KANSAS CITY WIZARDS 3, NEW YORK RED BULLS 2
KANSAS CITY WIZARDS HEAD COACH CURT ONALFO
On the game:
"It was a good effort from the team and an exciting game to be a part of. The fans were great, knowledgeable and heard and it was appreciated by all of us. We looked good, but we still have things to we will work on."
On Eddie Johnson:
"Eddie has had a great attitude. He has done well keeping his head and just focusing on the things that matter which are being dangerous and getting shots to the net. He is playing with a huge amount of confidence right now. Eddie is playing his best right now and will be hard to stop if he keeps it up."
On the Wizards' upcoming two-week layoff:
"We have somewhat of a banged up team right now so this break comes at a good time. We will utilize these days to recuperate and get healthy for a tough match against New York in two weeks."
KANSAS CITY WIZARDS FORWARD EDDIE JOHNSON
On his last two games:
"I haven't been seeing anything different. I'm just confident and the players around me are playing with confidence as well. We all just have a different mentality this year. Whenever anyone is in a zone ... I don't know if you all saw Lebron (James) the other night when he was in a zone. Whenever you are in a zone these things happen. I have had a run like this before. It's like whenever the ball is on my foot it goes in the net. You always know that you will have your downs, but you have to stay positive that times like this will come back around again."
On his national team selection:
"I am very excited to be a part of the national squad, but none of it would have been possible if I wasn't scoring goals here. I'm going to miss this here. My team and I have been putting in a lot of work since the preseason in Florida and Argentina. We couldn't wait for the season to start so we could show everyone that we had a good team and good new ownership."
KANSAS CITY WIZARDS MIDFIELDER SASHA VICTORINE
On strategy for the game:
"We wanted to hold the ball up in the midfield to give the forwards time to run. We knew if we made lots of runs they would have to cover us. That would spread them out and create big holes to pass through. I think that Eddie did a great job finishing again tonight and his runs gave us great lanes to get him the ball."
KANSAS CITY WIZARDS DEFENDER NICK GARCIA
On coming back from injury:
"These past two weeks I have spent a lot of time on the bike keeping my cardio up and doing my exercises along with seeing the team specialist to try and keep the (abdominal) strain at ease. It paid off. I played 90 minutes for the first time in three weeks so that was a bit of adjustment, but our team needed us (the defenders) and we got a good result."
On the Wizards' upcoming two-week layoff:
"It was a huge boost of confidence we wanted to end on a good note against a great team. The challenge for us was to come out strong against a good team. We accomplished the mental goals we came out and did what we needed to get a win."
NEW YORK RED BULLS HEAD COACH BRUCE ARENA
On being a man down:
"Obviously, playing with 10 players certainly helped our opponent even though that is not an excuse. But obviously that is one of the differences."
On the Wizards playing the long ball:
"I wouldn't say they only played the long ball even though a bunch of balls beat us over the top. We played very poorly to start the second half. We got caught out. Give K.C. credit; they did a good job of getting Eddie Johnson behind us."
NEW YORK RED BULLS MIDFIELDER DAVE VAN DEN BERGH
On Clint Mathis' red card:
"I have not seen it yet. He told me that he was protecting the ball; whenever a player on my team says that I am going to believe him. He has no reason to lie."
On tonight's game:
"Obviously we are disappointed. We came here to win. We started off well getting the go-ahead goal. Then we went into the locker room up 1-0 we knew what to expect. Then with about 30 seconds into the second half the ball is in our net, and that kind of took it out of us. It shouldn't have, but it gave them a whole lot of momentum. Then they waltzed right over us in the first 15 minutes of the second half."
On Eddie Johnson:
"Obviously two hat tricks in two games is great. He is having a great couple of weeks, and he is in good form. That is good for him, but not good for us."
On getting ready for New York's next game:
"We need to regroup as fast as possible. We need to learn from the mistakes we made tonight and we need to get better Wednesday and get ready for Toronto."
NEW YORK FORWARD JUAN PABLO ANGEL
On when the momentum of the game changed:
"I think it turned around when Clint was sent off. It's hard enough to play with 11, so imagine it with 10. I think they played really well but it was hard for us to get back with one man less."
On his goal:
"I think the goal had some good movement by the team. I managed to hit it well and I think it was a good finish. But I think from then on, it was all uphill. It was hard and they came out really well in the second half and we weren't smart enough to hold them up. I think we held on as much as we could, but it is hard to play for 90 minutes, with 60 minutes one man down."
