MAJOR LEAGUE SOCCER QUOTE SHEET
SATURDAY, JULY 3, 2004 - KANSAS CITY WIZARDS 5, DALLAS BURN 1
KANSAS CITY WIZARDS HEAD COACH BOB GANSLER
On the game:
"We knew we stopped playing after the first goal. We were in charge and aggressively played both sides of the ball and got our opportunities and got the goal and then it turned us off. We were thinking we are at home and we are comfortable. We talked at halftime about re-energizing and playing forward. With Matt Taylor coming in, he gave us a boost of energy and we just persevered."
On the late surge after going up a man in the first half:
"It always takes awhile. People think when you are a man up, it always means here comes the deluge, in terms of goals. You see it in every competition that quite often the team that is down wins the game or holds the tie, so it is not an automatic. You have got to play with a sense of urgency, but you also have to have a quotient of patience; otherwise, you run yourself into counter attacks. Give (Tony) Meola credit, he made a huge save when it was 1-1. If that sucker goes in, I don't think you see the deluge."
KANSAS CITY WIZARDS FORWARD DAVY ARNAUD
On the game and his hat trick:
"The game just opened up once Kleiny (Chris Klein) got us the second goal. I don't really think about (the three goals putting him on top of the scoring charts); that's great if that is the case, but more importantly it is another win for us. We came out the second half a little flat. Kleiny's goal really woke us up and it was a big goal for us."
KANSAS CITY WIZARDS FORWARD JOSH WOLFF
On the team's goal outburst:
"We were able to make a couple plays tonight. We say it all the time; as many times as we muck plays up, it is still about trying the get the next one right. We didn't really link up well in the first half and fatigue started to get to us. The plays that we did make come together, I think Davy did a great job tucking them away."
KANSAS CITY WIZARDS DEFENDER TAYLOR GRAHAM
On Kreis' goal:
"Kreis defiantly got the best of me on that first goal. Jimmy stepped to the right and I covered for him and Kreis spun me. I wish I could have that back, but he is a good player. I have to stop him from doing that. Besides that I thought we defended pretty well."
On his first MLS start:
"I was able to gain a little confidence because once you get settled down and catch your breath, your nerves settle and you realize you are playing with the same guys you are in practice everyday. The only difference is there are 20,000 people watching you."
DALLAS BURN HEAD COACH COLIN CLARKE
On the game:
"It's always difficult to play a man down but we always felt we could get something going the other way even with ten men. We had a great chance at 1-1 and Meola came up with a big save. That was the one we were looking for to get something to grasp hold of and run with for the rest of the game and he came up with a big save. If that goes in, who knows? The first part of the game I didn't think we played well. They outplayed us for the first 20-25 minutes and deserved the lead and then we get back into it on a good goal from Jason (Kreis)."
On how the team will respond:
"We've got another game on Wednesday night, a difficult one in San Jose. We'll pick ourselves up and go in there and give it everything we've got. We're just getting short of forwards at the minute."
On the Meola save when the score was 1-1:
"It was an important save. We always felt that we could get something and we talked about that at halftime. That was a great opportunity. We knew we weren't going to get a lot of them but that was the one that just might have made the difference. We have to be more clinical than that and we weren't and that was disappointing."
DALLAS BURN DEFENDER STEVE JOLLEY
On the game:
"I thought we played an incredible first 20 minutes of the second half. We really possessed the ball like we needed to do. We had our one chance and unfortunately we didn't capitalize on it. And then the rest of it was kind of fatigue and they did a great job with their finishing. It was a tough game."
On whether it will be tough for the team to bounce back:
"Not at all, not at all. We're all professionals here. This was one of those games where there's nothing you can control about it now and we move on to San Jose. We know that's a big game, an even bigger one now that we didn't get the result that we wanted here."
