COLORADO vs. D.C. UNITED POSTGAME QUOTES
JUNE 20, 2009
Rapids Head Coach Gary Smith
On the 1st half:
”I thought we were disappointing with the ball in the beginning of the first half. There were a lot of occasions that we squandered possession too easily, but the difference was Omar. His finishing was excellent. Although we came in up 2-0 there were plenty of things that weren’t quite right.”
On D.C. United:
“On the day you’ve got to give their players a lot of credit for their work ethic, which was absolutely outstanding.”
On Omar Cummings:
“He had an opportunity to use his athleticism and he did it to a great degree. He has improved enormously. He’s not just great on the ball and when were attacking, but he’s got a much better understanding of what’s required of him when we don’t have the ball. His movement’s better. He tries to keep play on one side of the pitch better.”
On finding points:
“Without Connor were looking else were to try to find some goals that are going to win us points, and tonight Omar has come up there. I also have to say that there were important saves by Pickens. Those two in the end have really won us the game.”
Colorado Rapids Midfielder Pablo Mastroeni
On the game:
“(Matt) Pickens made 2 or 3 huge saves keeping us in the game, and thwarting any kind of dangerous attempts on goal. Effectively it was a good defensive posture and offensively Omar was just brilliant.”
Rapids Forward Omar Cummings
“Just a normal game I guess, I got my chances and I put them away.”
“The first I think we took it real well. It was a good pass by Pablo, I got a quick turn and a drive to the goal and put it in the back of the net.”
“The second was definitely a give me, but you still have to work hard for it. It’s a bad pass, but you still have to score it, you have to put it in the back of the net. They’re not going to give it to you that easily.”
On the angle of the second goal:
“I think I made it a little bit more difficult for myself than I needed to but I was confident that once I got past the keeper that I would put it in the back of the net.”
D.C. United Head Coach Tom Soehn
On play tonight:
“They were just straight giveaways. That was disappointing because the guys that made the mistakes were fresh. I thought Pickens made some key saves when we tried to get back into the game and if we score one of those, the momentum might have carried us. But, we just didn’t have it tonight.”
On 6 goals in 2 games:
“We’ve had 3 games in 8 days, and they’re sitting on 10 days rest. We knew it was going to be difficult, putting in as much as we did against Seattle, but we have some time to rest and I expect us to get back to where we need to be.”
On the 4 in the back formation:
“It was simple play of giving the ball away. Whether it’s the formation or not it doesn’t matter. I don’t think we gave them a whole lot besides the two chances we gave them and it was our doing. If we get into the locker room 0-0 I think there’s some momentum building. No formation is going to make up for the mistakes we made.”
Finding the positives in the game:
“I’ll have to take some time to think about that. It’s pretty disappointing, but our guys deserve a little rest now and we can’t dwell on this, we’ve got to turn it around and get ready for the next one.”
D.C. United Forward Chris Pontius
On Pickens saves:
“He made some great saves and kept them in the game. If one of those goes in, it changes the game drastically. That’s just the way the game goes sometimes though.”
Busy week/Injuries
“You saw the tired D.C. United tonight. Things weren’t clicking for us on the ball. When things aren’t clicking on the ball, you give it your all and but sometimes you just don’t have the legs.”
2 weeks break
“We're definitely disappointed, but these two weeks off we’ll be able to get our legs back and come back fresh and ready to go.”
D.C. United Midfielder Ben Olsen
On the game:
“Obviously something was wrong. Our energy was down and when your mind goes, the passing and all the little decision making goes too.”
On the 6 goals:
“The way we give up goals, are not the greatest way. Tonight, we gave them goals. If a team is good enough to earn goals, fine, but we give up too many goals on our own accord.”
Broadcasting and P.A. Request: When speaking of the organization, please refer to the team as either “D.C. United” or “United,” but not “the D.C. United” or “the United.” We appreciate your cooperation.
Doug Hicks,
dhicks@dcunited.com
, (202) 587-5448,
Boris Flores,
bflores@dcunited.com
, (202) 587-5452,
Kyle Sheldon,
ksheldon@dcunited.com
, (202) 587-5450 or
Cristina Cruz,
ccruz@dcunited.com
, (202) 587-5440
