NEW YORK RED BULLS 2, COLUMBUS CREW 0
NEW YORK RED BULLS ACTING HEAD COACH RICHIE WILLIAMS
On the victory:
"Guys are excited. You have to celebrate wins. They are very hard to get. The guys did extremely well. We have a streak going now and hopefully bring that over into Saturday, another key game against a conference team in Kansas City and get three points at home."
On the team's defense:
"It's concentration and focus and staying focused for 90 minutes. Obviously we've been stressing that. Not giving up goals at the beginning of the game and not giving up goals right before halftime."
On being tied at halftime:
"I thought we were OK. Coming into halftime 0-0 on the road is pretty good. It wasn't perfect but I thought it was pretty even at that point. I just told them that they needed to pick it up and they were capable of doing that because I've seen that. We needed to apply a little more pressure on Columbus. We needed to be a little more aggressive going towards the goal. Obviously Edson [Buddle] had a great ball and we get the goal that we need."
NEW YORK RED BULLS DEFENDER TODD DUNIVANT
On the game:
"The team played well tonight. Jon Conway made some big saves when it was 0-0, kept us in it. Chris Henderson and Jerrod [Laventure] came up huge for us with the goals. Man of the match overall though was Carlos Mendes. He was awesome. He covered everything in the back and was great all night."
On his first Red Bulls appearance:
"I got 20 minutes in and felt pretty good. Now it's just a matter of getting better each game and getting the fitness back."
On the team's attitude:
"The mood was good after our last win and we just carried it over into this game. A little bit of a run that we've needed for a while and suddenly things are looking a little different in the standings. Everything is looking up."
NEW YORK RED BULLS MIDFIELDER CHRIS HENDERSON
On the game:
"We talked about stability earlier and the future of the club. It was a great start to get our first road win. Everyone put in the effort. It's good to be able to finish the game off."
On the team's effort:
"The team has really stepped up. We lost [Tony] Meola. Conway came in, stepped up, made a big save in the first half. That helps a little bit of our team confidence. We're able to keep a team off the board and we're able to finish ourselves.
COLUMBUS CREW HEAD COACH SIGI SCHMID
On the game:
"It's the same old song and I am tired of singing it. We are inventing ways to lose. We have a great chance at the end of the first half, if you finish that chance the whole game goes different. We had more chances in the first half than they did. I thought we played pretty good soccer. I thought a lot of things were positive coming into halftime. Then we make a huge mental mistake and take a goal then you're chasing it. We still get some chances but now we are chasing the game and it's a different story. It's not a good result and we're definitely disappointed."
On the team's response to the first goal:
"Going down 1-0 there was still plenty of time for us to get the game back. What you have to do to win games is take care of your job. What happens is when we go down a goal then guys start thinking they have to do somebody else's job and then they forget doing their job. When you go down, you have to do your job better."
COLUMBUS CREW DEFENDER RITCHIE KOTSCHAU
On the game:
"2-0, we lost again. We need to change our attitude, change our personality, become someone else. We can't be the same people we are. We have to come as a different person and have some kind of alter ego to come out there and step on the field. That is the only way it is going to get done."
