COLUMBUS CREW 1, NEW YORK RED BULLS 0
COLUMBUS CREW HEAD COACH SIGI SCHMID
On the victory:
"I don't know what to say. I haven't been in this position in a long time. As I just said to the guys just now, a little bit of inspiration and a little bit of a determination. Certainly Duncan [Oughton], it's not what he did so much on the game it's the attitude that he sort of brings. It was something the guys could grab around and lean on. I thought he was important tonight. But also I thought we did a good job in terms of sticking to what we wanted to do tactically tonight. That is why we stayed with the guys that were out there because they were doing a good job with it. We felt we were getting chances in the first half. We wanted to make them play the game from deep and have their midfielders drop deep which they ended up doing. Joe [Joseph Ngwenya] scored a good goal. We told them to sometimes look for the near post when you get in because it's something that's available. We're very happy. Hopefully it's the first step of many as we go forward from here. I was really pleased with the determination and the effort we put forth tonight. As a result I thought we played some good soccer."
On his comments Wednesday about resigning:
"I just want to make sure I clarify. Because I did to a few people. As I said, for me, I want to see this club win, I want to see this team win, I want to see this group of players win. And if I am part of the problem then I want to go. Probably the most inspirational thing that happened -- because I am never going to walk away from a challenge or quit a challenge, that's not something I am going to do -- there was a young man by the name of Bradley who gave me a card before the game. You see a young kid like that and he takes the time to write a card in his hand writing, and say coach, 'Please stay.' I am an emotional guy, so those things sort of hit me. He was the first guy I high-fived when I came off the field."
On ending the club's 13-game winless streak:
"Sometimes you say you got a monkey on your back, or a gorilla. We had like the entire Empire State building on our back, with the gorilla - King Kong on top of it. It's been a hard haul and we all take this very seriously and work very hard at it. Not just for the staff, but for the players too. It's a huge burden off of their shoulders. It's the first step on the way back."
COLUMBUS CREW FORWARD JOSEPH NGWENYA
On his goal:
"I just tried to hit it and put something on it. I was lucky, the lord was with me today and it just went in. Sebastian [Rozental] said he was wide open. If I didn't score he would have killed me. I'm glad we got three points today. We played with more heart and everybody fought for each other. We deserved to win today. We haven't been playing that bad. We're not too far off from everybody. We are one step closer. Things are looking better and looking up."
On Sigi Schmid:
"Emotions are high. He wants us to succeed, we want to succeed and when things aren't going well and he thinks he is the problem he was willing to let go if it was for the good of the team. I understood his side of the story. But he's not a quitter and nobody on this team is a quitter and we showed that tonight."
NEW YORK RED BULLS HEAD COACH BRUCE ARENA
On the game:
"Every game is different. You don't compare one game to the next, they're are all different. I think you got a game tonight where you have two tired teams playing a bunch of games in a short period of time. It looked that way to me. It was a game that maybe a draw was a fair result, but give them credit they made the play that made the difference in the game. Our team didn't look real good the entire evening."
On the team's play:
"I don't know why on a given play someone makes a bad pass. Those things happen. We looked sloppy tonight in a lot of areas. Give them credit, I thought they gave great effort. They made it hard. They worked hard. The last 15 minutes of the first half, they outworked us. The second half was kind of even and it looked likely that no one was going to get a goal. But they made that play. We made a few mistakes and it managed to go in. I don't know if that went through [Carlos] Mendes' legs and maybe Tony [Meola] was screened, I don't even know."
On the Crew goal:
"On a night where it's not going real well you just take the point and get out of dodge. We weren't good enough to do that. That's probably the way we need to play that game at the end. You had the play where Todd [Dunivant] made on the sideline to allow the player to get past him, he should just foul him. He tried to cut in front of him and win the ball. His timing was off. And give Ngwenya credit for making a very good play. I thought Mendes did real well to kind of stand him up and hold him off, but somehow that ball managed to get in back of the net."
On the playoff race:
"It's going to be a battle for everyone in the East as you go down the stretch. We hope to be the team that can steal a couple of wins and position ourselves to make the playoffs."
NEW YORK RED BULLS FORWARD EDSON BUDDLE
On the game:
"We gave it an honest effort. I don't know what to say. We are all professionals, I'm not going to use that excuse. I'm not buying it. We just need to get the job done. We'll be ready for this Saturday."
NEW YORK RED BULLS GOALKEEPER TONY MEOLA
On the game:
"We did OK for the most part. It (the goal) started in their box. It was a long ball out of the back. Ngwenya, when he cut Carlos back in the box I tried to get a peek but I never saw the ball. He either shot it behind him or he shot it through his legs. It was hard to react."
On the team's play:
"The game tonight looked slower. I don't know that we were tired, we just moved the ball a bit slower. It didn't seem like they were buzzing around us tonight. A wounded animal is always the most dangerous animal in the world. Give them credit they did what they had to do. They defended, they didn't give us a lot of looks at their goal."
