MAJOR LEAGUE SOCCER QUOTE SHEET
SATURDAY, JUNE 5, 2004
DALLAS BURN 2, METROSTARS 0
METROSTARS HEAD COACH BOB BRADLEY
On the match:
“We weren’t good enough in any area tonight. We weren’t good enough with the ball. We should be able to create some opportunities against this team. We stayed pretty tight and organized. When we did lose the ball we didn’t work hard enough to get it back. That’s the way that some of those plays turned into counter opportunities for them and opportunities for goals. I think we let ourselves down tonight.”
On the team’s attack during the game:
“We’ve been in tight games. In these kind of games you have to be sharp to make some of the plays in the moments when you have an advantage. I thought in the first half we were very slow with the ball. I thought our movement was really poor. When we did win a ball maybe there was a chance to play a little quicker where you can get forward before they’ve got everybody back. We didn’t seem to be able to do that very well. I felt like we were playing against their entire team in the back and they were organized the whole night. I think that frustrated our team and as the game went on all of a sudden we were even more desperate to try to figure out what to do.”
On the MetroStars' need to play faster:
“What we stress is that in all games, the slower you are with the ball, and the more time it takes and that means there are more people back. That doesn’t mean you want to rush and lose the ball, but you want to still take advantage of situations when they are there. That’s what good teams can do. There are times when you don’t get to have that chance throughout the night and there are other times when you’ve got to be able to mix it up. Sometimes you play in the middle and sometimes you play out wide. All it is about is trying to find chances. A night like tonight we struggled to do that. Once you're behind (in the scoreline) you get more desperate and then it’s really frustrating.”
METROSTARS DEFENDER EDDIE POPE
On the result:
“I just don’t think collectively we worked hard enough tonight as a team. I don’t think we competed hard enough as a team. I think they played well. They executed their game plan pretty well, but on a night when we don’t play well, we have to do the other things well.”
On the team playing without seven regulars over the next two weeks:
“I think the team will be fine. Hopefully with guys gone, the team will pull together more, work harder for each other and hopefully the overall work rate will turn up a little bit. I think the guys will do a really good job while we’re gone.”
On Dallas Burn forward Eddie Johnson:
“He played really well. I think they had an advantage when the ball was turning over and because we were slow to get back and get behind the ball, they were able to spring him and spring whomever they wanted to because we weren’t working hard enough off the ball.”
METROSTARS GOALKEEPER JONNY WALKER
On the game:
“It was a little bit disappointing. Obviously, to play at home and leave without a result the way it turned out, it was a pretty poor overall performance. We’ve seen it earlier this season where we haven’t been able to manage certain results, manage games when we were leading games and today we were losing the game.”
On the team playing without seven regulars over the next two weeks:
“This is the time when the guys who have been waiting for their opportunity are able to step up. There are certain players that performed well in the preseason and performed well in the friendlies against quality opposition and they know now that this is their chance to grab a spot in the starting lineup.”
METROSTARS MIDFIELDER EDDIE GAVEN
On the team's performance:
“It wasn’t a very good game. We didn’t play as well as we needed to. We couldn’t break them down and [after] they scored that first goal, it kind of broke our back. It was tough.”
On the Dallas Burn’s defense:
“They were definitely tight. I think they gave up goals over the last couple of games so you could tell they probably wanted to tighten it up in the back. I think they did that pretty well. We couldn’t break them down too many times and the times that we did break them down, we didn’t finish our chances.”
DALLAS BURN HEAD COACH COLIN CLARKE:
On the result:
“I couldn’t have asked for any more from the boys. They were absolutely magnificent tonight.”
On the team defense:
“It was something that we haven’t done well in the last three or four games, you know defended as a team. We let in some sloppy and terrible goals so the focus tonight was to go out and do that. Credit to them - tonight they went out, they threw their bodies in front of balls, blocked shots and stuck in. They sacrificed themselves and there was a great attitude from everybody.”
On the play of Eddie Johnson:
“He’s a young kid, he’s 20 years of age. He’s a young kid and he got his goal tonight and worked hard. He played like a center forward, held balls, pulled people into plays, worked in over the top and closed people down. He’s done everything asked of him and tonight he got his reward, a goal."
On the most impressive part of team’s play tonight:
“Everybody’s work rate in general. We worked hard for each other and made it difficult for them to play tonight. They’re (MetroStars) a good team to play against with (Amado) Guevara, (Joselito) Vaca, (Mark) Lisi and (Eddie) Gaven in the middle, they’re tough to close down and keep out of the game. I thought we did a good job maybe up until we scored the first one. We sort of stepped back a bit, but we got our shape back and we made it hard for them to play.”
On the play of Ronnie O’Brien:
“Ronnie’s a good player. He’s someone in this league who’s capable of doing something different and he’s been doing that this season. Now we’ve got to build on this and move forward.”
DALLAS BURN MIDFIELDER RONNIE O’BRIEN
On the team:
“You don’t become a bad team overnight. The fact is that we started off reasonably well and the last four games we got away from what we were doing well. We got away from the hard work and the pressure on the ball and tonight we got back to that.”
On his assists:
“It’s always nice to get some points on the board.”
On Johnson's goal:
“I knew somebody would be there. We always work on it. If you get to the end line someone goes back and someone comes near so I knew that he (Eddie) would be there in back and whoever was there would put it in the back of the net.”
On the team’s play:
“We’ve been unlucky. The fact is the last four games we haven’t been playing bad. We’ve been in every game and if we had a score early on in the game, we probably would’ve won every game. But we gave away a lot of chances in Kansas City and San Jose - we could have been two goals up inside 10 to 15 minutes. And when you don’t score goals and finish teams off, they come back and bite you in the end.”
On the team’s play in the second half:
“It was actually noticeable tonight. Our problem was that we used to come out the first 15 minutes in the second half and we’ve just been terrible. The last four games, we’ve been terrible by giving up silly goals and then we’re chasing the game. Tonight we made an extra effort to really push in the first 15 minutes (of the second half). We did and we got our reward.”
DALLAS BURN DEFENDER STEVE JOLLEY
On the win tonight:
“It’s been a while since I’ve won on this field. It was a good win. This team definitely needed it and we’ve been working hard. We did everything you need to do when you’re losing. It was a big win and we worked hard in practice and tonight we got the pay off.”
DALLAS BURN FORWARD EDDIE JOHNSON:
On the win tonight:
“It was good to win and good to see smiling faces in the locker room. We know there’s a lot of talent on the team and if we work hard good things will happen for us. It’s been tough with four losses in a row, but we take it one game at a time. You can’t look back. We lost four games but I thought in those four games we created chances. Our forwards have to take our chances better in the box and we worked on it this week and we know once we get our chances we have to concentrate on them and take them with confidence. We came out to work hard and we deserved to win tonight."
On the missed header in the opening of the second half:
“Yeah it looked like ‘another one of those games’ but the way things were going with that many opportunities you’re going to get that one and it was a good play.”
