KANSAS CITY WIZARDS 2, NEW YORK RED BULLS 2
KANSAS CITY WIZARDS HEAD COACH BRIAN BLISS
On the end of the season getting exciting:
"Yeah, I mean credit to the guys, Sunday-Wednesday schedule. You know Saturday-Wednesday is tough enough but when you throw Sunday-Wednesday in there it makes it even that much more difficult and I think our guys showed some fatigue there with some of the mistakes that were being made. It certainly wasn't out of wanting to make plays but those guys fought and found something extra in the last 20 minutes that enabled them to get the goal. I'm proud of the guys the way they fought and came back. You know at the end of the day we're right where we started the day at you know so it is still in our hands."
On losing Nick Garcia 10 minutes into the match:
"Yeah it's always tough when you have to replace a guy like Nicky or any of the guys across the back line. They've played as a unit pretty well in the last month and I would say Nicky is our guy with the tenacity and the speed and all that back there but give credit to Tyson (Wahl) who comes in cold and did an admirable job and I'm proud of his performance under the circumstances."
On the play of Shavar Thomas:
"Jimmy (Conrad)'s gone down with the injury that he's got and a lot has been thrown on Shavar's back, and Nick's back for that matter, and both of them I think have responded well. Now Nicky's out for probably at least a weekend, Shavar (Thomas) has got to be that much better and I suspect he will be."
On the combination of Scott Sealy, Eddie Johnson, Davy Arnaud and Sasha Victorine:
"I mean we've been working on that you know that those guys get closer to one another during the attack meaning Eddie and Scott and then getting the support underneath from Sasha and Davy in order for us to keep the ball up higher up the field. Scott was able to run off the flick down ball from Eddie and was able to put it away. So that stuff comes when guys play closer to one another as opposed to further apart on the field and that was the result of it."
On Jose Burciaga Jr. pushing up the field:
"I think that is more what New York gave him. They packed the middle of the midfield with (Dema) Kovalenko, (Youri) Djorkaeff, (Amado) Guevara, and (Danny) O'Rourke down the middle which left the wing channels open for (Matt) Groenwald and for Jose to be able venture forward a little bit more, so it was more I think what they gave us as opposed to the instructions."
KANSAS CITY WIZARDS FORWARD SCOTT SEALY
On being able to work with Eddie Johnson on creating scoring chances:
"I mean every game I think we continue to grow and form the relationship and create chances. I think the midfielders play real good balls. We are just trying to learn each other; I think it is still a work in progress and hopefully before the end of the season, (we'll) get it right."
KANSAS CITY WIZARDS DEFENDER TYSON WAHL
On coming on for Nick Garcia:
"It was definitely a spur of the moment type thing and I was asked to come of the bench and do my job and fill in for Nick and I thought I could do a few things differently but as a whole game put together I thought I did all right."
On making the first confrontation with Amado Guevara:
"He was sneaking in there behind a few times pretty well and just had to read the situations where I could step in and step into that space and got a few tackles in at the end there."
NEW YORK RED BULLS HEAD COACH BRUCE ARENA
On the game-tying goal:
"Well I think the players stop, but obviously until you hear the whistle you got to play it out. We had too many guys just stop on the play resulting in the goal. There's no excuses on our part they should know enough in this league about the officiating they need to continue to play."
On the Red Bulls' performance:
"Very sloppy; the first 30 minutes I thought was good although we fell behind the goal but we did good to get the goal back. We started the second half pretty well, Tony (Meola) made a couple of good saves and then we just completely hit the wall physically our team is struggling right now with injuries and the number of games they've had and it's been very difficult and you can see they ran out of gas in the last 20 minutes of the game."
On the passive offside rule:
"The passive offside rule is a good rule but the problem is that there is not enough quality assistant referees to deal with it. I think it's a good rule and there's nothing wrong with it. There's no excuses on our end tonight; we just needed to play better and play smarter."
On Todd Dunivant's play:
"Todd has done pretty well getting forward in the attack -- obviously a big goal tonight off the corner kick. He's still getting himself back in form; he's coming off an injury that caused him to miss a good number of games obviously in the first half of the season. He still doesn't have his full fitness but hopefully over the next couple weeks he'll get back in form."
On John Wolyniec fitting into the system:
"Yes, Wolyniec is doing well. He had a good game tonight."
NEW YORK RED BULLS GOALKEEPER TONY MEOLA
On the offsides flag going up before the game-tying goal:
"I mean it went up and we've got to continue to play. There's no question but everything we've been told was that the linesman would wait and wait and wait until the last minute and then put it up after but tonight seemed to be the opposite and if we stopped and you know it bit us."
On how the defense stopping affected the game-tying goal:
"No question, I mean they even stopped for a second. We've got to do a better job of continuing to play. I'm as big of a culprit as any of them and I still went out to get Burciaga, but it gave them a little bit of an advantage to get in good positions and it's tough to swallow losing two points tonight."
On the Red Bulls offense the past two games:
"From that standpoint, great. Two goals on the road should always give us a chance to be in the game. I thought we did well we kept our patience even after the nasty tackle by (Alex) Zotinca. I thought we were pretty patient and pretty calm about the way (we) reacted. In most cases that's a red card and we are playing one man up for 10 minutes. Tonight it was nothing, we're lucky we've got Todd that'll certainly be back on the field after that tackle."
On making a playoff run:
"I mean tonight doesn't kill us; I think it hurts Kansas City more that it hurts us. We've got two games in hand and we've got to make due with those two games. They certainly were more desperate. They are closer to the end of their season than we are so they were more desperate for the three points than we were. Quite honestly I know playing here for years it is a difficult place to win, not a lot of teams come here and play well and win here. People don't realize that."
On the Kansas City Wizards playoff run:
"We've got games in hand, in those two games we've got to make up one point so at least destiny is in our own hands. From that perspective I think we are in a pretty good position."
On John Wolyniec:
"Well you know he brings work, he brings effort, things that we need up top and when Edson (Buddle) couldn't go John came in and did a great job, and we said one thing: don't get beat from our effort."
NEW YORK RED BULLS FORWARD JOHN WOLYNIEC
On the tie:
"Anytime you are on the road, you've got a lead in the second half, you know good teams lock down the game you walk out of here with three points. Unfortunately we couldn't do that. You've got to give some credit to them; they pushed hard and got a goal. But we kind of stopped playing, which is a little disappointing but it comes at being on the road and playing a tough stretch of games. I think we looked a little tired after we scored."
On having a positive start on the Red Bulls road trip:
"I mean you get points on the road it's pretty good. You know we couldn't let them score and get three points against us because we are racing into the playoffs. It would have been nice to get three and we had a chance so it's a little disappointing but at the same time you know they didn't gain on us and we got a point in their house."
