NEW ENGLAND REVOLUTION 2, CHICAGO FIRE 1
CHICAGO FIRE HEAD COACH DAVE SARACHAN
Overall thoughts on the match:
"It was a tale of two halves tonight. I thought we paid the price of a slow first half, a sluggish first half. I don't think we got around enough to make it hard on them in the first half, which is unusual for us. In the second half those that watched the game know that it was one-way traffic. I was very puzzled as to why the goal was disallowed."
On the team's sluggish first-half play:
"We play 32 games, not every half is going to be perfect. Some halves may look a little like that. I think it was more flat because of our shape then it was our desire to push the game, and that put us on our heels more then we would have liked. Our guys had the energy and the aggressiveness in the second half and it just didn't happen for us."
CHICAGO FIRE FORWARD NATE JAQUA
On the difference between the halves:
"Sometimes you just come out flat. It's unfortunate and we can't let that happen again. We dug ourselves a hole, we almost got out of it, but at the end of the day we weren't able to and we lost."
CHICAGO FIRE MIDFIELDER DIEGO GUTIERREZ
On the team's slow start:
"It was a matter of waking up and coming out ready to play. We had to put a lot of pressure on them to try and score an early one and make things happen. I think we did that but obviously it wasn't enough."
NEW ENGLAND REVOLUTION HEAD COACH STEVE NICOL
On tonight's result:
"Happy, sure, with the result. I'm delighted when we get three points. First half we were deserving of the two-nil ahead, we were keeping well, we were making good decisions and they really didn't trouble us too much. Second half was a complete opposite. All they did was give us trouble. We didn't pass the ball well. But we got some great boys with big hearts and they toughed it out."
On the team's play in the second half:
"When you lose a goal like that in the first five minutes of the second half you know it's going to be a long evening. Fortunately for us we got some bodies in the way of some shots, we had some shots we probably should have done better with as well. But we put them under pressure to put them off of the shots. We certainly dodged some bullets in the second half."
On the team's first half play:
"We came in a halftime really comfortable. Talked about doing the same things; obviously we didn't do that. We got three points so we'll take it."
On the team's schedule:
"You know, we've had seven games in 22 days. And to pull that many points, we're pleased with it. We'll give the guys a few days off and hopefully they can recover. We still have another tough stretch, a game at home and another three away. We're not of the woods as far as that is concerned, but this obviously helps."
NEW ENGLAND REVOLUTION MIDFIELDER ANDY DORMAN
On his goal combination with Taylor Twellman:
"Clint [Dempsey] made a great diagonal run across the right of the defender, and then Taylor [Twellman] made cuts as well and took away a couple of defenders and opened up some space. Then obviously a little backheel ... the pass was perfect, and I run through and hit it."
On holding on to the lead in the second half:
"We were defending for our lives for pretty much the whole of the second half. I'm not looking forward to doing that again. Obviously we need to keep the ball better and get out as a team so we don't have to defend like that. All credit to Chicago, they threw men forward and really went after us. Good result in the end."
NEW ENGLAND REVOLUTION MIDFIELDER STEVE RALSTON
On his goal:
"I think it was a pretty good goal. It just kind of happened. I spun and found some space, and I'll take anything really. I don't care if it's a tap-in from a couple inches out or how I did it."
On the team's win:
"It was big. Obviously, it was a tale of two halves right there. First half we played pretty well, second half we got too much of a show. We have to do a better of keeping the ball and getting forward. You can't sit back for that long. Three or four minutes more and might have gotten tied up. We are lucky we got out of here with three points. It's a big three points for us after the schedule we've had recently and ending it with three points is big."
