UPDATE (10/21 - 9:14 a.m.): I've added a few photos to the Video & Pics page.
The team departs early tomorrow morning to head back to the District and will turn focus towards the visiting Colorado Rapids on Saturday. The guys were - not surprisingly - disappointed with the result tonight. A number of players commented on what they thought was a poorly officiated match - it certainly looked like Fred got pulled down in the box in the second half - but most thought the team could have played better.
Post-game quotes below. I'll add a few photos tomorrow (maybe).
D.C. UNITED HEAD COACH TOM SOEHN
“I don’t think in the first half we executed what we came to do very well. In the second half I think it got better; we moved the ball around better. We were disappointed in the no call on Fred in the box. I can’t wait to look at it again, but from my memory it was 100 percent a PK, and that’s a very crucial time to get one back and make it 1-1. We had our chances, so it’s disappointing. I felt like we could have snuck out with a tie.”
“When you go down one, it’s disappointing, but I don’t think we created a whole lot either, so on that side I was disappointed. We talked and reorganized the second half and I thought we had a lot of good play and some good quality chances.”
D.C. UNITED DEFENDER MARC BURCH
On the first goal
“I couldn’t see it until the last second, and it came through Devon (McTavish)’s legs. I went to kick it and (Adam) Cristman got it and I just couldn’t get enough on it and it just went right off Taylor (Twellman). Give them some credit, they hustled and were in the right spot; it was just bad luck on our part.”
D.C. UNITED FORWARD JAIME MORENO
“We always say that when the defense drops too much on the forwards, its always trouble for us. In the second half when we started playing and pressing, putting more pressure higher, it made a big difference in the game. We put in a better performance in the second half, but still it wasn’t good enough. That’s another lesson and hopefully it won’t happen again.”
On the first half
“(The Revolution) did a pretty good job keeping the ball and winning second balls. We had a big gap in the middle, but we sorted it out in the second half and it made a big difference. It was a bad loss, but now we just have to think about Saturday.”
“We never gave up. We kept digging, kept trying, and after we scored the first goal, we had some good chances to tie the game. It’s just part of the game where you get chances and you miss them. We just have to do a better job overall. It wasn’t a good job in the first half, but we showed a different team in the second half. We’ll learn from it and it won’t happen again.”
REVOLUTION HEAD COACH STEVE NICOL
“(Doug Warren) looked confident. He had a couple of things he had to make decisions about and when he had to make decisions, he made the right one, which is half the battle with goalkeepers. It is great they can make fantastic saves, but if they can make good decisions on a regular basis, it makes it look easier than it actually is.”
“The first half we felt safe to be ahead. We would have liked to have penetrated them a bit more, but as far as playing the game was concerned, we were in control. We were in control up until the 60th minute and then we lost our way a little bit and they put us under pressure. We lost a goal from our own bad play, we should have just stopped the ball up the other end of the field and cleared it and we didn’t. We tried to be too clever in the wrong area, lost the ball and then Jaime (Moreno) scored a great goal. If that falls to anybody else it is not a goal - it was a fantastic goal from him. It was difficult after that, all of a sudden they’re one goal in it. You’re stuck between going forward too early and back too far and that is what happened after they scored.”
“(Khano Smith) has been – over the past two or three games – he has been lively, he has been enthusiastic. The one thing that we tend to forget is players coming from outside the USA don’t understand the whole travel part of the game and (Mauricio) Castro has been just feeling his legs. He is used to getting on a bus and going an hour and playing another team. He is not used to time zones and flights and buses to stadiums to get to the airport and all kinds of things. Castro was feeling his legs a little bit but as I said Khano Smith has been energetic and confident and that is why we’re playing him.”
“(Michael Parkhurst) has been saying he hasn’t gotten a lot of sleep but he has experience behind him now. He has a fantastic soccer brain and no surprise that he came through.”
“(Taylor Twellman) just needs games. He really just needs to get games under his belt to get his real sharpness. He is fit, he can run all day, but that extra sharpness you get from playing games is what he is missing.”
“Adam (Cristman) has been an absolute trooper, he has made a huge contribution the last four or five weeks. Good strikers are always active anyway and the two of them are good strikers. They’re both good at holding the ball up and they can both score goals, may it continue.”
“We have so many games at the present time that we’re counting the suspensions and the bruises and the injuries as we go along. Clearly when you’re getting somebody back like Taylor Twellman it can only add to your strength, particularly up front and as a unit. It is good to get him back but as I said we don’t look too far ahead at the present time.
NEW ENGLAND REVOLUTION GOALKEEPER DOUG WARREN
On his mindset of today’s game after the San Jose Game
“To me that game was already gone, you couldn’t get it back. That’s a difficult situation to come in at. I was just focusing on this game - this was my game from the start. The guys in front of me played unbelievable - (Michael Parkhurst), (Jay) Heaps and Chris (Albright) - and just our defending six back there played unbelievable, which made it a lot easier on me.”
Having Michael Parkhurst and Shalrie Joseph for the game
“The guys that stepped in there - Jeff (Larentowicz) and those guys - they did a great job. We won SuperLiga without them. Again, (Michael Parkhurst) is the best defender in the league and having him back there is a big relief.”
