KANSAS CITY WIZARDS 1, COLUMBUS CREW 0
KANSAS CITY WIZARDS HEAD COACH CURT ONALFO
On pressuring the ball:
"The first half we pressured the ball very well. I don't think they strung three passes together for a long time. The thing is when it's hot like this you can't do that for 90 minutes. I told our team to take their foot off the gas a little to start the second half. Defense is a collective effort. Jimmy Conrad is the best defender in the league, but he doesn't do it alone."
On Columbus:
"I knew this would be a game that would test our character. That is because Columbus is a very good team that is very well coached. It was going to be tough for our guys. Some of the guys were getting frustrated. A few started throwing their arms in the air at the end of the half. I told them at halftime that if they kept doing what they were doing, then we would get a goal. We might get it in the first minute or in the 90th. It ended up taking us until the 90th minute today."
On mental toughness:
"It shows we are a fit team, a mentally tough team, and we are going to try and get three points either at home or on the road."
KANSAS CITY WIZARDS DEFENDER JOSE BURCIAGA JR.
On his game-winning goal:
"I don't think a lot of guys know dribbling is part of my game. It is something I can do. I knew that if I could get an opportunity to get a shot, I would get a goal. The Columbus defender started going to my right. I was never going to use my right foot, but that gave me enough space to get a shot away. I saw the 'keeper going to his right and that is when I shot it far post."
KANSAS CITY WIZARDS GOALKEEPER KEVIN HARTMAN
On the first month of regular season play:
"I think it shows a lot about your team defense and about your commitment to winning, but for us to get two of those in a row, I think it almost puts us a little bit ahead of where maybe we want to be. Because you really do have to pace the season out and you have to make sure that you're not peaking too soon. We have to make sure that we keep our heads on our shoulders and not get too excited about the fact that we have 12 points right now. We need to make sure we are focusing on the grand scheme, and that is winning championships. We have to make sure we keep guys healthy and we have to develop good habits, and we I think we are doing that so far."
KANSAS CITY WIZARDS DEFENDER JACK JEWSBURY
On team attitude:
"I think that our team's attitude is very positive. We knew it was going to be a hard match, but we stayed confident in our abilities and came out with a win."
On Columbus:
"I think it was fine to create chances. We got many chances in the first half. We just didn't finish them, which makes it harder in the second half because they just drop and drop and drop. Once you get one goal, the game opens up against them."
COLUMBUS CREW HEAD COACH SIGI SCHMID
On the teams' contrasting styles:
"It wasn't hard to prepare for their all-out attacking style. I just thought that they did a better job on the attack than we did. Their attackers are better at holding the ball and being able to put some pressure on us, and our attackers didn't do a good job of holding onto the ball. I thought the first 20 minutes we had some good open field play, where we changed the point of attack. We managed to get behind (Jose) Burciaga a few times, but our guys didn't do anything with it. We knew they were going to go to Eddie (Johnson) and for the most part I thought we did a good job of handling it."
On Schelotto's play today:
"He helped us and he made some things happen. He still has to get used to the play in this league. There were some calls he thought he was going to get. We didn't get many calls today though."
COLUMBUS GOALKEEPER ANDY GRUENEBAUM
On playing in his hometown:
"Obviously it is my hometown and I'm excited to be back home every time. I love it. I'm biased towards Kansas City because I'm from here. I grew up watching the Wizards in Arrowhead. I had lots of family and friends here and it was a good time, just a bad result."
On becoming the Columbus starting goalkeeper:
"I don't think it was a matter of whether I was one, two or three. It was a matter of me being injured. I had three separate injuries that kept me out of the mix. When you can't get in rhythm, it is hard to be successful. Now I came out trying to stay healthy and I had something to prove."
COLUMBUS FORWARD GUILLERMO BARROS SCHELOTTO
On playing in MLS:
"I have only trained two months with the team, so right now we don't know each other as well. After time and more practice, we will understand each other much more."
On dealing with high expectations:
"I was accustomed to high expectations in Argentina. But I hope to bring something to this team and make it the best in the league."
On Carlos Marinelli:
"We keep in touch and we played together in Buenos Aires. We will always stay in touch. We hope to play against each other in the future."
