CHICAGO FIRE 1, D.C. UNITED 1
CHICAGO FIRE HEAD COACH DAVE SARACHAN
Overall thoughts on the match:
"It's a shame when one of your players is shown a red card that soon into the second half. Now we've got to just dig in and battle. It's not easy. It took a great little juke by Alecko [Eskandarian] to equalize. Other than the scramble, just like the game in D.C. at RFK, I think we dominated possession, thought we dominated the chances. We didn't feel that threatened. You always want to win at home, but given the circumstances tonight with ten men, we're going to accept the point and build off of this."
On his options at forward:
"Chris [Rolfe] is obviously off the injury report. He had a good week of training and he looked sharp. Andy [Herron] has been banging in the goals. Nate [Jaqua] had one day off with a little strep, but we thought [Jaqua and Rolfe] might be a good combination and start using Andy as a reserve."
On leaving Justin Mapp out of the starting XI:
"We felt that with Ivan [Guerrero] on the left and Logan [Pause] on the right, we had two guys who were real two-way players. Obviously Justin offers us a dimension going forward. With Logan on the right, he can do both. That was the idea. The thought was to use Justin as a reserve to give us a boost off the bench tonight. Given the red card, we had to modify."
On the Fire's philosophy tonight:
"Start strong, finish strong, that was the motto. When we have a good start like that and are first on plays, we made it hard on them physically. We had the aggressiveness tonight. I thought we saw a very good Fire team tonight. We play with that kind of intensity each and every day we're going to be tough."
CHICAGO FIRE DEFENDER DASAN ROBINSON
On his clearance from the goal line:
"It was the craziest thing I've ever been a part of. Zach [Thornton] made a great save, the ball just kind of popped out and bounced. I did everything within my power to try and keep it from going in the goal and fortunately the refs didn't call it over the line. I think it was the right call, but sometimes those (calls) go the other way."
On the Fire's defense:
"We played solid. Unfortunately they had a toe-poke goal, and when you fight so hard to preserve the 1-0 victory and they score, it's tough. We fought very hard tonight and I think if we continue to bring this kind of energy we'll continue to beat our opponents."
CHICAGO FIRE FORWARD CHRIS ROLFE
On if the team was happy with the tie:
"We really wanted the win tonight. It hurt going down a man at the end, but we still fought and played well. In a couple days we'll look at this and think we got something out of it, but we still wanted three points."
On coming back from his concussion:
"I feel good. I wasn't worried about heading the ball or going up for any challenges. Surprisingly, the thing I was most worried about were my legs and I played 65 minutes, and that turned out well too. I'm happy with the way things are going."
D.C. UNITED FORWARD ALECKO ESKANDARIAN
On his seventh goal of the season:
"Christian Gomez put in a good ball in a tight spot and I just wanted to cut in and get a shot off. And the old school indoor soccer toe ball was my best option at that point, so that's what I did."
On his celebration:
"The Chicago fans are great and they were giving me a lot of hell during warmups and in the first half, so Josh Gros told me to do the old school 1992 Hulk Hogan taunt to the crowd. Just having a little bit of fun."
D.C. UNITED FORWARD FREDDY ADU
On the match:
"It was a hard-fought game for us and we came in at halftime down a goal. Coach [Peter Nowak] challenged us and said, 'You know what? We haven't had a good test in a while, so let's see what we're made of.' So we went out there and we just took it to them in the second half. That's what this team is made of. We never quit, we believe and we just want to keep this going."
