COLUMBUS CREW SPORTING DIRECTOR AND HEAD COACH GREGG BERHALTER
On the victory:
Overall, I’m pleased. Obviously, New England has quality up top. They have a lot of versatile guys that move around and make it difficult. I think we defended well and created enough chances to win the game. Overall I’m pleased. You need these games to build the team. You need to be battle tested, and games like this battle test you.
On Ethan Finlay's winner:
I felt it was coming. I really did. I felt that we had a bunch of set pieces that we were extremely dangerous on, a couple of good runs in the box that we were really dangerous on. I felt like the goal was coming and the goal itself was a fantastic move. We talked about it at half time: the outside guy moving from the outside to inside, getting behind the center backs. It was exactly what we talked about. It was great execution.
On Finlay, continued:
I think Ethan (Finlay) did a great job of that. He was dangerous all night; him, together with Bernie (Anor) and Federico (Higuaín). they’re a handful. They’re difficult to play against, and then when you talk about (Adam) Bedell and (Aaron) Schoenfeld, they did a good job. Good job.
On Wil Trapp's performance:
I have such high expectations for (Wil Trapp) that it’s almost unfair. It’s true. I judge him to a different standard than a lot of players. I think he’s been up and down this year; and that’s by the standards I’m judging him. But he’s got a great future ahead of him, and we’re working with him. All the time, we’re working with him to improve him and get him consistent. He’s doing a great job. At his age, to be playing these minutes in the league, he’s doing a very good job.
On Federico Higuain's goal:
It was good. (Federico Higuain) needed that. He needed that goal. It was a fantastic free kick on turf. To hit a ball like that is pretty special, and he has that ability in him. And we’re getting him there. He had a tough week last week with three games. He played all the minutes in those games. It wasn’t easy for him, and this was a great response I think.
On what is working for the club that did not earlier in the season:
I think closing. I think we had opportunities. If you look at the Portland game, we should have gotten three points out of that one. If you look at the Toronto game, we should have gotten three points out of that one in Toronto. In these games, we’ve closed. In the Montreal game, we came from behind and then the last stretch we had to grind it out and we did it. This game, same type of environment and we did it. That’s the difference right now.
On Justin Meram's performance:
We think (Justin Meram) can be a guy that starts the games. But when he doesn’t, we know what he can bring. We know how dangerous he is, how talented he is and he can make a play. So we put them in purely to win the game. We made two subs and we didn’t want a tie. We wanted to win. That’s the attitude we have. That’s what type of soccer we try to play: be aggressive, be offensive. We make moves like that to win.
COLUMBUS CREW MIDFIELDER TONY TCHANI
On the win:
We are just hungry, because we haven’t been wining. We had a couple tough ties and a really bad lost against New York. We are looking to win and that’s exactly what we did today.
On what worked during the match:
Our coach told us to trust each other and be patient, which can be difficult because we’re always looking for the long ball. We need to move the ball better and I think that comes with time. We did a good job today moving the ball side to side and capitalizing on our opportunities.
COLUMBUS CREW WINGER ETHAN FINLAY
On his goal:
The ball came from the left side, a nice pass from Justin (Meram), just out of the reach of Darrius Barnes. I was able to bang it home past Bobby (Shuttleworth).
On what the victory means:
It’s great for our confidence going forward. Obviously this is a game we wanted to win against a struggling New England Revolution team and that’s exactly what we did. I think when he calls it a team win, he means the defense was fantastic all night. Steve (Clark) was great in goal, and overall the entire team played well. There were a lot of things we had to overcome tonight and we were able too.
On New England's chances:
You have to be able to withstand the storm. They came out strong in the first half, getting several awesome opportunities but we held on and were able to get a goal before halftime. They have a lot of guys that are tricky and able to do one-two’s, which made our job harder today but like I said we were able to withstand their storm and come away on top tonight.
On his goal-scoring run:
If you look at all my goals, I’ve had great set-ups. I’m not just being a team guy, honestly the ball tonight was unbelievable. It’s just me making runs and my teammates picking me out. I hope I can return the favor later in the year.
