D.C United Head Coach Curt Onalfo
On the loss:
For me, at the end of the day, for whatever reason we stepped on the field thinking we were just going to win the game. In real life, we actually need to roll up our sleeves and fight and earn it on the field. It was a disappointing performance, having said that, it’s one game and we have to put it behind us quickly, learn from it. You know, we made a lot of youthful errors. We struggled with the size of the field, we struggled with the surface, we struggled with clearing the ball. A lot of things went wrong in one evening.
On Andy Najar’s debut:
Andy is a young player. He’s got a real bright future and he’s going to learn with each opportunity he gets on the field.
On the goals:
All of our guys need to a better job of recognizing danger. It’s a wet, slick night and just need to make sure we get the ball out of play when we need it.
On the lack of cohesion of the team:
It was a little bit of an odd week. We had Julius sick all week with stomach issues. Devon McTavish going down with a groin issue. It was a little bit of a fragmented week. Christian Castillo was sick most of the week, so it made for not a very cohesive week, but I figured still the guys would step in and be able adapt, but at the end of the day we didn’t. We have to move on. It wasn’t a good performance, but we know we have good performances in us. We showed that as early as a week ago, down in Charleston. We just have to learn from our mistakes, move on, and get ourselves ready for Saturday. It’s as simple as that.
D.C. United goalkeeper Troy Perkins:
On the loss:
Yeah, we just weren’t sharp. Little things like getting to rebounds, on both ends really, hurt us tonight. Little things like that we have to clean up, and overall it [tonight’s match] was an eye-opener for us. In the preseason we won games and played well, but coming into the season it’s a different story - a different ballgame. This is a good lesson to learn early, and we will move on from here.
D.C. United forward Jaime Moreno:
On Kansas City:
They were better tonight, there’s no question about it. They were hungrier, and controlled much of the game. We had a couple of moments where we really tried to play, and we had a good chance in the beginning of the game, but overall they were the better team.
On moving forward from the loss:
This [tonight’s loss] is a slap in the face, because we have been playing pretty good soccer, and it is clear that this team has a long way to go to improve. We feel strongly about it [improving], and things happen during a season, and we are lucky this [tonight’s loss] happened early. We are going to go back to work and sort out all the things that were missing today.
