COLORADO RAPIDS 3, CHIVAS USA 1
CHIVAS USA HEAD COACH HANS WESTERHOF
On the match:
"Colorado is a team with a good defense and when they score the first goal it's very difficult to come back. They did very well and we made mistakes, because we lost the ball in midfield against a team that's very good on the counterattack."
CHIVAS USA FORWARD THIAGO MARTINS
On the result:
"Despite my goal, I feel sad, like the rest of the team, because we lost the game."
On his goal, ending a long drought:
"I asked Héctor Cuadros to let me take the PK. It's been such a long time since I scored. I hope this goal can open the door for me in the coming games."
COLORADO RAPIDS HEAD COACH FERNANDO CLAVIJO
On collecting six points in four days:
"We need it. Our team, when you look at the way we played against Los Angeles, with nine players, and today was a continuation of that effort. The attitude was there from the beginning. I thought that not only we scored some great goals, but the effort from the team was there from the beginning. And we kept it up, our fitness was there, and I think we outplayed Chivas. But again, with six points, it comes at a great time for us, but it's just two games, we have a lot of games ahead of us and we have to concentrate and to keep adding points."
On Jeff Cunningham's three-goal performance to claim first place in the goal-scoring charts:
"We knew when we got him that he was able to score goals. We didn't play him for seven or eight games because he was injured, but right now he's coming to full strength; he's healthy, so is [Jean-Philippe] Peguero. I think Jeff Cunningham is getting a lot of goals because a lot of people are doing the dirty work around him, allowing him to create the chances and allowing him to be one-on-one."
COLORADO RAPIDS FORWARD JEFF CUNNINGHAM
On the last time he registered a hat trick:
"I was in kindergarten, I believe."
On whether scoring three goals was as easy as he made it look:
"I can't take all the credit. My teammates did a very good job, especially Peguero, did a very good job of running the defense, creating space for me, and setting up the second goal. My teammates did a lot and when you play together as a unit it looks easy, rather than one or two persons carrying the team, so definitely a lot of credit goes to my teammates tonight."
On Dan Gargan's throw-in to set up Cunningham's third goal:
"One of the fundamentals of football is that you can't be offside on a throw-in. I knew that and I stayed very, very deep in their end, and they stepped up, assuming, I guess, trying to play me off. I don't know what their decision was. Dan did a good job on the throw-in. He could have easily thrown it to my feet, which would have allowed the defense time to recover, but he threw it into space, which allowed me to run onto it and not give the defenders time to catch up. So that was smart thinking on his part."
COLORADO RAPIDS MIDFIELDER DAN GARGAN
On his first assist in just his second MLS game:
"It's pretty shocking, I'd say. I'm just happy to be on the field and get some time, and if I can help out the team in any way, then that's a bonus for me. The first thing I think about when I go on the field is just to relax myself and be confident. To make sure my head's in it right away, and then from there on, it's just getting more comfortable on the ball and seeing more of the field. I think it's great. Jeff was wide open, I just caught him out of the corner of my eye, over the defense. It was nice."
On whether he was surprised that Chivas USA defenders appeared to be playing Cunningham offside on the throw-in:
"We noticed it on the sidelines as we were warming up, how many guys they were pushing up. They'd push up, it looked like nine guys, and leave this guy, who wasn't the fastest - and Jeff and Peguero can run by anybody in this league. So they're leaving one guy to defend Jeff and Peguero, we'll take that any day of the week. To have that, and it was basically off a counter, they had all their guys, and right over the top. That happened a couple times, I think Chivas was lucky not to get burned on it more times than they did."
