METROSTARS 2, CHICAGO FIRE 1
METROSTARS HEAD COACH BOB BRADLEY
On what he told the players to do to produce a home game win:
"There's nothing magic. It's just that you come in everyday and you have an understanding of how to become better, and you keep pushing it and try to play, challenge guys, take new roles and try to move other guys up the ladder. That's how you become a better team. My only point was that I think that there's work that goes on always in terms of trying to make a better team and that's what's going on here. In order to make sure that they don't lose track of that, you remind them, that you know, don't listen to what you hear, and just realize what it's like every day when we come in here. How can we make this better and how do we keep pushing it along?"
On what the MetroStars did to make the win:
"We're mad we had a game already where we were doing OK against San Jose, and had some chances and when they scored against us, it looked like it took all the life out of us. I've said on three or four occasions that that 30 minutes was disappointing because you want to keep pushing until the end of the game and maybe get the goal -- one goal, two goals -- and maybe you don't, and I think that showed today, that they wanted to let the game end and kind of let the one play take everything out of them."
On the winning the game the way they did, and did it mean more than other wins?
"I hope so. It was a great goal. Wow, it was a great goal.
"Guevara, he just had an idea of how he was going to come around it and shoot in the shot."
On the players and the plays they made to win:
"A lot of guys had heavy legs and the field, we enjoy playing on grass, but the field's a little heavy, so you know that part's hard, but I think that probably they just kept going at it and sometimes it takes a play to turn things around ... Amado had a very good ball in there, and John Wolyniec scored a real nice header. Those are the kind of plays that you need to have happen to maybe turn a game around and get that win."
On having the English and Colombian teams here to play:
"All this stuff is exciting. You know, a lot of guys were out watching training yesterday and there's an atmosphere here today that we all dream of having all the time. There's no doubt that when they see these teams being trained, they're in there talking about, 'Did you see Beckham do this?' and 'Did you see Michael Owen do this?' and 'Look how great Sol Campbell is.' It's exciting for them and you know, you hope that that keeps pushing them forward."
On finally getting the win at home:
"It is what it is. We had some tight, tough games here, that didn't go our way, but that's a little bit the nature of the league. We still keep trying to find a way to make this place like a lot of home stadiums for the clubs and, it's hard to come in here and we can develop a reputation where we win home games and it hasn't happened yet, but tonight's a start.
METROSTARS FORWARD AMADO GUEVARA
On game winning shot:
"I had a lot of confidence. Of course I didn't think I would put it on that angle, but I did have confidence that I was going to get a good shot, and thank god it was the winning goal."
On first in at home:
"We definitely had some pressure, but that pressure is off, and this win will give us more confidence to get going and get some more wins at home."
On being more aggressive when Youri was taken out:
"Yes, definitely. We rely a lot on Youri, and with him coming out we knew that we had to step up. It took us a little longer because they scored on us right at that time, but we did what we were supposed to do, we got together and then we got the victory."
On the penalty kick:
"We were making some comments at halftime that we were doing well. The penalty gave us the little kick that we needed and so we got the result that we needed."
METROSTARS FORWARD ABBE IBRAHIM
On playing for the MetroStars:
"I am happy here. I feel like part of the team and I think I can contribute something."
On stealing the ball from Caballero at the end:
"I touched the ball and there was no contact made on Caballero. I was well in control when I played it to Amado."
On getting a lot of contact during the game:
"I don't think there was too much contact and that is the way I play the game. I make contact with them and they make contact with me."
CHICAGO FIRE COACH DAVE SARACHAN
On the last goal:
"There's nothing you can do on the goal. We could have maybe cleared a ball earlier and I thought it was a foul against Samuel (Caballero). The ref doesn't call a foul, he (Guevara) hits a bomb and there was nothing Zach could do about it. I thought Sammy made a good play, and I thought Thiago was fouled on the restart that led to their first goal, but that's soccer. For 75 minutes I thought it was fairly even, we get the goal. I thought we get the second goal the game ends. You keep teams in it, especially a home team and it's a very disappointing loss to say the least."
On letting up two goals in the last 20 minutes:
"We have to put away games, that's the next step for our team. We've got to develop a killer instinct. We've created chances, but we didn't get the second goal. I can't fault our guys for the lack of chances created, but we've got to put the second one in, and the game, for all intents and purposes, would be over. We can't allow a couple mistakes."
CHICAGO FIRE FORWARD JESSE MARSCH
On the tough loss:
"Yeah, we struggled a little bit to finish our games and that hurt us tonight."
