MAJOR LEAGUE SOCCER QUOTE SHEET
WEDNESDAY, AUGUST 10, 2005 - KANSAS CITY WIZARDS 3, CHICAGO FIRE 2
CHICAGO FIRE HEAD COACH DAVE SARACHAN
On the Fire's failure to manage its lead:
"We were up 2-0, so if you don't win a game when you're up 2-0 it's
disappointing. I don't think we managed ourselves well when it was
2-0. At 2-0 they were finished and we almost got the third one. I
think if we had managed the ball better and we just kept it tight ... we
were so hungry to get the third one that we left ourselves exposed and
the things we talked about bit us in the butt tonight, like [Josh]
Wolff on the counter. [Kansas City] looks to sit in and make the
counter. I'm just disappointed that we didn't manage the game better
at 2-0."
On turning things around after two home losses in a row:
"If we don't we're going to find ourselves in trouble. These are the
little points that make a difference when you go down the stretch. If
it means making changes then we'll make changes, but it's more about
concentration. Now every game we play is going to be very tight
because everybody's battling to get themselves in position for the
playoffs. It's a constant work in progress. It's never over."
On goalkeeper Zach Thornton's ejection at halftime:
"You'll have to ask Zach. He got a yellow card. Two dissent calls is
inexcusable."
On backup goalkeeper Matt Pickens being inserted into the lineup:
"Matt Pickens is a good goalkeeper. We've got confidence in Matt
Pickens, so I'm not going to worry about that. I think Matt will step
in a do a great job. It's the rest of my beat up guys [that I'm
worried about]. I'll tell you, they left everything they had on the
field, so if I'm going to take some positives out of this it is that
our guys did everything they could to try and get a point or three out
of this game. These are tired, beat up and frustrated guys in our
locker room."
CHICAGO FIRE MIDFIELDER LOGAN PAUSE
On the match:
"There's not really much to say. We gave it to them. We looked good
the first 15 or 25 minutes, but then we took our foot off the gas and
stopped playing. We made some mistakes in bad parts of the field and
[the Wizards] are similar to D.C. in that they are really good on the
break. They punished us on that tonight and despite unfortunate
circumstances, with Zach getting red carded, we still had a chance to
get a point, if not three, in the second half. We just kind of ran out
of gas late. Dropping two games in a row is unacceptable."
On losing momentum in the conference standings:
"We need points and we need to get wins at home, and we haven't done
that in the last two games. We have one more home game before we go on
a five road-game stretch, and those five road games are not going to
be easy. This weekend [against Los Angeles] is not going to be easy,
but we need to get three points at home. We just have to take it one
game at a time and we have to fix this thing before it goes too far."
CHICAGO FIRE MIDFIELDER THIAGO
Thoughts on the match:
"The team for the first 30 minutes played very, very well, but then we
lost our focus a bit. We were able to score two goals, but in the
second half it was very difficult for us to keep up with the pace.
[Kansas City] is a very good team, but this week we're going to work
very hard at training to get back on track because we have an
important game on Saturday and we want to earn a victory at home."
KANSAS CITY WIZARDS HEAD COACH BOB GANSLER
Thoughts on the win:
"You have to give credit to our guys and their resilience and their
confidence in each other after the first five minutes, which were
obviously disastrous. The key was to get one before halftime, but we
did it even better than that. [The Fire] was more energetic than we
were initially and they were more alert and it had nothing to do with
lineups or tactics or anything else. It had everything to do with us
not quite being ready to play. To our credit, we dug deep and we
persevered.
On the play of forward Josh Wolff:
"I've said it before, he's our catalyst. He doesn't have to score.
He makes everyone around him better because of the attention the other
folks pay to him. So whether he lays them off or whether he finishes
them, or he just gets in the mix, it doesn't matter. He's our
catalyst. We play well with him, but we also have to find a way to win
when he's gone. But he's currently in great form."
KANSAS CITY WIZARDS FORWARD JOSH WOLFF
On being down early:
"We certainly started out a little shaky. [The Fire] had two pretty
good finishes, but certainly you don't like your posture when you give
up two goals in the first six minutes. After that, we got ourselves
back in control of it and had a couple of opportunities before we got
our first one.
"The key was getting the next goal. The next goal was going to be the biggest one. It was either going to be three nothing or 2-1. If it's 2-1, then you're right back in the game and you've got momentum. We got the second one, obviously. That came in a timely fashion, right before halftime, so it was a great response."
