NEW YORK RED BULLS 1, NEW ENGLAND REVOLUTION 1
NEW ENGLAND REVOLUTION HEAD COACH STEVE NICOL
On the game:
"We salvaged it. I'm not quite sure who was worse, us or the referee. Teams already have and will continue to come here and first and foremost defend and make it hard for us. Obviously we realize that and we go away on the road to do that as well. But the referee has to know the teams are going to be physical and has to protect the players. Basically, his decisions, we don't know which way he going. Nobody knows which way he is going to give fouls or if he is going to give fouls. So his decisions tonight on what was a fouls and what wasn't a foul were pretty poor."
On Mauricio Castro's injury and New York getting the goal:
"It's an excuse, but its not an obvious one; we still have to defend. There is no way to get around how we played tonight in every aspect. But as I said, there were two things: we were poor, but, our players have to be protected from other teams. The referee was giving yellow cards out for things in the second half to our players, which their players were doing in the first half and not getting them. You know we have problems with stuff like that."
On moving Steve Ralston to forward in the second half:
"We were hoping we could make them think differently. Some of (Steve Ralston's) big attributes are his passing and holding the ball, so if we maybe could try to pull them in tighter and try to get more room wide. We were hoping to get the ball wider more often. Probably in that last 10 minutes and injury time, we got the ball wide more in that period than we did whole game. And when we did that, we caused them problems. We got the goal and we could have had another one. We would have stolen the points if we got the second one."
On the Revolution attack:
"Teams are making it tough for us here; they're making it tough in the middle of the park. We want the guys in the middle to pick up the scraps and win the challenges and get the ball wide and when it gets congested it's difficult to do that. We understand it's difficult, but at the same time we should be doing better with it. As I said, when we got the ball wide we looked as though we were going to cause them trouble."
NEW ENGLAND REVOLUTION MIDFIELDER STEVE RALSTON
On midfield struggles:
"In the first half, it felt like they always had their four in the back and they had one guy sitting in front of them at all times. They clogged up the middle of the field quite a bit and we didn't do a good enough job of getting the ball wide and stretching them out. When we started passing the ball, when we started playing and moving a little bit, we did all right. We created some chances, we got wide and got some crosses in the box."
On the game's physical nature:
"We knew they were going to come out and be aggressive. They're a physical team and they're going to make it difficult for us to play, but we have to do a better job of getting fouls and holding onto the ball."
On playing forward:
"I haven't played forward since my sophomore year of college probably. I was lucky the ball found my foot and I was lucky enough to get it in."
On his second scoring opportunity:
"I should have done better with it. (Conway) made an amazing save on the rebound. We could have stolen three points here tonight"
NEW ENGLAND REVOLUTION FORWARD KHELI DUBE
On Ralston's goal:
"I just had to make sure I got it to the guy who had the opportunity to score. (Steve) Ralston was wide open. I could've tried to shoot, but it was better to get it to someone who was open and get the goal."
On his 90th-minute chance to win the game:
"The goalie made a good save. He came back as fast as he could. It was one of those days where you get chances and you can't score."
NEW ENGLAND REVOLUTION MIDFIELDER SHALRIE JOSEPH
On the game:
"Tonight was one of those games where every time you try to push it forward -- every time you try to push the tempo of the game - they come back and take over the ball. They came in here and they wanted the points. ... We were working hard, but we were getting beat to all the loose balls, so you have to give them credit. They stayed behind the ball. We have to be better at home."
NEW YORK RED BULLS HEAD COACH JUAN CARLOS ORSORIO:
On Carlos Mendes:
"So if you look throughout the 90 minutes, I think Carlos (Mendes) did a very good job against (Steve) Ralston. If you take away a goal it would be difficult for me to remember that he had any other opportunities. But in the end, that is what football is about.
On Jon Conway's performance:
"They forced him for us today, I think our best foot was our goalkeeper, he made two saves that kept the team in the game. He did very good!"
On the Red Bulls' game plan:
"I am very pleased with the way we carried our plan. I think the guys in the middle, forced them to push inside and I think we, in general, denied a very good chance, allowed very few chances and I am pleased with that."
NEW YORK RED BULLS DEFENDER CARLOS MENDES
On his role:
"Coach has confidence in me. I know I haven't been playing as much as I like, but he told me to go out there and hold that defensive mid spot. He had a lot of confidence in me and knew I could do it. For the most part I though we did well. We competed, but obviously it was very disappointing because we were up 1-0. Overall we fought hard."
On the end of the game:
"They put (Steve Ralston) up top and they were throwing a lot at us in the end and we were under pressure. We fought hard and had a good game overall. We're a little disappointed to be 1-0 up and upset to leave with just a point."
NEW YORK RED BULLS DEFENDER DAVE VAN DEN BERGH:
On the game:
"I think the effort was there and we played good. We played a (heck) of a lot better than we did last Saturday night. We scored a good goal and had the chance to extend that lead and at halftime. Oscar (Echeverry) had a clear shot on goal and we need to be a little bit better about taking those chances and putting them in earlier. ... Overall I thought it was a pretty good effort and good result. We haven't had the best results -- we lost a lot of games -- but it was a step toward the right direction."
