MLS Playoffs Knockout round: DC united 2-1 New England Revolution
Coaches address to the media after the game
D.C. United Head Coach Ben Olsen
On the handball call and handball no call…
I haven’t seen ours. It’s tough. I don’t know. I have to look at them to dissect those. They can go either way. I don’t even know what a handball in the box is anymore. I really don’t. Ball to hand, hand to ball. I don’t know. Some of it’s grey, some of it is in the referee’s hands.
On Rolfe’s performance after missing the penalty kick…
I’m so happy for Chris because he’s been our best player this year. To miss that and not redeem yourself, I know that would be painful for him. He put his head down and kept working. I’m happy he found the winner, I thought it was a great play.
On rebounding on short rest…
I was worried at first. A few of our guys, in particular Nick DeLeon, looked a little heavy. They had more changes than we did and they seemed to have a little bit more juice. Sometimes we find in a back-to-back game once you get that out of your system and you come out in the second half, you’re flying. I thought Nicky in particular was very good in the second half.
On Hamid’s saves after the Revolution goal…
Huge. If you go down 2-0, you’re pushing the game now and leaving yourself wide open, more open then you should be at that point in the game. Bill just makes two unbelievable saves. Then he makes a great one at the end. But that’s why we have Bill. This is what he does for us.
Concerned with Pontius hamstring tightness…
We’ll see. We will evaluate him tomorrow. He said it cramped up, and it felt like it was going to go so we got him out. Maybe we got him out in time, maybe not. We’ll just have to wait a day.
Other teams/coaches in MLS that would have handled Sunday differently and rebound like you did-
Is that a compliment? I’ll take it as a compliment. I think any time you have a loss like we did everybody has to evaluate themselves. More times than not, you get a response from that and usually it is a positive response. You see more anger, more of a chip after a loss like that because it hurts and you want to prove that’s not who we are. I’m proud of the guys once again for dealing with some of that adversity. Again I thought they did very well tonight.
On choosing Birnbaum over Opare…
I thought Steve was good. Agudelo is such a handful. He is just so physical, I thought Birnbaum was great tonight against him, I really did. I just decided that Birnbaum and Bobby have had a lot more games together. The line seems to be a little bit sharper, just again out of pure experience with those two. But physically I thought Steve handled one of the tougher guys in the league tonight.
On the rain, whether it helps D.C. United…
I was very excited to see the forecast earlier this week. Not that we can’t win when it doesn’t rain or isn’t a little bit sloppy, but I don’t mind it.
On preference for conference semifinals…
I don’t care. I’ll just wait and enjoy the games and see where we fall.
New England Revolution Head Coach Jay Heaps
On the overall result…
It’s a disappointing night, and you hate to go down that way. It’s frustrating; guys were pretty upset about the way in which the game was managed from the referee. It really felt like there were at least two penalties at the end of that game and [we] didn’t get them, so frustration boils over and that’s a tough part of the game.
After the called penalty kick for D.C. United…
That’s the dagger because it was marginal at best. It was right in front of us and you can give it, but I just felt like after we scored, we were playing against another group out there as well.
On the rhythm of the game and form of the team…
That’s on us, and I think the night was soggy and we could have been better on the night. You guys started with the questions about the referee, but in terms of where we need to be better, we knew it was a quick turnaround from Sunday to Wednesday and we could’ve managed the game, kept the ball better and done a little better. I was really upset with that first goal because it was something we completely worked on and did not want to be isolated 1 v. 1 to cause a foul, so we could’ve been better and it is something that we have to look at first and foremost.
On the timeliness of D.C.’s goal and on the opponent…
Timely goals are what D.C. is all about and I give them credit, I give Ben Olsen a lot of credit and I tip my hat because it wasn’t a game where we gave in or anything like that. Those guys went out there, in terms of D.C. United, they fought hard. They had a game on Sunday and they bounced back well. I credit Chris Rolfe’s response; he misses a penalty kick and then scores a goal. That’s pretty good from the kid.
