HOUSTON DYNAMO 3, COLORADO RAPIDS 3
HOUSTON DYNAMO HEAD COACH DOMINIC KINNEAR
On the result:
"We attacked very well tonight, but we defended poorly at times. Whenever they got in our box we were a little relaxed with our markings. I thought we started out the game wonderful. We were good, we were great; at times we were poor. I thought we gave our fans a great night as far as attacking soccer goes."
On the playoffs:
"I feel confident. Any team can beat any team in this league. I have to respect Chivas with the weapons they have. To get to MLS Cup you're going to have to face good teams. If you want to advance you have to play well and defend well. I think we're looking forward to the start of the playoffs."
On Craig Waibel:
"He has five goals now, and that's a career high. I think this is probably his first multi-goal game. He's dangerous on set pieces. He found some openings. The second one was a great header. All five of his goals have come from set pieces."
HOUSTON DYNAMO FORWARD ALEJANDRO MORENO
On his injury:
"I've been training for two weeks. I was pretty happy that I was able to get through the game and contribute."
On the result:
"We can't allow three goals at home. It says we're scoring goals. At the end we're a little disappointed. I thought we deserved a little bit better, but it's not about deserving. It's about getting the job done."
On playing Chivas USA in the playoffs:
"I think we've had pretty interesting games with them. It's been pretty exciting. They like to attack and so do we. We just have to go there and get a good result so we can finish it when we come back here."
HOUSTON DYNAMO DEFENDER CRAIG WAIBEL
On the goal:
"That's a career game. Two goals matched my season total from every other year I've played. The second was a good finish. The first one was more of an opportunity. It's great personally.
On Dynamo's defense:
"My job to keep thing out of the net, it's nice to put them in. Tonight we gave up three [goals], and it's just not OK. If we're scoring goals this is the right time to do it. One of them was a good goal. They're second and third goals were missed marks in the box."
On starting the playoffs:
"I think it's a good matchup for us. I think it's a team that likes to play soccer as opposed to a couple other teams in our division that like to delay the game a little bit. I think we've played a little better throughout the year."
COLORADO RAPIDS HEAD COACH FERNANDO CLAVIJO
On the importance of coming out with a tie to clinch a playoff berth:
"We needed a result. We didn't want to wait for tomorrow's result between Salt Lake and Chivas; we needed to know for ourselves. We put ourselves in this position, and we battled."
On his team's play:
"We battled the whole game through. We came out and we always match up and we played superb. We played like we needed to in order to get a point, and we did."
On responding to every Dynamo goal:
"We knew that they were very, very aggressive on set pieces, and we knew that they had the size to make us pay, and they did. We were able to come back and score the goals quickly enough to maintain the 3-3 tie and get the point that we needed to get in to the playoffs, so we are truly happy."
On what he needs to do to prepare for the playoffs:
"Right now, this is a brand new season. There's no time to celebrate. We just made the playoffs, and now it's a brand new season. We're playing Dallas, and we have to make sure we can do the job. It was crucial for us to make the playoffs, but it's a brand new season for us right now."
On facing FC Dallas in the first round of the playoffs:
"I said that they can make us pay if (Dwayne) De Rosario gets the ball and on set pieces, and they did that today, many more times than we wanted them to. Dallas is a completely different team that we're going to be facing. I think we start from zero. I'm not discouraged right now. They have the same need to win as we do going in to the playoff, and we're going to be prepared for that."
COLORADO RAPIDS FORWARD THIAGO MARTINS
On scoring two goals today:
"Well, today luck was on my side and I'm happy that I could help the team with the goals. I want to congratulate the effort of every single player on the field and outside of the field. They believed in me. There are a lot of players that come to me before every game and tell me to keep on working hard and the goals will come. I want to be thankful to those people, especially the coach, that gave me this opportunity today and kept on believing in me."
On the team's attitude after scoring three goals:
"I think after so many games without scoring more than one goal, to finish the season with three goals and tying the game on the road, I think we finished the season on a good note."
On the team's focus going forward:
"Now the playoffs are the thing. It's time to start over, so let's have a good week of work and get ready for the playoffs."
COLORADO RAPIDS FORWARD JACOB PETERSON
On scoring the tying goal at the end of the game:
"I'm glad. I feel like I missed one earlier; Thiago played a good ball and I should have finished that one. Jovan (Kirovski) did the hard stuff, and I just had to head it in."
On scoring three goals:
"Obviously we were struggling to score goals before this, and we scored three goals in the game. Even if we gave up three, we've had a couple of games like that defensively, but overall we've been pretty solid. Especially offensively, I think it gives us a lot of confidence."
