Columbus Crew head coach Brian Bliss
General thoughts on the match…
We started off really well. We got a couple of goals off the counter. Our guys’ willingness to run off the ball and get forward was very good. We fell asleep on the restart goal that [Blas] Perez got on the end of. A couple of guys didn’t expect a quick restart and we paid for it. Then we kind of lost our way for 10 minutes and the game kind of evened itself out the rest of that first half.
I like to play an up-tempo but a wide-open game like that makes it very difficult, especially on the road.
We’re up 3-1 coming out of halftime. You’ve got to keep playing. You can’t absorb pressure for 45 minutes. We fell asleep on a ball that everybody thought was out of bounds. It was not out of bounds. I was right there, it danced the line and stayed in bounds and four or five guys quit on it. We paid the price again but they were resilient and they came back and got the fourth goal.
To have a two-goal lead is rare for our club lately. But the guys did well with it near the end of the game. We absorbed a lot of pressure but Chad [Barson], Tyson [Wahl] and Tony [Tchani] won a lot of duels in the middle of the field. We were picking up a lot of loose balls. Matt Lampson made a couple of good saves to keep us in it. The one on Blas Perez right there before we made it 4-2 was a huge save. Kudos to our guys, they really did well.
FWD Bernardo Anor
General thoughts on the match…
We are very happy with the win. The whole team went out there and gave 100 percent. It’s a great win for us and it puts us in an exciting spot in the table. I’m just very happy with the performance of the whole team. I hope we keep on doing this the rest of the regular season.
It’s giving us confidence. The more we win, the more confidence we have. We know for sure that this team is full of talented players. We’ve just got to take advantage of each of us, try and do our best and try to provide the team with our different qualities. If we go out there and play our best, I think we’re going to keep winning games.
On scoring the Crew’s fourth goal of the night…
It was pretty relieving for the team, I think. FC Dallas was attacking a lot so that gave us a little more space and let us relax a little bit more. That goal put us two goals up and it was pretty much game with 20 minutes to go so we could pretty much control the game.
MF Dominic Oduro
Thoughts on the match…
We played well. We came here to get three points and obviously we did well. Basically, right now I think we’re in the playoffs and that’s all that matters. We’ve just have three more games and have to stay focused and win one or two games. We did well today and hopefully we can keep it up.
On how Columbus got the win…
We kept the ball. Again, we take pride in our offense. We have great guys, guys who are explosive, me included. Most of all I’m happy we came out with the points that we needed. We just want to keep focused and keep the momentum.
On closing in on the team scoring record…
I’m really excited. For me, I have to give credit to my teammates for making everything happen and the coaches for having confidence in me. Hopefully, I’ll break it but the team winning is our focus.
On the difference in the team’s play from earlier in the season…
We’re committed. We know what’s at stake right now. We have a great coach who is pushing us forward and everybody is in sync with him. That’s something that really helps the team. That’s what is moving us forward. Everybody is giving 100 percent and that’s something that you can’t take away. We just have to push it and move the team forward.
GK Matt Lampson
On the team’s quick start…
Whenever you go on the road and need points, you’ve got to come out of the gate quickly. We knew this team was all about speed and would be susceptible to the counter. A lot of our goals came off the counter. We knew what it would take to punch it in and luckily we got a few early ones and that really set the tempo. Every time FC Dallas scored one, we responded quickly. It was a great team effort. We needed three points and we got them.
