Robert Warzycha: Head Coach
It’s a tough place to play and I think lots of times we lost here one-zero. These guys are a young team and there’s a lot of movement and the game usually is played very quick. We came here to win the game. We said before the game, we came here to win three points. Obviously, for Philadelphia, it was a huge game; they also had plans to go to the playoffs. The game went probably the way I had anticipated for the first seventy minutes. We were ready for McInerney and to pick up those fouls and stay compact. In the 70th minute, the game changed because of the red card, but we had plenty of shots, but at the end of the game, you need players on the field that can take the shots and make them and Eddie Gaven did that for us. I’m happy with the win.
You know, I didn’t see it, because the play was this way, and we were looking the other, so I’m not really sure what happened. You just start seeing him being pushed in the chest.
That’s what we said before the game, that’s what I said before the game, be careful because they’re a very physical team and they tackle and that’s part of the game. In Philadelphia, when they play in front of their own fans, they’re a much more physical team than when they play away from them. It was about not being crazy and getting in front of their players, sometimes when emotion gets in the game.
Well, you know, absolutely not. He’s a very good player and you wish that when a player comes here from another country and doesn’t speak English that he can help that quick and score goals and have assists but something that quick is great for him and great for us and he’s a great player on the field and he’s getting good looks and great set pieces and looking very fluid and I’m happy with him.
I think it’s all their hard work and determination that helped us win the game. I think the guys knew that they had to deliver on the field and it’s possible to stop Philadelphia from scoring a goal. I think they did well, so we’ll look to the next game.
Danny O’Rourke,
About the Game
We have Chad (Marshall) in there it’s kinda like having 2 men in there, you know. He’s so big, covers a lot of ground, good in the air…. Everyone else is throwing their body in front of it. Give credit to the Union. They didn’t stop fighting. They threw guys forward, whipping in crosses, hitting shots in from the 18. I think Matt (Lampson) came up with two saves. It wasn’t pretty. We absorbed 40, 43 minutes of pressure, but we were playing away from home. You got a man down. We have special players like Higuain (Federico), Eddie (Gaven), and even Justin Meram coming off the bench. Hope for a goal., and that’s what they did. They came through.
2 come back wins
Well you know, we don’t want to have to come back, but you know that’s what happens. I think two deflection goals, 2 goals very unlucky. With the team now, we have some proven strikers that find the back of the net. We don’t panic, when we get down one nothing, two nothing. We continue to fight… Now we just have guys calm around the box, and create chances for us. I mean we started to gel kinda at the right time. We got to enjoy this tonight. We have a tough game Saturday against Montreal another play-off winning game. After that we have another game on Wednesday, and we’ll see what happens after that.
Josh Williams,
Getting sent off
It was disappointing. It was a dumb play on my part, you know. We talked about it at halftime. I lost my temper a little bit there, lost my head. If there’s cameras in here, someone’s has to be laughing at me, because I was going crazy. There was a lot of ups and downs. When they had the ball, it seemed like they were right in front of the goal. I was jumping around. As soon as we scored I went nuts. It was definitely ups and downs as far as emotions go in here. So being by myself it was pretty wild.
Confidence
Just offensively, you know, we know we don’t necessarily have to shut anybody out to win anymore. Those guys scored with their energy up top. Federico (Higuain) and Jairo (Arrieta) those guys have a lot of energy up there and creating. It’s contagious and everyone wants to be a part of it.
Chad Marshall,
Most Time Spent at Columbus
It feels great. I’m not gunna lie it’s something I’ve kept track, you know, over the years. Always kinda hoped to be around long enough to get there. You know, I’ve always appreciated those guys that stay at one club their whole career. I hope to be one of those guys. It’s truly an honor, and I thank the organization for keeping me around as long as they have.
Defending
It’s difficult, you know. It was a battle for sure. They were throwing a lot of numbers forward, and they got a lot of small, quick, tricky players. It was a difficult game, and you know to not only hold on and not give up a goal, but to also get the winner. It’s just a huge three points for us.
Philadelphia Head Coach John Hackworth
This is probably to say the least, but it’s a cruel game, sometimes. To have that much left to play, that many opportunities, to be up a man for the final twenty minutes and not get a result out of that game, it’s mind-boggling. But that is this game sometimes.
He tweaked his hamstring pretty high, late in the first half. He thought he could go, he wanted to try, obviously we tried to see, I told him no, it was clear it wasn’t working very well in the second half, so, unfortunately that’s a big one.
You know, I’m the eternal optimist, but I’ll say I’m not stupid, either, and unless we go on some amazing run, tonight was a game we had to get three points in, and really have a six-point swing, so I don’t think it’s a possibility anymore. I think we should stop talking about it, personally, I think we should concentrate on playing good soccer the rest of the way and see how many points we can get and see what position we can put ourselves in and improve and look towards the future.
Look, we can work all we want on it, but it comes down to players making plays and managing the game the right way. Unfortunately, there were two plays there in the five minutes there that looked like easy plays for us to make. When Michael wins a headball, when Michael Lahoud wins a headball, but others are caught right behind him, that’s not necessary, and couldn’t see what it was, guys on the bench said it was a foul, that gives them a chance, gives them an out. They got a free header, didn’t get it right, goes the wrong way, and so, at the end of the day, we’ve gotta make those plays. I hope that we continue to play the kind of soccer we’re playing, make fewer mistakes, and get better.
I’ll tell you that I walk into this press conference, emotional about losing a game that you feel like you shouldn’t lose, so I’ll try to give my best answers to you guys, but at the same time, I want to be very smart and very thoughtful about some of the things I say going forward. So I don’t think now is the time for me to talk about what we’re doing going forward. I’m happy with the way we’re playing, I’m happy with the kind of soccer we’re playing, we’re obviously not executing in front of both boxes and that is our Achilles heel right now. I’ll tell you that I think we’re going to continue to push and play the same style of soccer, give it everything we have, and I think it’s going to fall sometime soon. Maybe that puts us on the best ten-game winning streak ever and I’m eating my own words, but all I can make sure is that those guys in the locker room know they’re playing the right way, and at some point, the guys start to make plays and execute. We certainly didn’t do enough of that tonight, and it’d be a much different conversation we’d be having right now.
It’s a tough question. You’ll have to ask our ownership that. I’m going to do the job to the best of my ability, and I’m going to keep pushing our guys.
Yeah, because you want to get back out there and redeem yourself and your efforts and everything you did. That’s the good news. The hard part about that is that it’s the third game in a week and it’s very tough to recover from. We’re going up to New England, on turf, and it’s going to be difficult, so we might have to work on some things, but if I had a two week break right now, I’d be pretty miserable. Hopefully, we can go up to New England and redeem ourselves.
It’s as simple as, when guys are taking shots, I mean, credit to Columbus, they did a fantastic job at blocking shots, but then we had a couple looks there where we have to put those looks on frame. And you know, even at close-range, Michael Lahoud puts one just over the crossbar. It’s gotta be better. The one we got called offsides for, it’s a tight call, I gotta look at it on the replay, but our guys gotta tie the run a little better. You know, Chad Marshall was a beast in the box. No matter where we put the ball, we didn’t put it where we needed to exactly, but he was on everything. Sometimes going up a man is a good thing, in this case, they just put another finger on things late, played for the result, thought they could get a counter, and that’s what happened. But you can’t do anything other than say, hey, somebody’s gotta execute on both sides of the pitch.
You needed a couple of those guys [substitutes] to do a good job, defensively. Lahoud was having a fantastic game, doing tons of work. Valdes was finding really good spots. Bringing on Freddy [Adu] to open up the game at that point, we’ll go back and evaluate as a staff, but I don’t think it would have changed anything. We created the chances; we just didn’t finish them.
[Carlos Valdes’ status for the next match]
Up in the air. I don’t think he did it to the point where, it was more preventative for him to come out, we’ll get our staff on top of it right away, I know they already are, and we’ll evaluate.
Danny Cruz
On the loss
At the end obviously we’re pushing there because we know we have to win. They get one past us. It’s agonizingly frustrating, to be honest with you. I’m not even sure if that’s a word.
On the team not finishing
I think we had obviously good chances again tonight. I think they got in the way, they had a lot of blocked shots as well that we’re going on target. Lahoud had two or three towards the end. There’s no excuse. There’s really not. I feel awful for the fans. I feel awful for the organization. [Gomez] just walked up to me and said “Soccer’s a crazy game.” Not one point in that game did I feel like we were going to lose. Not one point. And it’s frustrating.
On the playoffs
We just got to keep doing the same things. Obviously we got to work on our finishing, but we got to try to stay positive. At least this point continue to push for the playoffs until mathematically we’re out. And play for the fans because that’s what makes this organization great. I can’t stress that enough.
Brian Carroll
On disappointing results and confidence
Anytime you get this far down the mountain and you got a lot of ground to catch up, it’s very difficult. But we’ve have to keep fighting [and] keep playing till the end in order to have confidence in ourselves, in each other, as a group for the rest of this year and for next year.
Antoine Hoppenot
On fight
You can look at it on the video. I don’t really want to talk about it.
Obviously the ref saw it [and] the ref ended up giving the yellow card. You can’t really expect anything else. It’s a rough game out there. That will happen sometimes. I don’t know. It’s tough. This is a tough game to come out and not get any points out of.
On playoffs
We’re going to come out here and try to win every game we have left. We think if we can win every single game, we’re going to make the playoffs. That’s all we can do at this point … We got to go up in Boston and beat New England on their field. That’s what we’re thinking about and we’re going to use the next few days to do that.
Carlos Valdes
On injury
[I collided] with the keeper and when I landed I feel little bit pain on my leg. I don’t know what happened. We will see tomorrow what the doctors say.
I wasn’t comfortable staying. I have to prevent something worse.
On goal
[During the week], we sometimes take some free kicks. I think this time I was lucky, but sometimes we prepare everything during the week. It’s a blessing for me to get this goal.
Jack McInerney
On scuffles
They’re part of the game. They happen. Antoine [Hoppenot] came into the game and something happened. We played a man up for twenty minutes. We can learn from it by taking advantage. Previous times I went in and got a red card and I hurt my time. This time that didn’t happen. So I can say that we’ve already learned from it.
