After it was revealed that Mo Johnston was relieved of his duties as head coach of the New York Red Bulls Tuesday morning, many players had mixed emotions.
However, despite the intangibles that such an event inevitably brings, every single player said that their attention was on one thing - the match against the Columbus Crew Wednesday night at Giants Stadium.
"With Mo being relieved of his duties, it's over and done with," said midfielder Mark Lisi. "We've got a game (Wednesday) night and that's the important thing - three points without a question is a must."
On Sunday at Chicago, the Red Bulls fell to the Fire, 2-0, at Toyota Park. The contest was the first of a stretch that sees New York play five games in 14 days, four of which are on the road.
With that in mind, Wednesday's game against the Crew, who are in third place but stand just three points ahead of the Red Bulls and have played two more matches, the team's goal is to get its game back on track.
"It's a [game] that I think we can get a result in and it's a matter of us performing," said defender Steve Jolley. "We played a team in Chicago that I felt we could have gotten a result [against], and we didn't play up to our potential and we lost that game. It's just a matter of coming out, doing our jobs, [and] being held accountable to ourselves."
The Red Bulls acknowledged that the best way to move beyond this situation is to get results and improve on the field, knowing that the Eastern Conference race is tight.
"I think I was the first one around here who said that we need to focus on nothing but soccer," said goalkeeper Tony Meola. "Once again, we're focusing on something other than soccer and we got to now as quickly as we can get out of that mode."
"For some of these guys, it's their first major change," Lisi said. "They've just got to keep on coming in day in and day out and play and try to get better."
And though they wish Johnston the best of luck, the Red Bulls are fully behind interim head coach Richie Williams.
"That's the belief we need to have, to put all of our faith into Richie Williams as the coach," said midfielder Chris Henderson. "He knows the game, he's been around professionally for 15 years so it's really important for us to follow his plan and come together as a team because we're the only ones that step on the field and it's important that everyone gives a little bit extra."
