D.C. UNITED 2, CHIVAS USA 1
D.C UNITED HEAD COACH TOM SOEHN
On getting the first win:
"I think there's easier ways to do it. It got a little hairy at the end, but I think the third game in a week caught up to some of our guys, but I give them credit because they fought through that and battled to the end."
On the lineup changes:
"I think it was important to get Kasali [Yinka Casal] in the game - they didn't really play with a left-sided guy and I thought it was a good chance for him to use his speed and his wheels to get in behind and I think he did a good job of that. I don't think we started the game very well, I think it took us a bit to find our momentum and once we did we started to expose some of the holes and create some chances. I was excited for Christian [Gomez] to get his goal, he's been a little frustrated and all it takes is something like that, a goal, to get your confidence back."
On the play of Bobby Boswell and Troy Perkins:
"Troy did what we expected - he came up and saved us sometimes. I think our back four, although they were a little tired today, I think they're going to continue to make progress ... we're taking baby steps. Was it perfect? No, but we're going to build on it."
On the decision to change the starters:
"Part of it is resting players, part of it is trying to expose what the other team's weaknesses are. You're going to sit and evaluate what your strengths are and try to make an educated guess on what works that day."
On Guy-Roland Kpene starting over Luciano Emilio:
"Guy's been very good. He's been good since Guadalajara, he shows some real maturity but he's a very young kid. Luciano just played two 90-minute games, so you factor in everything, but more than anything, Guy just deserved a shot."
On the two-week break:
"I think we still have a lot to work on. I'm real happy with the mentality that we're going out with and the passion that I asked for. Like I said, it was our third game in a week and I saw our legs start to go out a little bit, but it's something to build on and we're going to continue to work."
On using younger players:
"I haven't been afraid to use them, and you gauge a lot on what you do in training and the guys who step up and do it in training are going to play. I said that from the beginning, it doesn't matter how much you make, if you come out and do the business, you're going to see time on the field."
On expecting to win today:
"I see the difference in their mentality. We know we're better than what we showed in the first three games and there's a real positive to build off of as far as the mentality that we brought to the table on Thursday. That desire to not be beaten and to win, like I said, we're taking baby steps and there's a lot of progress to make, but it's steps in the right direction."
On where the team can improve:
"Sometimes, I think we need to be better with the ball. Today, I don't want to gauge it too much because I know we were tired at times and it took us a while to get our rhythm, but we've got to be better with the ball. Our service could still be a little bit better, I don't think we did a good job in the first half of exposing the flanks and in the second half, I thought we did a little bit better job and we created some chances out of it."
On balancing the need to change lineups with building chemistry:
"This week it's a little bit easier to do that because we've got three games, but the next two-week stretch, you're going to see who starts separating themselves. You can try different things and see who works best with the other guy. In some respects, you'd like to get back on the field and follow up a win, but it also gives you time now to work on it for a couple weeks."
On Facundo Erpen since the team went to a 4-4-2:
"He's been better. I thought he was very good today. It always helps when you have cover and when we first scouted Erpen that's where he was, he was a center back in a four [man defense] and we've tried to convert him to a marking back, and it's a tough job, it's a lot of responsibility to mark man-to-man - especially with all the good forwards in our league."
On Brian Carroll since the team went to a 4-4-2:
"I thought he did pretty well, he won a lot of balls for us. We can still spray the ball a little bit quicker and that helps with guys showing and Brian recognizing it faster, but as a team I think we can do it a little bit better, so it's not just Brian."
D.C. UNITED DEFENDER BOBBY BOSWELL
On giving up the goal:
"I'm sure a lot of people thought, "Oh, here they go ..." but now it's one of those things where we showed that we can get the game and finish the game off. So, that's important, and like I said, how we did it wasn't the best, but the important thing was that we did it."
D.C. UNITED FORWARD GUY-ROLAND KPENE
On his performance:
"I don't know, I mean, I listen to what people told me, so I think I did pretty good. I'm happy with how I played. [I want to] score a goal and be more active."
On if he was surprised to start:
"Yes, I was surprised. I didn't expect it."
On the fans' reaction when he left the field:
"Yeah, I was waiting for that moment when I came off. We were up 2-0 and the fans are always behind us, win or lose."
D.C. UNITED MIDFIELDER BEN OLSEN
On the performance:
"I don't think it was a great game by historical standards here at D.C. United, but it's a win. We're in no spot right now to get upset about ugly wins. We needed a win, we got three points and we got it - no, it wasn't pretty. I'm not going to watch it, but again, it's a gutsy win and a lot of guys got through some fatigue out there. We won. Leave us alone."
On Guy-Roland Kpene:
"I thought Guy did well - he's a handful, he's still young. He'll learn from his first professional start and give him some more minutes and he'll get better."
On the lineup changes and player performances:
"It says that [Tom Soehn] has a lot of faith in the depth of our team and individual players. I think today, and even Thursday, you saw that guys are hungry for spots and hungry to get some results. That's what you saw with Kasali [Yinka Casal] - he came in and did well, Luciano [Emilio], gave us some stability up there, and talk about [Stephen] deRoux, came out and put the hammer to a couple people and that's just what we needed at that point in the game. I can't say enough about Jaime Moreno either, just when you guys count him out a little bit he comes back and had a good game, scored a goal. I don't know why you guys keep counting him out, he's had so many downs and he comes back every time, so it's nice to have him back. Troy Perkins, had a great game, too - some positive stuff."
On Jaime Moreno's penalty kick:
"It was spicy - extra picante on that one. He does that at practice, he's got like five or six of his little tricks on those."
D.C. UNITED GOALKEEPER TROY PERKINS
On the game:
"With them playing three guys in the back and attacking our flanks, we adjusted well and countered well against their attack. It doesn't matter if it's pretty - if you win, you win."
On Chivas' late scoring opportunity:
"Yeah, I don't know. He creeps in that back place and somebody's got to stay with him. Obviously the runner, he's marked up at the last look I take, and I don't know what happened."
On the four-man backline:
"Well, I think it's a better way for us to play right now. With the personnel we've got, I think it fits our team."
D.C. UNITED FORWARD JAIME MORENO
On the game:
"I'm just happy that we won, to be honest. It's been so hard to get three points and we knew how important it was to win this game. That's all that matters, I think the rest is a compliment. At the end of the day, D.C. United is what's most important."
On the goal of overtaking the all-time MLS goalscoring record:
"It's something that's on my mind, but the goal counts. I know people [who] might tell you it means less scoring penalties, but I'm not. We win, that's all I care about."
On if his penalty kick was inspired by Zinedine Zidane:
"You always learn something, whenever you watch. If the goalkeeper goes to the side, I have to do something different, so I did it and I was lucky to convert. I'm just happy for three points. I don't practice it, but it just happened and like I said, you have a couple seconds to decide and I'm just happy for the win."
On studying goalkeepers' tendencies:
"No, I'm sure he watched the last game and probably thought I was going to kick it to the same spot. Penalties are something where you could miss or you could score, it's a gambling thing and I was lucky to convert it."
On what coach Soehn asked of him this week:
"Basically, he just said to work hard and the desire was probably missing. You always take something, and sometimes you don't like to hear things like that, but sometimes you have to listen and I think that he's probably right and I was doing different things that weren't good enough for the team."
"I did [see what he was talking about], but at the same time, as a team I don't think we were playing well. Sometimes one guy could have a bad game and the rest usually have a good game, but you don't see that. Unfortunately, that wasn't the case, but that's the past and now we fixed it and we've just got to get better."
On this being a tough time as captain:
"You know, you show all that in practice, you do as best as you can and young kids learn from that. I always did that and I always will, as long as I'm here. But, the main thing is to keep our feet on the ground and think that we're not the best team, we've got to prove that and we know that every game is going to be tough. You've got to work very hard and [the young guys] realize that someone 10 years older than them is doing the hard work and they've got to work twice as hard."
CHIVAS USA HEAD COACH PREKI
On the result:
"It's difficult to lose like this. [We had a] decent game plan, for most of the game we played the way we wanted to play. Unfortunately, we come out of the locker room and for one reason or the other we just don't play well for two or three minutes, and give a couple goals away and then they keep on top of us and they get a lucky bounce in the box and it's a goal, so not much you can say about that. But, overall I thought we did a decent job, I think in the locker room we showed a lot of character. ... I think we pressed it and scored one goal, we easily could have equalized it, and after that you never know. I guess it's one of those things were the ball's not bouncing our way enough, so we have to regroup and go forward from here."
On the team:
"They did OK - I think we saw that we didn't gave too many things away. I never felt we were in danger of conceding the goal. And when you least expect something to happen - like we concede the goal out of nothing; [it was a] mental breakdown."
On what the team needs to do before Columbus:
"Working as a group - obviously we have a couple new faces in. Just spend a little time together, some days of hard training and we go from there."
CHIVAS USA MIDFIELDER PAULO NAGAMURA
On his debut:
"I feel good, the guys welcomed me very well on the team. I feel very comfortable in the system that we play. Unfortunately, we got a defeat, but we're going to work hard next week too to get a better result against Columbus."
On playing Columbus next:
"As I said we're going to work hard this week to try to get as much points as we can get."
On the game:
"I felt the team did very well, unfortunately we gave up two goals and I believe we can get out a better result, at least a tie. Especially in hard games we have to do less mistakes we can do and more points we can get. I was a tough defeat but we're going to try to get more points next week."
CHIVAS USA MIDFIELER JESSE MARSCH
On the game:
"I think we did OK - it could have been a little bit sharper in the final third. We let ourselves down in the beginning of the second half. But we've just got to keep moving forward."
On the next week:
"We've got a new guy, Paulo Nagamura, we've got to get to know him a little bit, just keep tightening up how we play and how we defend. And try cut out the mistakes, we've just got to keep going."
On Nagamura's debut:
"Good job, knows what he's doing, has a good idea of how to play the game, he did a good job."
