USOC 2011 QUOTESHEET
WEDNESDAY, APRIL 6, 2011 – D.C. UNITED 2, PHILADELPHIA UNION 2 (United advances on PKs 4-2)
D.C. UNITED HEAD COACH BEN OLSEN
Overall thoughts on the match
I’m glad we won but I still think that we have to win that game outright. We have to be a little savvier in how we deal with games and manage games. When we get that second goal it shouldn’t be an issue anymore.
On Bill Hamid’s performance
He’s great in PK’s. He had a moment or two where you saw a little rust but overall he was pretty good today
On Andy Najar’s performance
It was a step in the right direction for sure. We saw a little bit of the old Andy there and you know we challenged him. He’s a young kid but we asked more of him and tonight he gave us the energy and the passion that people love.
On Saturday’s contest with LA Galaxy
Certainly the guys that played tonight are going to be sore but we got a couple of days [off], and we didn’t play a lot of guys… [Josh] Wolff got his goal and got out unscathed.
On Branko Boskovic
I thought Branko was very good. He played centrally and that’s a good spot for him and we are still finding out what the best spot is for him as well as others and tonight we saw him do pretty darn well centrally.
On negative aspects of the second half
First we need to finish off the game. We have one or two chances where we can bury the game and it’s over and we got to take care of that part, but we also just have to be a little bit smarter. Set pieces are one area they’re going to get at you so make sure you are doing your part and getting your man and making sure your commitment is there on the set pieces, it wasn’t good there.
D.C. UNITED FORWARD JOSH WOLFF
On the nature of the match
It was a classic Open Cup qualifier, the first of hopefully many games in the tournament. The game got put on a tilt a little bit with the red card, but it’s good to see our guys hold strong. Sometimes it takes penalties to decide a game, and that’s what happened out there tonight.
On his equalizing goal
It was a little bit of a scramble in front of the goal, but I think we were pushing pretty well. We didn’t give up a whole lot in the first half, we put our emphasis on the game and it was good to get rewarded before the end of the half.
D.C. UNITED DEFENDER DANIEL WOOLARD
On scoring the go-ahead goal in extra time
It was a good ball across the field, I was on the back post trying to head the ball back across the goal. It hit [Chris] Pontius in the back, and he turned and hit [the ball], it hit somebody else, and I just hit it hard near-post and it went in.
On Brian Carroll’s equalizing goal for Philadelphia
Yeah, [the ball] went off Bill and went off me. It brought back flashbacks. I played here in 2008 in the quarterfinals [with Chicago] and scored a goal in the first half. I’m two for two playing here, scoring goals, and then D.C. came back and we lost in overtime [in 2008]. So this [match] brought back memories of that [match].
D.C. UNITED GOALKEEPER BILL HAMID
On saving the second penalty
It was pretty exciting. I was a little disappointed not to get the other two [penalties] because I pretty much read their body language and went the right way.
On his physical progress
I feel like I’m doing well right now, now I have to see if the coaches agree.
PHILADELPHIA UNION HEAD COACH PETER NOWAK
Opening Statement
First of all of course I’m proud of these boys because you can see that they put in a tremendous amount of work, and [play] after the red card is never easy. My major problem with the whole game is the officiating. As much as I want to stay away from that during the last year and this year, the stuff that’s happening on the field is not where it’s supposed to be. I think for both teams it’s difficult if the referee is starting to be bigger than he really is, so I think all these red cards, yellow cards, calls this way or another -- there was I think very poor officiating. I’m sorry for both teams because as I said they put in 120 good minutes for the game and then even with the PK’s at the end, but it shouldn’t end up being this way.
On being ejected from the game
I was celebrating and he told me to leave the field and I’m just like ‘we scored a goal, we celebrated’ and that was it. After he threw me out I had a couple of comments about his performance today – not abusive comments, but about his ability to ref the game.
On what he told his team after Valdes was sent off
They know what to do, I don’t need to tell them anything. We just tried to reshape the things and not to give anything major and I think they did a pretty good job. We got a couple of goals again from the corner kicks.
FORWARD CARLOS RUIZ
On the game
I think it was not a great game. The level was not a good level, but we tried to come here, tried to play good soccer, tried to win the game. We know D.C. is playing much better this year with Ben Olsen as a coach and playing away in D.C. always is complicated. I think it was a fun game for the fans, 2-2. We lost in PK’s. We came here trying to win, so we’re going back with a loss, but on Saturday we play New York and have to fight for position on the East Coast.”
On his team’s offensive play
I think the first twenty minutes we did not play good at all and after we tried to move the ball around. We tried to connect passes with the offensive line, make some crosses. I think every game we’re trying to learn more and more because I am new on this team and I don’t know all my teammates. I think we’re getting better after every game.
