DALLAS BURN 4, CHICAGO FIRE 1
DALLAS BURN HEAD COACH COLIN CLARKE
On the game:
"We were disappointed with how we played last week in San Jose and we talked about it all week. We worked this week on trying to play it a little quicker and a little faster and I thought we did that well. There was some good stuff first half and some good ball movement."
On weathering the early storm in the second half:
"We talked about it at halftime. You're 2-0 up and it's probably one of the worst leads in soccer. We came out a little bit lax in the second half and they get one and it takes the momentum their way. We dug down and were able to get the third and fourth but it was a little bit anxious there for a few minutes."
On the play of Toni Nhleko and Eddie Johnson at forward:
"I thought they did very well. They were lively and held the ball up and played well off of each other. They worked hard up there. It was the first time Toni's been 100% fit and I was pleased with the way he played."
On the play of Ronnie O'Brien:
"Ronnie's a good player. He came out and he was lively and he got off to a good start and I think that gave everyone a lift."
DALLAS BURN FORWARD EDDIE JOHNSON
On the game:
"It was a good night. It's close to playoff time and we're trying to get some consistency. We win a couple of games and then we lose a couple of games. It's been like that all season. Tonight was just a good all-around performance. Colin (Clarke) told us what he wanted to see from us in this game and we worked on that all week. Tonight we went out there and executed that."
DALLAS BURN MIDFIELDER RONNIE O'BRIEN
On the game:
"It was a good team performance tonight. We had come off of a bad result last week and we had talked about it this week. With the playoffs coming up soon we've got to move up in the table. We took a step in that direction tonight. We played well as a team and passed the ball better than we have in a while and we got a good result."
On his play:
"Two of the last three games I've been pretty poor and it's time to step up. Coming to the end of the season it's an important time for all of us to step up. It was my time tonight so hopefully it's someone else next game."
On the team scoring four goals:
"As a team I just think we broke them down. We passed the ball really, really well and we worked it great from back to front. I think we moved from the midfield to the attack better than we've done in a long time and they couldn't handle it and we scored four good goals."
CHICAGO FIRE HEAD COACH DAVE SARACHAN
On what he said at halftime:
"We made a couple mistakes that led to two goals in the first half, but when we put passes together and tried to play I thought we actually had good moments in the first half. We said we're going to stick with the same 11 and let's get it moving quicker and be patient and we can get back in the game. And sure enough we exploited their right side, Justin [Mapp] plays a great ball to Nate [Jaqua] and we're in it four minutes into the half. But we couldn't sustain anything because they got that third goal."
On the play of Dallas midfielder Ronnie O'Brien:
"We know that when you give him opportunities to run at you, he's as good as there is in the league. We know we didn't do well on our individual defending with Ronnie O'Brien tonight."
On putting this loss behind and facing Kansas City on Wednesday:
"It's tough to answer that right now, coming off the field getting beat 4-1. We have no choice but to get it past us; we have to many important games coming up."
CHICAGO FIRE DEFENDER C.J. BROWN
On the match:
"It was possible to get three points, but I don't think the attitude of the players was to get three points. We came out slow and we played slow the whole time. Dallas came out with a mentality to win and came out with a better attitude. We weren't holding the ball. And when we lost the ball they countered, and countered well."
On the play of O'Brien:
"He's a talented played and he basically killed our left side. Nobody seemed able to stop him."
CHICAGO FIRE FORWARD NATE JAQUA
On his goal and the Fire's play coming out of halftime:
"We just wanted to push the game towards them a little bit. Justin [Mapp] was doing well getting down the left side. He played a good ball in and I was able to finish it."
On his shot that rang the right post moments later:
"Damani played a good ball in and if we would have gotten that goal and made it 2-2 obviously it would have changed the game. It probably wouldn't have been quite as offensive minded. Maybe that's how they countered and got the third goal. It definitely would have given us some momentum."
On the team's mindset heading into the last seven games of the season:
"We haven't been playing horrible, we just need to put it together for 90 minutes and get some wins."
CHICAGO FIRE MIDFIELDER JESSE MARSCH
On making his first start of the season:
"I felt pretty good. I thought I did all right; I was able to the things that I normally do, so I felt good on that part. It was just a little frustrating on how the game went."
On the match:
"At 2-1 we had the momentum, but giving up that third goal killed us. I knew when it got 2-1 we had to make sure that we didn't give up that third one; it kind of reminded me of MLS Cup [2003]. We just weren't good enough."
