NEW ENGLAND REVOLUTION 3, HOUSTON DYNAMO 3
NEW ENGLAND REVOLUTION HEAD COACH STEVE NICOL
On the game:
"Well it was a bit of a rollercoaster game. At halftime, we could have been three ahead with three fantastic chances that we never took. And then the heat got to us to be honest. We made a lot of mistakes that we wouldn't normally have done. I think the heat was draining a lot of people. You can look at both defenses and say both teams defended poorly, and there's a reason for that. You know when it's as hot as it is, it's far easier to run forward than it is to run back. That's just a fact of soccer. And I think that was part of the problem."
"You had players out there today, important players for both teams, who are tired from playing on Thursday (at the MLS All-Star Game). But, at the same time, I'm sure there are a lot of people in the stands not complaining. We were going crazy on the side, so I'm sure if you're a supporter you must have enjoyed it."
"You come out at halftime and we feel as though we should have been couple goals ahead. Purely on the chances we made. There's nothing between theses two teams, there's not a great deal between them at all and for us to have made the chances that we did, we were disappointed not to be a couple of goals up. Then you get punished. I mean it's a great goal; it's a fantastic goal from (Dwayne) De Rosario but we have to close the ball quicker. As I said when it's so hot and defenses are tired and people just don't have the extra half a gallon of legs, then they just don't close the ball properly and De Rosario sticks it in. It's a fantastic goal. And (Brian) Ching's goals were just bad marking."
NEW ENGLAND REVOLUTION FORWARD PAT NOONAN
On the high scoring between the two teams:
"It was nice to get a couple goals, but it doesn't mean anything if you're not winning games. It was a high intensity game with two very good teams - the two best teams in the league - and maybe a just result, maybe not, but that's the way it ended up."
On breaking Houston's 726-minute shutout streak:
"We expected to. We have a very good offense and although they are a very good team, we don't expect to be shut out. We expect to score goals."
NEW ENGLAND REVOLUTION MIDFIELDER SHALRIE JOSEPH
On the first penalty kick attempt:
"I didn't hit it good at all. It was horrible to be honest about it. It was just a badly taken penalty kick ... It's a guessing game. He picked a side; I picked a side. Unfortunately, he just guessed the right side the first time. That's how it goes some times."
On the call to give him a second penalty kick:
"Some referees call it, and some referees don't. Once they cross the line I think you should get it again. I'm glad I got it again and I got a chance to redeem myself ... I just wanted to hit it as hard as I could on the second one, because I already messed up on the first one. I didn't have any choice but to hit it hard. That's all I was thinking about."
On how the heat affected his play:
"It was my legs, I definitely didn't have my legs under me today. ... Both teams played in the heat, so we were both complaining. They were talking about how hot it was and it was really hard to play. But we have to put that behind us and play a better game."
On whether or not he was happy with draw:
"Not at all. We should have got three points, going up 1-0 then 2-1. To give up such soft goals, our defense didn't play well today. We just have to look forward to next weekend and try to get three points against Salt Lake."
NEW ENGLAND REVOLUTION FORWARD TAYLOR TWELLMAN
On scoring three goals but not winning:
"It's the story of our year. We have to figure it out. At home, we can't keep doing this to ourselves. Out of the six ties we probably should have four wins."
On losing two leads in the game:
"We're just not finishing the job off. We've had leads here. As a team, I think we all kind of let down when we have a lead and shoot ourselves in the foot. But in fairness, (Dwayne) De Rosario scored the goal of the year."
HOUSTON DYNAMO HEAD COACH DOMINIC KINNEAR
On the game:
"There were a lot of positives today. It was a great point for us today. We scored some great goals. Some guys made some mistakes and we got punished for that. But I thought when you come into the game missing the guys that we have and you take the goals out of it, I thought we played pretty well today."
On having their 726-minute scoreless streak broken:
"Yeah, we kind of let it slide in a heavy way. But when you have guys like (Taylor) Twellman, (Pat) Noonan, (Andy) Dorman and (Steve) Ralston coming at you, it's hard to keep them away, and more often than not, they are going to hit the target. I don't agree with the third goal in a way but they had some chances. For us to create streaks is nice but you would like to win games."
On the playing field:
"The field was difficult as well. It's a hard thing to play on. I think you saw the team fell off their ground very much. When we got to the last third of the field we saw a lot of balls getting stuck at our feet. Sometimes you try to move the ball and it doesn't catch up to you."
HOUSTON DYNAMO FORWARD BRIAN CHING
On the quick turnaround of a quiet game to five goals in 15 minutes:
"I think we struggled a little bit with the turf. We just had some bad bounces. But that's the life of a striker. You are quiet for 60 minutes, pump up for five and score a couple of goals. I am just happy to put a couple in the net and come out of here with a point."
On the broken streak:
"Maybe the couple of days off we had this week messed with us a little bit. But it was a good streak and our team played well throughout that streak. And we still have our unbeaten streak so we are happy about that."
On the goals they gave up:
"I think we made some uncharacteristic mistakes for the first goal. And with the second goal, the turf and the bounce of the ball got us a little bit. And the third goal was a PK, we couldn't do much about that."
HOUSTON DYNAMO MIDFIELDER DWAYNE DE ROSARIO
On the mentality after giving up a goal for the first time in 726 minutes:
"They scored in the first half. So all it was, was coming in and keeping our composure, continuing doing what we were doing because we had chances. It was just a matter of finishing those chances that we were given in the first half and capitalizing in the second half. And we did that. We created good chances and we capitalized on that."
On his goal:
"I just hit it. I tried to duplicate that later on in the second half but it didn't work out as well. Playing on that turf is difficult. It's difficult to get your grounding and I think it slows the ball a lot trying to adjust your feet. I think that hampered my feet with the ball."
