Defender Connor Lade
Overall thoughts:
“We are not happy; you can’t be happy with this result, we have to move on.”
On the defensive mistakes:
“It happened so fast sometimes, but it’s just little things and mental lapses that if we play a team that has good finishers, those goals happen. We are going to have to learn from these things and start putting a more consistent effort together.”
On his first start:
“It felt alright. I got to experience a game before, so I knew what the speed was like. Overall, I thought I did okay, but I’m trying to focus on the team and not myself. If I’m in the lineup, great, but if not, we have to get the result at the end of the day.”
On the weather conditions:
“Both teams had to play in it, so I don’t think we can have any excuses tonight. Some of those [goals] could’ve gone our way, but they didn’t.”
