MAJOR LEAGUE SOCCER QUOTE SHEET
SUNDAY, JUNE 6, 2004 – COLUMBUS CREW 2, NEW ENGLAND REVOLUTION 1
NEW ENGLAND REVOLUTION HEAD COACH STEVE NICOL
On the game:
"Every single thing happened in the game that you can imagine. I don't think we played particularly well. The boys were certainly tired after three games in seven days. Two of those days they had off were spent traveling. To put the effort in and come back the way they did and not gain anything out of it, it's criminal."
On the Revolution's second penalty kick:
"Pepe (José Cancela) takes the penalties. Where he puts it and how he does it is certainly his decision. We are obviously disappointed he didn't score."
On the penalty kick miss:
"To get a penalty in the last seconds and to not take advantage of it is criminal. We have lost two penalties in the last two home games that have cost us points and given other teams points."
NEW ENGLAND REVOLUTION MIDFIELDER JOSÉ CANCELA
On his penalty miss:
"I believed that (Columbus goalkeeper Jon Busch) would move because I didn't think he would expect the same way of penalty taking again. I used the same technique and he won the ball."
NEW ENGLAND REVOLUTION DEFENDER AVERY JOHN
On the foul called against him that resulted in a Columbus penalty:
"What can you do? My biggest attributes are my speed and my tackling. So a forward is coming at you 50-50 and you're going to pull out? My job is to defend at all costs. So regardless of whether I have to go in head first or whatever the situation is, I'm going to do it within the limits and the rules of the game. It's done. You can't really go back and change it."
NEW ENGLAND REVOLUTION MIDFIELDER FELIX BRILLANT
On the game - his second start for the Revolution:
"I felt pretty good. It was a tough loss. We just have to get our heads up and go win in Dallas."
On Cancela's missed penalty:
"I give him (José Cancela) credit, because you need to have a lot of courage to do that (chip shot). That's the mark of genius. If he'd actually scored it, everybody would have said, 'Wow, this guy is very good.' If I were the keeper, I wouldn't have thought he'd (chip the ball) twice in a row. It's not fair to blame Pepe or anybody else."
COLUMBUS CREW HEAD COACH ANDRULIS
On the team's performance:
"It was our best performance possession-wise of the season, moving forward and getting in dangerous positions. We're getting results on the road and at home and we're starting to come around."
COLUMBUS CREW GOALKEEPER JON BUSCH
On saving the penalty kick:
"(John) Murphy (Crew assistant coach and former Revs assistant) told me what (Jose) Cancela does. I tried to stay up on the first one but kind of faked myself out and couldn't stay up. On the second one I told myself to make sure I stood up and I can't believe (Cancela) did it again, but I'm glad he did."
On the second penalty kick call:
"You kind of say 'Oh no' but we deserved to win. Someone was looking down on us and we got the three points we deserved."
On the final result:
"It was a great team performance from the front to the back. The guys were battling for 90 mintues. We are getting results on the road as well as at home."
COLUMBUS CREW MIDFIELDER FRANKIE HEJDUK
On the goal:
"I guess that's my go-to goal. I scored the first goal of the year like that. Give Jeff (Cunningham) credit. He beat a defender and got the shot off. I was just scrapping in the middle. I kind of anticipated it. I'll take as many of those as I can get."
On the Revolution's first penalty kick call and his foul on Steve Ralston:
"I should have stayed on my feet. It's not the first time and I'm sure it won't be the last. Hopefully I can learn from it. We came back and got the victory and the team deserved it. It was irrelevant in the end."
COLUMBUS CREW FORWARD JEFF CUNNINGHAM
On the two Crew goals:
"Kyle (Martino) did a good job of creating space. When I'm out in the open and isolated with a defender I'm going to go at him. Fortunately the first time I was able to get a shot off and the second time I was able to draw a penalty."
On the result:
"Buschy (goalkeeper Jon Busch) saved a very big penalty for us today. The team was working hard today and put in a very good effort on both ends of the ball. We still have a lot of work to do and we need to be a little sharper in the offensive end."
