HEAD COACH CALEB PORTER
On Crew SC’s ability to continually get results on the road
“So we’ve played four of five games on the road and three of the last four on the road, and we’ve gotten four results in a row. In the three road games, we’ve had two draws and a win and obviously won the home game. If you take out the run of games prior to that period, we’re really pleased. Obviously we’re improving as a team, our mentality’s changing. I think it’s six, actually, times in a row we’ve responded with a goal after the opponent has scored. So that shows the hunger in this group, and I’m real pleased. Obviously, it’s not a win, but this is a very good team. We’ll take the point, we keep moving up a couple ahead of us that lost and we’re back at home for two games.”
On Crew SC’s tactical approach against the San Jose Earthquakes
San Jose [Earthquakes] is a difficult team to game plan for, but it’s something our staff looks forward to. We play good teams and we have a good team as well. We like to figure out how to pick the lock. They’re a team that has been difficult to match up with. I thought we went a little bit too direct in the first half. That was part of the plan, but not as much as we did and I thought it led to them winning the ball and getting on top of us a little bit. We needed to find the balance between when to go behind and direct, and when to kind of play through the pressure, and when to keep the ball a little bit more. We didn’t have enough possession that first half. Second half, our adjustment was to keep the ball a little bit more, which obviously helped turn the game – now they were on the back foot. I just love our resiliency, our ability to find that goal. I thought actually we were a pass away – on a couple times – from finding the winner.”
On Gyasi Zardes’ focus on improving as a player
“There’s no one that works harder than Gyasi [Zardes]. He’s one of the first guys out on the pitch, he’s one of the last guys to leave. He’s constantly looking to work and improve his game. He’s extremely coachable, he’s an honest player and he’s great in the box. You saw on that finish, you give him a chance and he’ll usually bury it. It’s great to see. I thought we got really good performances across the board. I’m not even talking about the fact that we lost basically acenter back, we lost a left back. We ended up playing our attacking mid[fielder[ at left back at the end of the game and he’s slide-tackling everywhere. Jona[than] Mensah, it’s his first game, he was only supposed to play 45 minutes if any, and he ended up playing nearly 90 minutes, Aboubacar [Keita] played left back. You look at this team and you look at what we’ve been through, we’ve taken a lot of bullets all year and we’ve dealt with a lot of adversity. I couldn’t be more proud of just how resilient they are. And we’re not quitting. We’re going to keep fighting and putting pressure on the teams ahead of us. Don’t count us out yet.”
MIDFIELDER WIL TRAPP
On the challenges that the San Jose Earthquakes presented
“Look, I mean they’re a very fit team. Their ability to cover ground - the man-marking - is very difficult to play through. In the first half, we were a little skittish on a bravery perspective and trying to play through. I think in the second half we’re down a goal, so we open up and play a little bit more how we want to play and then it created a little bit more problems for them and more chances for us, and that makes it. Then Luis [Diaz] makes a great play on the goal and G[yasi Zardes] gets in the box and scores. It was a great combination, but I think overall we could’ve done better and been a little bit more brave throughout the entire game.”
On what has shifted to allow Crew SC to get results in tough road matches
“I think it’s not only a mentality shift, but, I mean, you get guys that are confident, guys that are coming into their own and guys like Buba [Aboubacar Keita], Alex Crognale that haven’t played a ton of minutes. Look, they’ve come in and done well. The more camaraderie, the more chemistry you have on the field, it starts to generate some results, and I think we’ve benefited from that as well as, just kind of, [a] ‘don’t have anything to lose’ type of mentality that’s benefited us as well.”
On Crew SC’s confidence while dealing with team injuries
“I think every time a guy gets injured, of course, you never want to see that. I think in a way, it’s forced us to have guys that have to play. The more guys that have experience on the field when their number is called, they’re a little bit more prepared versus not. It’s an unfortunate thing, but at the same time, if you use it the right way, it can be to your benefit.”
On what needs to happen in the next couple matches at MAPFRE Stadium
“Six points. We just have to focus on Cincinnati. It’s a rivalry game, of course, there’ll be a lot of bursts of speed. It’ll be busy but ultimately it’s about just winning the game at home and climbing up the standings in the table because teams ahead of us have struggled this week. It would’ve been nice to get more than one point this week, but it’s a difficult place to play and all we can do is take it one game at a time.”
GOALKEEPER ELOY ROOM
On facing the San Jose Earthquakes
“We knew it was a really good team with really good players. It was a difficult game for us. It was two different halves, and the first half we had some difficulties with the pressing of them [San Jose Earthquakes] and then the second half we played more our game and we made it difficult for them.”
On staying patient and scoring in the second half
“We tried to stay in the game; it was only 1 – 0, so we had a lot of chances. When we scored a goal, we knew we had to play our game and it gave us a chance to play well in the second half and keep going on this way.”
On transitioning into Crew SC
“It is a new team and before I saw some games with the team, I thought it was a little bit of people scared to make mistakes, but now you see the players have more confidence and we are playing really good. I think we showed it today and last week with the confidence going up and I hope it stays like this.”
On looking forward to playing two consecutive matches at MAPFRE Stadium
“It’s really important because these games on the road are really difficult and we knew [we] had a tough test tonight and last week. We got the points there [Red Bull Arena] and now we have one point, but I think this is good for the confidence of the team. Now we head back to Columbus and regroup.”
