D.C. UNITED 5, COLUMBUS CREW 1
D.C. UNITED HEAD COACH PETER NOWAK
On the second half:
"I think we made most of our chances. In the first half we had good chances to score a goal and basically the goal for Columbus was very discouraging in that moment. We made mistakes - communication wasn't there. I think in the second half we made most of our chances and scored beautiful goals."
On what he said at halftime:
"I didn't say anything -- absolutely nothing."
On Jaime Moreno's 100th career goal:
"I'm his coach and I'm glad. We are over this hundredth goal. I'm glad this happened so early so we can don't have to drag this thing over the whole season and wait for that hundredth goal. He fully deserved it. The team helped him with it -- it was a great run from Alecko [Eskandarian]. [Moreno] made the PK very cleanly, and I hoped he would score other goals not from (penalty kicks), but it doesn't really matter."
On the energy level at the start of the second half:
"We created three or four good chances in the first three minutes so the energy level was very good. We came out and created a lot of chances and we got the goal. I think we should be happy with that but we have another very difficult game Saturday so we have to be ready."
On what Jaime Moreno means to D.C. United:
"Jaime Moreno has meant a lot to this franchise from the beginning. If you have four championship rings and play like that and get older every year and still have energy and still have a smile on your face -- the guys have come and gone but he's still here. He's a great example for our young players because Jaime leads all the time by example. He trains like that, he plays like that. It means a lot to this team but it also means a lot to me."
On Moreno approaching Jason Kreis:
"[Laughs] Salt Lake City plays games, too. We'll see after the season what the score is going to be. But it doesn't really matter, even to Jaime. I know his personality -- team comes first. He feels very important on this team. As a coaching staff we let him know he must be important to this team. This kind of fashion and shape he is in right now is just unbelievable."
On whether second-half substitutions were made with consideration to Saturday's game:
"I think you think [of] who can come off [the field] - you have different scenarios for the second half. We knew that at some point we had to take Christian [Gomez] and Jaime off and give the time to Lucio [Filomeno]. Alecko [Eskandarian] didn't play the whole game on Saturday in Kansas City so he felt very good. We ask people all the time how they feel and we can see the body language, so for me it was important to still keep them fresh for Saturday but also give them time to see where their limits are. We have other players who are waiting for their chance and today Jeff Carroll made a good impression."
On whether he is satisfied with the results his team has put forth thus far this season:
"I think you never feel comfortable at the end of May. Everything can happen pretty fast in our league and we have to play until November. I wish we knew we were going to play in the playoffs today, but like I said, the season is long and things can change very fast. All we have to do is play the same way. I think 40 points was our goal to make the playoffs. As soon as we got the 40 points we're going to look at what is available for us."
On Lucio Filomeno getting his first goal:
"I hope Freddy [Adu] gets a first goal, too. But I'm glad and we scored a goal. This was a tough game -- against Columbus it's always a tough game. A couple weeks ago we played a very tough game. It wasn't easy today from the beginning. As I said, the first goal, the 1-1 goal, was pretty discouraging. But I'm glad. We have three points today and we have to be ready on Saturday for New England."
D.C. UNITED FORWARD JAIME MORENO
On scoring his 100th goal:
"I'm happy, it was something great, but I'm a little sad because last week a dear uncle of mine passed and it reminded me of him. Also I would have liked my parents to be here but at the same time I'm very happy because I had my family in the stands and it was for them because they always support me."
On scoring his 100th goal:
"It might sound strange, but the truth is it doesn't matter to me that much. What matters to me more is when United plays well and wins. I'm not going to disagree that the 100 goals are very important for my career, but I'm happier about the victory. And even though it was from a penalty kick, it counts the same, right?"
On changing his jersey number to 100:
"No. I will keep number 99 until I retire. It brought me very important things in my career and I'm not going to change it."
On scoring another 100 goals:
"That's for God to decide. I enjoy playing, but if that happens, that's better."
D.C. UNITED FORWARD LUCIO FILOMENO
On scoring his first goal for United:
"It was a great sensation. Mine always was a goal, to be in front there fighting, and I was pleased to score it. I'm very happy. I will continue working with the objective of starting, not playing as a substitute."
D.C. UNITED MIDFIELDER CHRISTIAN GOMEZ
On earning the three points for United:
"It was an important game that we couldn't let pass. These three points at home allow us to continue making a name for ourselves and we could earn a great victory."
COLUMBUS CREW HEAD COACH SIGI SCHMID
On the game:
"Our energy wasn't there -- everybody's got to share in the blame. We got beat. I thought D.C. played well. We gave them way too much space and way too much respect. You can't give a good team that much respect and not expect to be punished for it. Obviously, we've got to do it better next time."
On the condition of the team:
"We went into the game with two guys who were sick. One who we knew was a little bit sick, and then [Jose] Retiz started throwing up 15 minutes into the first half. Obviously, that makes it a little more difficult when you got guys that are really struggling. We didn't expect Retiz to struggle, but you got to mark up on players. If you give Jaime Moreno, and you give Alecko Eskandarian and give [Christian] Gomez the kind of room that we gave them tonight, they're going to score six, five goals."
On what his team can take from the game:
"You learn from it. Right now, tonight, we were four goals worse than D.C., and that's the reality. We have to deal in reality, and we have to accept it and we have to learn from it. We've got to play with more energy. We have to play with more defensive toughness. I don't think Chad Marshall got close to an attacker all night. He's the biggest defender on the field and he had no impact. Everybody needs to look at themselves -- are we a good enough team to dictate to them? Probably not, but maybe we should have come out in a 3-5-2 instead of coming out in basically the 4-3-3 as we normally play. So that's something I have to take away from it as a coach. We all need to draw conclusions and take things away from it and make sure we do it better next time."
On the impact of team's injuries:
"We haven't been able to start the same lineup twice. Today, offensively, was only the second time we sort of played the same group together offensively. We tried to switch sides a little bit. When you look at Alecko [Eskandarian] and Jaime and Gomez, how many games has that trio already played together just this season, not counting last season and the year before? And you look at our trio of [Joseph] Ngwenya and [Jason] Garey and [Eddie] Gaven -- how many games have they played together? So that cohesion, that understanding has to be there. But you can pick up on a lot of areas. We were ball-watching, we didn't close things down quickly enough, we didn't keep the ball when we had the ball. There's eight million things you can look at today. The most important thing is we have to look at our character. We have to see how we come back against Dallas on Saturday. That's going to be the measure of what are we going to be as a team, and some guys in the last 15 minutes, 20 minutes of that game showed me positives or negatives about their character."
On the club's goalkeeper situation:
"Goalkeeping was a situation that we knew was going to be a problem going into this game. Not many teams have had four goalkeepers all out injured. I don't think that's ever happened in this league. From that standpoint, we knew that was going to be an adventure."
COLUMBUS CREW FORWARD JOSEPH NGWENYA
On his goal:
"It was a great pass from Sebastian [Rozental], and I just applied the finishing touch."
On the team's injuries:
"We have some guys who are hurt, but we still had 11 guys against 11. We have to just fully concentrate on doing well in the next game."
