Forward Adam Cristman
On United’s inability to finish:
“I don’t know if it is a matter of clicking or continuing to work on crossing and finishing, or maybe we all need to have a meeting to clearly define every detail of everyone’s role. Everyone has to understand everyone else’s role because our timing is just not there. If I know that a ball is coming first time I know I need to time my run immediately, if a ball is coming from the wing I time my run differently. Right now we are all over the place, and it is frustrating because we are so close.”
On moving forward:
“We are not doing the simple things right. If you take care of the little things the big things will take care of themselves, and we need to focus on just getting things in a straight line and making them work. We just need to continue working.”
Goalkeeper Bill Hamid
On the loss:
“I think we played like champions, but unfortunately things did not go our way. I think their goal should have been saved, and it is unfortunate. Every one of those guys [D.C. United players] played their hearts out tonight.”
On moving forward from the loss:
“We have to play all 90 minutes, however we need to get this done we just need to do it [turn the season around]. We need to get back in the race and that begins by heading back to work first thing Monday.”
Midfielder Clyde Simms
On his overall impressions of the match:
“I think our shape was good tonight, and I think it was good enough to win the game. Unfortunately, on one play it [the shape] fell apart, and hurt us. Unfortunately in this league it only takes one play to lose a game, and we really need to try to be more creative offensively and to try to create more opportunities for ourselves.”
On the defensive lapse during Colorado’s goal:
“We felt like there was a foul [before the goal], but we have to play through that and track back. It was unfortunate that Rodney [Wallace] went down, but we need to step up and stop that goal from going in.”
On tonight’s positives:
“I think Bill [Hamid] did a great job of keeping us in the game. He made a kick save that not a lot of people would have been able to make, towards the end he kept us in the game and gave us an opportunity to win. Adam [Cristman] and Danny [Allsopp] have been great, I think the more they play together the better and better they get and they are learning to play off of one another and feed off of each other. They are big boys and are tough to handle.”
Head Coach Curt Onalfo
On his overall impressions of the match:
“I thought it was a great ending game, it was a hard fought game; questionable miscall leads to the goal, and puts us on our heels. So now we’re chasing the game, they’re able to drop numbers behind the goal, making it difficult for us, they did a good job at managing the game, but for me overall it was a very even match.”
“We need points, and you need points at home. We have another great crowd. I would never imagine it would start like this way and I’m sick of waking up the martyr and we need to give the crowd the points they deserve.”
“We’re just going to have to find a way to dig deeper and come out of it.”
Colorado Rapids Post-Game Quotes
Head Coach Gary Smith on the Win
“[It was] a very choppy, contested game. We had a couple of chances to extend our lead. We were very passionate throughout the game tonight. Wherever pressure there was, we restricted any opportunities to a real minimum…So I thought we deserved that win.”
“The last three weeks we’ve been suffering contesting games. The team deserved more than they got in the last few games previous to this. Tonight I’m just pleased with them and I’m sure that will do nothing but inspire them to do greater things and build their confidence.”
Mehdi Ballouchy on Game-Winning Goal
“He led me into that open space and I decided to take him on…a little step-over, the angle opened up a little bit.”
Mehdi Ballouchy on Previous Encounters at RFK
“To be honest, the last few times I’ve been here [RFK], we didn’t play soccer. We kicked the ball and tried to squeeze and pass it through.”
Matt Pickens on Match Result
“We’re coming off from like two games where I think we controlled the majority of play…and didn’t find that result on the scoreboard. Today we knew it was going to be a tough game. They’re a good team, they’re a solid team, they have a good coach. We had a few chances and buried one of them and I think that was the difference today. We knew it was the team that scored first that was going to win the game.”
Matt Pickens on Performing Better
“I think it speaks volumes on the character of this team. We find ways to win. It’s not always going to be a good style, a flowing style.”
