CHICAGO FIRE 0, COLUMBUS CREW 0
CHICAGO FIRE INTERIM HEAD COACH DENIS HAMLETT
On the match:
"I thought we prepared well this week. I give Colorado a lot of credit; as soon as we played the ball wide they kind of jumped us. It made it hard to really get going. In games like this you need guys that want to move and get in their spots to receive the ball, and we just didn't have that. We didn't have enough guys moving off the ball, and making it easier for teammates. Tonight was a difficult night. From the start our passing and movement wasn't good enough. It made for a hard night."
CHICAGO FIRE MIDFIELDER LOGAN PAUSE
On his first game in four weeks:
"It felt good. It was a tough game to get back into. I felt like they isolated me quite a bit. Personally, it was a rough day for me, a rough one to get back in. You know, it's a game at home and we've got to get points - three points. Obviously, it's good that we kept it at zero. Matt (Pickens) kept us in the game a couple times and obviously it's good to be back out there but it's just frustrating that we didn't get three points."
On the play of the midfield:
"The first half, they stepped up and they pressed us back pretty hard. We continued to play out, attempted to play out and it didn't really work very much. We should have played a couple over the top. We weren't winning a whole lot of second balls. We weren't getting those guys involved. We couldn't find Baki (Bakary Soumare) and Plotty (Brian Plotkin) when we had the ball playing into their end. That's a combination of us needing to do better with the ball and maybe needing to show a little bit, but it definitely needs to step up."
What prevented them from putting one in the back of the net:
"It was just a game where you have to roll up your sleeves a little bit and do whatever it takes. It was a scrappy game and not a whole lot was created. It is just one of those games where the one chance you do get, you've got to bury it. We did have a couple of chances that maybe should have been goals but it's about guys stepping up and making plays offensively and defensively."
CHICAGO FIRE DEFENDER C.J. BROWN
On the Fire's strong defense recording the shutout:
"Obviously as a team, we're all concentrating a little bit more on trying to get behind the ball. I don't think we were very good today in the back with the ball so that wasn't a good thing from us. But were still man-marking well and trying to cover space well and falling in runs pretty good. Pickens came up big in some saves. I think we're all just paying attention to the defensive part of the game right now. Hopefully, we can get that right for a while and then get back to offensive
COLORADO RAPIDS HEAD COACH FERNANDO CLAVIJO
On the match:
"I thought we played well. For 90 minutes, we came here to get three points. I thought the team came here to defend and we created chances. I'm still trying to figure out how the referee didn't call the foul in the box with Nicolas Hernandez because I think the only person that didn't see that was the referee. We did everything to win it except the score. So I'm disappointed but the performance on the field was outstanding. We are in a precarious situation, because the team has not won in the last five games. But I think the team came here to play. We are not afaid to lose but you have to score and you have to get the ball to bounce your way. So far, we haven't been able to do that."
On Pablo Mastroeni's injury:
"It's too premature to say. It looked like he pulled something, the groin, but we don't know how bad it is yet."
COLORADO RAPIDS MIDFIELDER COLIN CLARK
On the red card incident between Clark and Bakary Soumare:
"When I landed, my neck whipped back and hit the ground that part of my head started hurting, like a headache. I went to try to get a professional foul and stop the break. Got his jersey, they got the ball off and then he came at me. That was it. I wasn't trying to start anything, I was just trying to stop the flow. I deserved the yellow card, I guess, and so [Soumare] probably deserved a red for that."
On Colorado's offensive chances:
"In the first half, I just got in behind - thought the goalkeeper was coming and just hit off the bottom of my foot. Kind of frustrating. Everybody on the team busted their [butts] today and I couldn't reward them. Our chances, our finishing was just slightly off."
