COLORADO RAPIDS 1, CHICAGO FIRE 1
COLORADO RAPIDS HEAD COACH FERNANDO CLAVIJO
On getting a tie while playing shorthanded:
"We always want more, especially playing at home, but it could have been much worse, there is no question about that. I give credit to the whole team. Outstanding effort by everyone. With this field as big as it is, when you play with only 10 men you notice it. But everyone really battled; everyone from Bouna (Coundoul) to Herculez Gomez had a tremendous game."
On the early red card and playing with 10 men:
"Like I told Roberto (Brown), we just have to be careful how we go to the ball. That is one of the biggest problems for foreign players coming to our league, the games are refereed differently here than they are anywhere else. I haven't seen (the call) so I can't comment on that. But we played well for 85 minutes with outstanding attitude and discipline. Even with 10 players we tried to score and eventually we did."
COLORADO RAPIDS FORWARD HERCULEZ GOMEZ
On the team's early red card and playing a man down:
"I haven't seen the replay, so I'm going to stick with my teammate. But its mental mistakes we can't make, especially playing at home. We are a good solid team. We stuck to our plan, even after the red card, playing tight and compact. We wanted to choose our moments, maybe nick one and hold them and I think we did just that. It's unfortunate that (Chicago) scored that goal, but it's soccer and I think it shows our character coming back and playing a man down again a team like Chicago."
On his goal:
"We said at halftime that we needed to be smart and pick our moments. Niko (Nicolas Hernandez) played a great ball. My strength is going towards goal and fortunately I got a look and saw the corner."
On his recent change from forward to midfield:
"I'm most comfortable facing the goal, doesn't mean I have to be a forward to face the goal. I found plenty of space last game when I was playing out wide and I'll continue to get forward when I can. Like Fernando said, if I'm playing sweeper, I'll look for a way to score. Hopefully it doesn't come down to that, but I really just want to help the team."
CHICAGO FIRE HEAD COACH DAVE SARACHAN
On the game:
"Sometimes it's hard to play teams with 10 men, because they really lock it in and drop a lot of numbers. We asked Thiago and Justin (Mapp) to find the spots a little more underneath. We told them to play aggressive and be forward, however it wasn't executed as we hoped."
CHICAGO FIRE DEFENDER GONZALO SEGARES
On the outcome:
"It was a tough game, although we felt pretty confident once they got the red card. We didn't do as well as we should have with a man advantage. With that advantage, we should have won this game. They had a good goal that put us on our heels, however it was not enough."
