D.C. United Head Coach Ben Olsen
On the game:
“We have to make some changes. We have some part time players. I still don’t get how it takes a coach to throw things and yell at you to now play with aggression and with the right spirit. Its mind boggling to me. I don’t get it. If that’s what it takes, to get you to play desperate and with high concentration, some guys are in trouble. Some of this has to come from within. Its confusing to me. I’ll look to make some moves and try to make some adjustments. We’re getting some injured guys back soon.”
On going down two goals early:
“You go down two goals that you gift them, and the tactics go out the window. Everything that you worked on for ten days goes out the window.”
On Rafael’s performance:
“I don’t know if we rushed him. We said that about this time he would start to get some playing time. We have gotten him limited minutes and have given him enough chances to get his feet wet. I think he did some good things at times. He didn’t get enough shots off, but I thought he did OK. I’ll have to look back. He’s a physical presence and he holds the ball up well at times.”
On the performances from the team:
“We have to ask more of everybody out there. I don’t think there were many guys out there that had good nights. Some guys had good nights after we were down 2-0, which seems to be the case recently.”
On his job security:
“I don’t worry about my job because I understand coaches get fired. I’ve seen coaches get fired for less than 0-7 in the last seven games. But I don’t worry about it because that’s completely out of my control. Is my job on the line? It better be – I’m the leader of this team, but I have faith in what I’m doing and I’ll continue to go about my work.”
On the defensive performance:
“We had some breakdowns – breakdowns that Houston capitalized on pretty easily. We’re just giving teams goals. All of these teams aren’t earning goals. They are saying, ‘sit back, counter, and they will make mistakes.’ We have consistently done that. Once that happens, the game becomes an exercise in us trying to get one back and ultimately, if you don’t get a break, it is probably going to come back the other way because you are taking chances. Its not a good recipe right now. We’re not getting the little breaks either. That’s not why we lost the game. When we go through these stretches and spirals, nobody is going to give you anything. You’re not going to get the PK, you’re not going to get the little bounce, its just how it happens.”
On moving forward:
“We’ll keep moving and we have a quick turnaround to try and heal up and move forward against a tough Dallas team. It doesn’t get any easier – we have Dallas, Kansas City, and Portland, so its going to be a tough stretch.”
D.C. United Midfielder Nick DeLeon
On what he sees as the problem:
“Honestly, I have no idea. I thought practices and training sessions, the locker room vibe was good. We got out in the game and that’s what happened, so I mean I couldn’t tell you what’s going on right now.”
On the defense:
“It’s lack of communication I guess, lack of focus. Defense is just about hard work and communication, I just want say it’s a lack of communication is what is going on.”
D.C. United Midfielder Perry Kitchen
On the team’s performance tonight:
“Our fans don’t deserve this. Our organization doesn’t deserve this. Hopefully we can just get one win and that can turn into something, but you know at this point, tough game, tough stretch. We just have to stick together and try to get something out of the next game.”
On Head Coach Ben Olsen being upset at half:
“I mean, yeah, and rightfully so. I don’t know how many times this year we’ve come in down 1,2,3 goals at halftime. It’s unacceptable. We can’t expect to win games or get anything out of games if we’re always fighting up hill. We just have to put it all together. Like I said it only takes one, and hopefully we can get something more from that.”
If the team is playing with out confidence:
“No, I don’t think so. I mean we’re definitely disappointed at how we’ve been doing. But, at this point, I don’t think it’s about tactics or x’s and o’s. I think we just need to go out there and find way to win. Not much else to say.”
D.C. United Forward Dwayne De Rosario
On the game:
“It’s disappointing. It’s been a hard two weeks, and to come out and give up two goals like that. It’s very, very disappointing. But, it’s my job to keep the guys focused and keep plugging away and working as a team. It doesn’t get any easier. We’re going to a very good Dallas team right now—a team that is obviously on top of their conference, they’re doing very well, riding on a lot of confidence, and we have to figure out a way to come together and grind out something right now— a point, a win, just something. You know, right now we just have to grind out a point and a consistent effort. Like I said, most of all I’m disappointed in the lack of character right now. I think when we give up two goals you get out-bodied, out muscled in a couple ways that are just unacceptable. We have to have one of our guys cleaning up somewhat. It’s just not there.”
On Head Coach Ben Olsen being at a loss on how to motivate the team:
“Well, I’ve been doing a lot of screaming and a lot of yelling and you see it’s the same thing. I don’t know, you do that and then you look at it, and like they say, guys have to really look in the mirror and take a gut check cause this is our life. You have to play with that passion- I just don’t see that consistently from everyone. I think it’s there from quite a few guys that come out and give it all. But hey, things go wrong, those things happen, it’s the response that bothers me. The heads go down and you dig a deeper hole for yourself. And that part is unacceptable.”
On the defensive performance:
“These are my guys, so I don’t want to be too critical. We just can’t do that to ourselves in the game. We cant give up 2,3 goals in the first half— especially at home. We work too hard on a lot of things last couple of weeks to come in and the momentum and the hype that we had going into the game and to just give away two goals just like that is frustrating. I know I am speaking for a lot of the guys when I say its frustrating and it’s frustrating for the guys that are in the play giving up the goals. But, like I said, the response has to be better. If you give up two goals you need to be a little bit more urgent, get into some tackles. Then I would have to say, hey relax, calm down, I just don’t see that. I have to yell to keep them motivated. There’s only so much talking you can do. Like I said, we have a very tough task ahead of us in Dallas and we have to figure something out.”
On Rafael’s performance and their connection:
“Yeah, I mean obviously, the switching in and out of forwards is difficult to build the rhythm and the chemistry. There’s obviously the lack of communication. But I think he worked hard. I think he could have gotten himself in better areas. I think he could have maybe done a little better with one or two chances in the second half, maybe a little bit more aggressive to the goal. I think he gave a good effort tonight. He was battling and he was trying his best. The two that I had, definitely one of them was a goal, I don’t know if it was the first one or the second one, but one was a goal. And then the set piece was obviously questionable. We’re not getting anything. Nothing is going be handed to us and we have to figure a way out.”
Houston Dynamo Head Coach Dominic Kinnear
On the team’s overall performance:
“Yeah, I feel great about it. I wasn’t expecting 4-0, but we knew it was going to be a tough game – it was. They missed some chances, we had some great defending there – I think it was 2-0, possibly 3. There were two goals off the line. Overall, it was a great effort by us, so it’s a great result for the guys and they’re happy and rightly so – they worked hard.”
On why Will Bruin has been so productive against D.C. United:
“I don’t know. It’s a coincidence, maybe? He’s getting good chances, some good looks at goal, he makes good runs, he works hard, he’s a good finisher, he’s brave. His second goal, the guy was hanging all over him – he’s a strong boy inside the box. I think when you have that along with good movement and with a guy who has a great desire to score, it goes a long way.”
On why Ricardo Clark was excluded from the 18-man roster:
“Yeah – [he has] a little bit of a groin problem, so [we] didn’t want to risk it, so that’s the reason why he didn’t dress today. All of these guys have had two games in the space of four days with a lot of travel. They put in a great effort. Obviously, confidence makes injuries don’t seem so bad as they are and hopefully that’s the case when we play on Sunday.”
On why he thinks D.C. United is struggling:
“I can’t say. I’m not with this team. All I know is I’ve got a lot of respect for Ben [Olsen] and I sincerely hope they turn it around for him.”
On the team making a 4-0 result on the road look easy:
“It’s never easy. You have to work hard to make the game the way it is and there’s no easy games because if you take it easy, teams can punish you. Like I said, [D.C. United] worked hard, they got some chances, things aren’t going their way. So, when you work hard, the game can become easy, but by no means was it an easy game.”
On what it will take to remain on top of the Eastern Conference:
“We’re working hard to get where we are right now. We have a tough game on Sunday against [Sporting] Kansas City. There’s still 24 games left in the season, there’s still a long ways to go, [but] we’ve put ourselves in a good position. We’ve worked hard to get there and you have to work harder to stay.”
Houston Dynamo midfielder Brad Davis
On the team’s overall performance:
We came out right off the bat and we definitely wanted to get after them. They were struggling a little bit and we really wanted to come here and [we] felt like we had a good opportunity. We had a lot of confidence coming off a great win out in L.A., and we wanted to come in here and get after them and I think we did that. [I’m] extremely happy with the effort everybody put in tonight. Obviously 4-0 on the road – it doesn’t happen all the time, so credit to everybody here for the hard work they put in and I think it’s well deserved.”
On if he thought United defenders were thrown off by a slippery field:
“That’s their own fault. They’re not wearing the proper shoes, I guess. We don’t look into that – we just play the game, to be totally honest.”
On his performance coming off a suspension:
I just try to come here and try and contribute. It’s not my normal position playing in the center midfield, so [I’m] just trying to get in there to do my best to try and connect with guys and disrupt things and work hard in whatever aspect that might be to help the team win. Like I said, we did a great job. Everyone did their roles properly and we got some great goals tonight.”
On Will Bruin getting hot tonight:
“I think the bear might have come out of hibernation tonight. Every forward needs, wants a game like this, to be totally honest. Two goals and two assists, that’s a pretty decent game. I think anybody would be happy with that, so [I’m] happy for him. Guy works hard week in and week out. When you do that, goals are going to end up coming – he got two great ones to come and there are many more to come.”
On why he thinks D.C. United is struggling:
“To be honest, I’m not in their locker room. I don’t know what’s going on with them, so all we can do is come here and play and show that whatever you guys are doing, we’re going to make it difficult for you. It doesn’t matter if you’re at the top of the table or the bottom of the table, we’re going to come at the same mentality and come after you every single game. That’s all we can take care of and we did tonight.”
On why Will Bruin is so successful against D.C. United:
“It’s weird how sports works sometimes. Some guys just have better luck against teams and obviously Will [Bruin] really does well against this team. It’s weird how sports works like that, I know what you’re saying. I can’t really explain it, but it’s just one of those things and when you start scoring goals and when you play this team when he plays next time, there’s no reason why he shouldn’t have confidence going into the game. That always breeds well for a forward – confidence is huge for those guys.”
Houston Dynamo forward Will Bruin
On why he thinks he is so productive against D.C. United:
“I don’t know. I guess, I scored my first goals against D.C. in my professional career. I guess [it’s] just a confidence thing. I should be playing like that against every team, but it is what it is.”
On why he broke out and produced tonight:
“I think it was just a matter of time. I knew I’ve been playing well, contributing in the offense – not getting goals, but we have guys who are scoring, so I don’t really care if I score or not as long as we’re putting goals in the back of the net. That’s all that matters. We put some in the back of the net tonight and hopefully we can keep going into the weekend.”
On if the team’s gameplan was to score early:
“That’s huge. That’s one thing we knew that if we could get on them early, kind of their heads would go down, maybe they wouldn’t have as much fight the longer they stayed in the game. Whenever you’re on the road, you want to try and get a goal early and I think we executed our game plan and I think it worked out.”
On getting results on the road in such a tough week:
“We knew this was going to be a big week. It’s not over yet, but in LA, cross-country to D.C., mid-week game. It’s a long week. That’s the nature of the scheduling, but it is what it is and we knew that this team was up for the challenge and I think we showed them.”
