D.C. UNITED 3, CD OLIMPIA 2 (D.C. UNITED ADVANCES 7-3 ON AGGREGATE)
D.C. UNITED HEAD COACH TOM SOEHN
On the game:
You know I give them a lot of credit. They came here knowing they were behind the eight ball a bit and they came out and fought and scrapped and they were the beneficiaries of a lot second balls - 50-50 balls. I thought we adjusted well at the half and we took over the play a little bit, but I give them a lot of credit, they fought and gave us everything they could.
On whether or not he was concerned after going down 1-0:
We talked about this quite a bit - we've talked about no matter what happens, we'll just play our game. And again, they came out fighting early, but we knew that if we could get through the first 15-20 [minutes] and absorb that pressure that things would look better. No matter what happens, we stick to our game plan. And you know, second half, I thought we adjusted really well and we made them work.
On the team scoring seven goals in two games:
I think you look at the opportunities we create and the people that are creating them. Luciano [Emilio] is a great addition to our club, he works really hard. He gets on the end of a lot of balls and with Christian [Gomez] and Jaime [Moreno feeding him, I might even score a couple goals if I had that kind of service. But, he's been a great addition - he worked really hard today. On different days you're going to see different people step up for us, and that's what makes us dangerous.
On facing CD Guadalajara in the semifinals:
We're going to be ready for everybody and watch a lot of tape and recognize what their strengths and weaknesses are and in the same respect we're going to go down there and do the things that we do well, let them worry about us.
On Troy Perkins' injury:
With Troy, we'll evaluate tonight, tomorrow and see where he's at. Obviously he's an important piece, we brought in Jay [Nolly] and were glad he got his feet wet.
D.C. UNITED FORWARD LUCIANO EMILIO [via translator]
On scoring three goals in two games against his former team:
I'm happy that I was able to score against them. Obviously I won a lot of titles with Olimpia, so I really don't feel that killer instinct as a player against them-they gave me a lot as a player. But overall, I'm happy that we won, it was a tough match and I'm glad that we're in the next round.
On whether or not he is surprised at how well he, Moreno and Gomez are working together:
No, I'm not surprised at all. When I first came here I knew they were from South America and we clicked right away, off the field as well. And I knew their style as South Americans, it would blend with mine, so it's been an easy transition to play with them.
D.C. UNITED FORWARD JAIME MORENO
On the game:
"With the rain, it was a little bit wet, but it was for both teams. It wasn't easy but we got the win, and that's what we care about."
On how well Luciano is fitting in with the team:
Wow - really well. We expect a lot from him and he's really doing well, he's been working hard since day one so it's paying off and that's to great see for him.
On how Luciano is melding with the team off the field:
Yeah, he's a fun guy. You know, he speaks a lot of English already. He speaks it actually more than Christian, so... [laughs] No, he's a good guy, very easy to get in with the other guys, so really doing very well for us.
On how he feels playing Guadalajara in the semifinals:
Great. You know, that's what we want, to play better teams so we get better. I think everybody should be happy because it'll be an exciting game.
On the upcoming MLS season:
Everything looks pretty good so far. I mean, you never know how you're going to start the season, but you think positive and you never know. You take it game-by-game and if something goes wrong we have to see how to fix it. I think every day we try to learn from our mistakes so we don't make the same mistakes in the next game.
D.C. UNITED MIDFIELDER BRIAN CARROLL
On Olimpia and the game:
You know, I thought they started out pretty strong, pretty hungry - maybe a little bit more hungry than us. But, I think after their goal we kind of rebounded, got our momentum going, got our goal back and finished the half strong. The second half I think we tightened things up, played a little more organized and compact and just put the game away.
On Luciano Emilio:
He's a character in the locker room, he's learned English very fast and he's scoring goals, obviously. I think he's fitting in great and he's been a great addition so far.
On the upcoming MLS season:
Well, we have a ways to go before we get to the opener, it's going to be a long, hard season and we've got to be ready from the get-go.
On having Christian Gomez in front of him on the field:
He's a great player, he showed that, of course, in the first game of this tournament then again today, so it's great having Christian in front of us; it makes things easy.
D.C. UNITED MIDFIELDER BEN OLSEN
On approaching the game up three goals on aggregate:
It's always a tough situation when you're up that many goals. The mentality, I thought overall, was pretty good from us - it wasn't the greatest game, but still [we're] three weeks into our training, so this is - we're still winning. We're still winning games against a pretty good team, three weeks into the season, so I think we should be happy with this. There's still some things I think, defensively, we need to work on and maybe mentally we were a bit lax because of the goal differential, but the goals we gave them, I mean it's just that, we gave them those goals, they didn't really earn 'em, so we have to fix that.
On Luciano:
Man, this guy's something else. He's fun to watch and he's such a nice addition to this team-he's just what we needed on the field and he's a joy in the locker room, he's a bit of a clown. With losing [Alecko] Esky [Eskandarian] and Freddy [Adu], we needed another clown in the locker room.
On his transition to the U.S.:
He just doesn't speak very good English, at all, but he speaks English all the time. He speaks like five different languages, so it's amazing how quick he's learning English. Every day he picks up another sentence and he just says the sentence over and over the entire day. And, every time he scores, he gives a little Dave Johnson "It's in the net!" and he just keeps saying that over and over, so he's already got that one down.
