NEW YORK RED BULLS 1, HOUSTON DYNAMO 1
NEW YORK RED BULLS HEAD COACH MO JOHNSTON
On tying seven of the first 10 games:
"Of course we're frustrated by it, especially when their goal came from 30 yards out off a deflection from Mark (Lisi). As I said before, Houston is a good team and I have a lot of respect for them. They've been together the past two or three years with basically the same group. Jeff (Parke) had a chance at the end of the first half and to go in leading 2-1 would have been big. Listen, I've never seen it before. I'd be very frustrated if we were losing every game. Yes, I'm disappointed, I'm frustrated for the players because they haven't given good accounts for themselves the last few weeks. But you get back on the training field and you work through it. Teams are finding it hard to beat us, and we aren't playing our best soccer. Is that a positive? No, because we need more victories. But when that's said and done, teams are finding it hard to beat us."
On the play of Amado Guevara:
"He missed training from Tuesday through Friday because of his hamstring injury. I didn't really want to play him tonight because I wanted to protect him and wanted to wait until next week. But the way Mark (Lisi) was looking - he was struggling - and we had to bring him off. I thought when Amado came in, he played very well."
On the game's positives and negatives:
"I thought the second half we came out flat in the first five minutes. After that, it was an even game. Certain times we could have kept the ball a little bit more which I would have preferred, but in the windy conditions they were having the same problem."
On not holding on to leads:
"I don't panic. Obviously when the game's coming down to the last 10 minutes and it's tied, it's in the back of your mind. As I told the players, you have to go out and play with confidence and enjoy the game. We started off great, got a goal after the ball was held up in the windy conditions, but we couldn't hold on."
On the team's future:
"We've had four away games and we haven't lost any, so that's a positive. We're not giving up too many chances or too many goals of late. I would certainly prefer a couple of victories, but it's going to come. I believe in the players, but we also need some players. You saw tonight we had three or four injuries - Carlos (Mendes) has a problem, Mark (Lisi) has a problem, Peter (Canero) is playing hurt. I'm going to give them a couple of days off so they can recuperate, and we'll be back here on Tuesday. I can't fault the guys for effort. Tony made a very good save in the second half, but we should not have given up that chance we should have been inside. Other than that, the guys are committed and playing well."
On Marvell Wynne:
"I've been working on playing him in defense and in the midfield of a 3-5-2. He's a tremendous athlete and he's someone with a big, big future. It's just unfortunate that I like to play a three because in a four (4-4-2) he'd be playing every week. He's frustrated, but I've told him to hang in there because we're going to work with him. I'd like to see him get up and down the field and get some quality balls in the box."
On the players' attitudes:
"The guys are obviously frustrated, they look to come here against Houston and win the game. I told them before the game that Houston is good - their structure is good, they defend very well, and they attack on both flanks - so on that part we came up against a good team and got a tie, which is a positive. But I would have still preferred another goal, but it never came. I won't be down on them because of it."
On Edson Buddle:
"It's really a matter of getting Edson (Buddle) and (Jean Philippe) Peguero on the same page - who's going to come back, who's going to run off of who when the other is flicking it on - and obviously serving them quality balls in the box. All forwards go through certain dry spells, the kid's been injured. For me, he's come out and trained very hard. He's a quality player and I've got no problem with him."
On Youri Djorkaeff:
"I don't think he was sharp. Youri's a quality player and he knows he can play better. Obviously tonight wasn't his best night and that's why you're asking the question. But he's not tired, he's an athlete."
NEW YORK RED BULLS FORWARD EDSON BUDDLE
On the positives from the draw:
"We're not letting up a lot of goals, one goal is not bad at all. We have a win at home and the one thing we have to look forward to is winning."
On his scoring dry spell:
"I'm preparing myself for training everyday and keep doing repetitions and keep pushing myself and hopefully a piece will fall together."
On what prevented the victory:
"We have to do a better job on winning the second balls in the midfield. Also, just pushing ourselves everyday, get into a routine, don't change anything, just keep a positive and don't get too hard on ourselves."
NEW YORK RED BULLS DEFENDER CARLOS MENDES
On what the team needs to improve on:
"We have to keep pressing on. Obviously there are definitely things we can do better for sure like closing out games and keeping possession of the ball better so we don't have to defend for so long. But we have to stay positive, look at the good things and keep working on things we need to get better at. I think that we have enough to pull through."
NEW YORK RED BULLS GOALKEEPER TONY MEOLA
On Houston's goal:
"Well, when things are going great the deflection goes out of bounds. When the shot comes and he deflects and it goes wide, and when things aren't going great it finds the back of the net. That seems to be the ways things are going right now."
On potential changes in personnel:
"I'm tired of hearing about guys that are coming in. This is our team, we have to fight with these guys. By the time anything gets done we could bury ourselves. This is it, this is who we are going to play with. If someone comes, then we'll adjust."
On the team's morale during games:
"I don't think anyone out there is not battling. I look at people's faces when they come into corner kicks, I hear the things they're saying and from the inside it doesn't look like we've given up. It's just not falling our way. I just hope that the next 10 games, the ball starts bouncing our way."
NEW YORK RED BULLS DEFENDER JEFF PARKE
On registering one win in the first 10 games:
"I believe the harder you work, the more things go your way. We just have to work a bit harder, it's just a matter of time the ball starts falling our way."
On containing Houston midfielder Dwayne De Rosario:
"He had way too many chances. He had at least three legitimate chances. Right off the bat in the second half he had a chance that Tony made an incredible save on to keep us in the game. That's a goal in anyone else's book. We limited him a bit but he still had his chances and that wasn't enough."
HOUSTON DYNAMO HEAD COACH DOMINIC KINNER
On the result:
"I'm pretty happy. You always want to come on the road and get a positive result and a tie is a positive result. I think the way the game was played, we were unfortunate not to get the win. We had more than enough chances to get the second goal and due to some good goalkeeping and a little lack of sharpness in front of goal, we only came out with one [goal]. But the guys were excellent tonight, really held the ball well and moved it and the movement off the ball was good, so I thought it was a good performance by us."
On Dwayne De Rosario's play:
"He makes great late runs and people have a hard time staying with him. At the beginning of the second half, [New York goalkeeper] Tony [Meola] makes a great save on him with his foot and the one [when] Alejandro [Moreno] crosses it, Dwayne kind of got too much contact on the ball. He was a thorn in their side all night. It was one of those [games] where if he gets the same chances again, he comes out with two goals tonight. Tonight wasn't the night."
On Ricardo Clark's play:
"[His goal] was deflected, so it caught their goalie going the wrong way. But I thought overall, he was excellent tonight. That was one of his best games this year. I thought if you looked at both sides, he was the best player on the field tonight."
On his team's defensive performance:
"A bit of a mix-up early on, it gave them a goal. Pat [Onstad] was upset with himself at that - he's pretty proud - but other than that, we didn't give them too many opportunities. The only opportunities they got were set pieces on the top of the box, but the back four after the first minutes of play were excellent."
On the fact that the Red Bulls have seven ties in 10 games:
"They're not giving up a lot and they're not getting a ton of goals. Their one win this year, they won 5-4 [against Chivas USA], so they can score goals. I think it was a difficult game for us, I thought we played well on the turf, and it would've been nice to give them a loss rather than a tie."
HOUSTON DYNAMO MIDFIELDER DWAYNE DE ROSARIO
On the result:
"It's difficult, because I missed some good chances. I'm disappointed because we should've come out with three points but I'm pleased by the way we played, I'm pleased by the spirit we showed on the field. We were very aggressive, we created some great chances and as I said, I should've finished a couple of chances and we should've come away with three points. But at the end of day, one point is still good and we're looking forward to Salt Lake next weekend."
On missing scoring chances:
"I just think it was one of those days. That's the only way I could explain it because those goals would [normally] go in the back of the net. Tony [Meola] made a great save on the first one but even in saying that, he shouldn't have had a chance to make a great save. I have to keep my head up and score next week."
On the Red Bulls and their play:
"It shows you why they have seven ties. They scored a lucky goal so to speak, but they deserved it, they scored it. But we created so many chances and I don't know if it's here with the ties that you can't get that second goal, but I thought we definitely controlled most of the game. We had most of the possession and there's no way we should go home without three points."
HOUSTON DYNAMO DEFENDER EDDIE ROBINSON
On the result:
"I thought for most of the first half, we came out pretty slow. We were a little unfortunate on their goal, I would say a bit lucky. We played a great game tonight and just really disappointed we didn't come away with three points. I think we were the better team and I think anybody who was watching the game would say the same thing. But, we still have only lost one on the road, so that's a pretty good record."
On his team's play:
"To be honest, I think defensively we were great again. The first couple minutes of the game, we may have let down just a touch, but other than that, defensively, we were great. We were great offensively, we created chances, we kept the ball. This was one of the first games where I really felt like we didn't give the ball away in bad spots. If we did, we were always in the right position and we won it back immediately and that was a big thing."
On Brad Davis' injury:
"I don't know the extent of the injury. He said that it's not really bad, so we'll see. He'll take it easy this week, get some treatment, and hopefully he'll be back next week. If not, we've got plenty of guys who can play."
