COLORADO RAPIDS 2, FC DALLAS 2
COLORADO RAPIDS HEAD COACH FERNANDO CLAVIJO
On the game:
"We fought back. What I told the team was that these results last year were better. If we were a little bit lucky we would have won the game. This seems like a loss. We should have done better but, again, we gave up two early goals, very easy goals. Then we put together an incredible effort to come back. At the end we wanted to win the game. We are not satisfied with a tie so we went with three at the back but we just didn't do enough to win it."
On starting slow:
"We were not prepared from the beginning. We gave (Mina) too much space. Our game plan was to come out and pressure and our two forwards and midfielders did it but nobody else did and we left a gap. They didn't create anything, we just gave it to them. They took three shots in the first have and two were goals and one disallowed. As a team we need to do better, as a team we need to prepare better."
COLORADO RAPIDS MIDFIELDER CLINT MATHIS
On returning from injury:
"It's finally nice to get to -- so called -- play a game after getting only 15 minutes in the first one and missing the second one. It was nice to get out there in front of the home crowd. I thought I had one there off of that (long) shot. I'm looking forward to the next game in two weeks against Houston."
On the Rapids' bye weekend:
"It's not the greatest timing for us right now. I feel like we are playing pretty good once we get past the first 20 or 30 minutes. We are going to have to train hard to stay fit for the next game."
COLORADO RAPIDS MIDFIELDER JOVAN KIROVSKI
On the game:
"It was disappointing to get a draw at home but we fought back from being down two-nil off of two incredible goals. It's great to be on the score sheet and great to get a draw at least.
On the Rapids' bye weekend:
"I think it is important that we have two weeks to prepare to get back guys who have been injured. We have Clint (Mathis) and Dedi (Ben-Dayan) who might come back into the starting lineup. Hopefully we can get the 11 that we had in the preseason back in the frame again. The other guys came in and did great but it's tough when you are mixing and matching."
FC DALLAS HEAD COACH COLIN CLARKE
On the first half:
"In the first half whenever we moved the ball and moved it quickly and connected some passes and were patient with it we caused them lots of problems. They are pretty organized defensively so it wasn't always possible to do that."
On allowing the Rapids to come back:
"I felt we didn't step onto them after we got 2-0 up. We sort of sat back a little bit and let them come to us. We needed to step on and go for the third goal to kill them off. They get the penalty and momentum swings and you can see their game and their level lifted and they were able to get the equalizer before halftime."
On the result:
"We were very pleased -- in the second half we came out and showed character and were able to come away with a point. On the road, we pick a point up. Three games undefeated and go into next week full of confidence."
FC DALLAS DEFENDER GREG VANNEY
On his goal:
"I've hit them a lot in the past and one finally fell for me. I put it where I wanted to, made good contact. Also in the altitude I think the ball moves so quick that Joe (Cannon) didn't have time to react. It got down; for me hitting them a little further out gives it a chance for the ball to get over the wall and get down."
FC DALLAS DEFENDER CLARENCE GOODSON
On the hand ball:
"I wanted to chest the ball down. The ball kind of dropped down across from me a little quicker than I thought. You know it's one of those unlucky plays; I don't know if I've ever had a handball in this league. It just wasn't my night in the first half."
On the goal that was disallowed:
"What can you say. That was the decision that was made. That's life. I don't know where the foul was. I'll have to watch it again."
