New England Revolution head coach Jay Heaps
It was a draw at home, 0-0. It was just one of those games. It’s another step for us. It’s another shutout for us. We defended well at times. It got loose a little bit in the game, but overall we had some good chances and I thought their goalkeeper – literally – kept them in this game all night long.
This week, or two weeks, we had some good training. I think that there’ll be a time when (Kelyn Rowe will) start; they’ll be a time when he comes off the bench. I think that we just want to keep it fresh. Kelyn is a player we want to continue to get better. He’s a rookie; he’s only 20 years old and he’s a good little player.
I thought [A.J. Soares and Stephen McCarthy] did well tonight. I thought Stephen McCarthy was sensational defensively. He made some great plays. In the second half, we really tried to push the game. If you noticed, we went man-on-man a lot of the times there, so it was A.J. and Stephen one-on-one with their forwards. We wanted to win this game, so unfortunately we hit the cross bar, we missed a couple of chances inside the six. But overall, I thought those two guys had a good game.
He came off at halftime. It looks like an ankle sprain and pretty good kick. It’s a tough sub. And then [Stephen McCarthy] took a pretty hard kick to, well I think we all saw it. And so it kind of kept me handcuffed at the end there making a sub. I really wanted to bring Diego (Fagundez) on and add a third attacker. But at the same time, if [McCarthy] has to come out of the game, we don’t have another sub. So I was stuck being a little bit probably smarter than I should have been.
We had some good chances, but we gave the ball away too easily – and that’s what really cost us … if you think about, if we score the first play of the game when we almost score, (Benny) Feilhaber’s through, it’s a different game and the confidence [is there]. I don’t want to say it wasn’t our night, it’s such a negative. But at the same time, we did not have our best game, for sure.
We tried to push it a little different (in the second half). We went more man-on-man to try to free up Benny (Feilhaber) a little higher. I thought their 37, Kevan George, had a pretty solid night. He’s a rookie, he ate up space. They came in and pushed everyone in. They knew they were going to clog the middle because that’s what we do, and when we had our chance to go wide with Lee (Nguyen). We had some chance, but the ideas ran out a bit.
New England Revolution goalkeeper Matt Reis
It was a tough game, especially in the second half when it was back and forth and back and forth. I think we created some good chances in the first half, the first couple of minutes, too. But the key is that we fought hard and didn’t give anything away. There are going to be games like that, but we’ve got an important stretch here in the next couple of games, and we’ve got to regroup and move on to the next one.
I don’t think either team was really playing for a draw. I think it really opened up in the second half. They’re a counter-attacking team, and they like to sit in and then break. They had a few chances, but I thought our back four did great, and Shalrie (Joseph) in front of them did great.
[A.J. Soares and Stephen McCarthy] both put their bodies on the line, and they did well. (Emilio) Renteria is pacey players and he can really cause a lot of damage. The three they had underneath him all popped in and caused us problems, but I think as a team we did well defensively. We just needed to get one in the goal.
It’s always great to see Paul (Mariner). He’s a great man, and he’s going to have those guys fired up, and it’s really important for them to turn their season around. They’ll be at home, and it’s definitely not going to be an easy game. We have to just keep up our battling spirit and hopefully we can get a result.
New England Revolution defender Stephen McCarthy
Yeah, it started tough I think. We weren’t playing too well in the beginning. They had some chances, but I think we got the defense tighter as the half went on and the second half was pretty good defensively. And we had the chances to win.
Yeah I think that’s exactly it. Chris (Tierney) likes to go, Kevin (Alston) likes to go, and when you’re starting as a defender for the first time you’re a little scared to let them go. But yeah I think I’m getting used to it. We had to make plays and we made them.
I’m not exactly sure (what changed after halftime). Maybe it’s just one of those things, but we were really pressing at the end I think and it was kind of back and forth. So I think we had some chances at the end, too. But yeah, I’m not sure what was the difference.
It’s huge (to get a shutout). The whole back four, that’s what we are striving for. To put two back-to-back, that’s huge. I think it’s really something that we built on and we are trying to go forward with, so I’m excited about it.
We said we had to keep them in front of us and I think we did that better. But more importantly we were more compact as a four. We were trying to slide guys in a little bit and I think that helped.
Columbus Crew head coach Robert Warzycha
I think the first half was pretty sharp. I was pleased with the passing, especially when playing on the turf, something we don’t really have in Columbus to play on. We gave them a couple, two chances in the beginning when we didn’t go with their runners. They had really good chances but in the end we made some good saves. Other than that, to be honest with you, it was no worries. They played the long ball which we can defend well so it was just a matter of winning the second ball. Some crosses that they put on were good, as well … It was some fouls. The other thing is they really play long ball and we didn’t have any rhythm. We were losing the ball when running with the ball instead of passing and that’s what happened. So that’s really what seemed to happen in the second half.
I’m happy with it. We are obviously away from home, playing on the turf here - a tough place to play - and they played a pretty good team. They’re very big so they really set up some good pieces and I’m glad that we defended pretty well today.
It’s the guys stepping up. They play the best they can and actually we look sharp. I’m happy because the fitness is good and we look sharp and we have an answer for everything. Sometimes you go through a stretch in the season, that whatever you do, is going to work for you, and sometimes whatever you do is not. It seems like in [this] stretch that the guys are gelling and working for each other and somebody always makes something good and positive so I’d be glad to continue to do that for the rest of the season.
(Andy Gruenebaum’s ) a big part of the stretch we have right now. He’s making one save a game. I told the guys a long time ago, “I don’t want my goalkeeper to be the man of the match,” but today he was the man of the match.
I think we have a very good group but obviously we told the fans we wanted to bring in a DP because that’s what they’re looking for and we’re going to bring a guy that’s going to score some goals for us and be [on the front] of the newspaper every weekend. So that’s why we’re looking for a DP all the time. We have some names, but you know how it is, sometimes he’s too much money, sometimes there’s an injury, sometimes the guy chooses a different team because somebody pays more. So we’re still looking, but hopefully we’ll bring somebody that’s going to be well-known and score goals for us ... that’s the whole thing: just get some results.
Columbus Crew goalkeeper Andy Gruenebaum
Just try to make the saves that I should make and steal one if I can, just like any game. I was hoping we could steal one in the second half, and it was pretty even in the second half. I thought they had a little bit better play in the first half. I tried to just make some saves if I could and keep the team in it, and then hope to steal one. That’s sort of been the recipe on the road.
I have a lot of confidence in myself and the guys have confidence in me, and I’ve been around a long time, so I’m sort of old. I’m not Matt Reis old. You make it that long and you’ve made it, so I haven’t done anything yet. We’ve been doing well on the road, being able to steal a point here and there. I thought we had a chance to steal three tonight, but we’ll take a 0-0 draw.
I think for us, especially, we’ve had a lot of games on the road lately and only one at home in the last long stretch that we’ve had. We know that we’re going to have to build ourselves on the road and build that confidence on the road. I think we’re going in with that mentality that if we can keep a zero on their end, then maybe we can steal one.
We’ve had a lot of changeover and different positions, but that’s a huge win for us, especially with all the new faces we had in the starting lineup [in the Seattle] game. Any time we can get a good result on the road is a huge confidence builder.
We work hard for each other. It starts up front, and we defend as a team. I think we’re a tough team to score against, so that is a good thing on the road especially.
I think we’re more aggressive in our tactics. Possession-wise I think we could have done a better job, but I think we’re more aggressive in the way we play, for sure.
I think we have a lot of depth in a lot of different positions. So when certain guys come in, they bring a lot of energy, and they’re able to lift up the game and bring it to a new level. I think that’s a big part of our success, offensively and defensively, but especially defensively.
Columbus Crew Defender Josh Williams
Being on turf, we focused a lot on being more direct instead of building, even though we ended up building a lot. So we didn’t really follow the game plan, but it worked out. We knew they were going to be a physical team and going on the road, you always want to defend first. Make sure your defensively sound and then work your way up. I thought we did a good job defensively. Midfielders, forwards, everybody battled and I’ll take a point on the road any day.
It took us a little while to get adjusted. I don’t know what it was. Maybe it was the stadium, the turf or something like that. When we ended up figuring it out, I thought we did a good job of defending crosses and keeping our marks. That was one thing we focused on especially since (Kevin) Alston on the right side likes to come down and I thought Justin (Meram) and Bernardo (Anor) did a really good job of shutting him down.
We talked about staying high because they got in behind us a couple times. We really focused o, like I said before, playing direct and trying to get it to Emilio (Renteria) – playing it in to him and building from there, staying tight in the backfield, shifting side to side and keeping an eye on our guys.
We fought from the first to the 90th minute. I think we take pride in that. We call ourselves “Americas Hardest Working Team” and think we definitely came out and fought for the guy next to us. That was a key point we made and it ended up getting us the point.
We’re fighting on the road and we’ll take a point any day. I think were six games unbeaten now so were going to look to take that going into Chicago and continue that.
