Post Game Quotes

Matt Bernhardt
August 23, 2008

Jason Kreis

I didn't think defensively we were quite there....We started off that game like we'd already played 45 minutes.

...

For a while I was saying that I really thought our team was figuring out how to play on the road, but after these last two games its hard to feel that way - just from the number of chances we're giving away, not to say the number of goals we're giving up. It could have been 6 or 7 tonight....for ten games, we only got scored on three times, so we've got to figure things out quickly.

...

Yeah, that's where we've been punished all year long, because we play in such a way that our outside backs, we want them to attack like crazy. And so, if we're going to lose the ball right there in the middle of the field, we're going to get punished. And I think that's exactly what happened. Chris Wingert was way up high to give us some width, as he's asked to do, and we just got exploited.

(on looking for a goal before halftime)

Certainly we're looking for some kind of lift there, before the half, or even in the second half when we're just down by two goals, and it wasn't there tonight.

Sigi Schmid

Obviously we're happy, and we're happy we got the shutout, the set pieces were set up because we're getting behind their defense, and that's something we tried to focus on this week, we focused on our spacing...foul us, and those fouls set up set pieces. I thought the third goal was as well played a goal as you can get... Eddie making a run to get behind, and Eddie's cross was right on the money...that's the way you like to draw it up on the board but it doesn't always happen that way...after the 3-0, we took Guillermo off because he's taken the knock...I felt it was an opportunity, I didn't want him to get another whack because of the way they were playing...and then we just dropped off too much and gave them a lot of space...not stepping up and pressuring...but we made Hesmer earn the shutout there in the second half

I think we're playing better and better because our belief in ourselves is good. We like playing down towards this goal, it seems we score more goals that way...I thought our spacing was really good, I thought we were aggressive in terms of trying to get balls in behind, we did that in the second half against Dallas as well...if you noticed early in the game, I think Salt Lake, which likes to try to get balls in behind, I don't think they really got the opportunity to get balls in behind, and when they did O'Rourke and Marshall were there...

(on Alejandro Moren playing 90 on Wednesday)

His fitness is pretty good, he's an anaerobically fit guy... I thought that tackle early in the game, where Jamison got the yellow, that's a pretty bad tackle. There's a lot of guys who wouldn't get up from that one. But Ale gets up...What he does for us sometimes doesn't show up on the stat sheet...

(on the team being generally healthy)

I think its a tribute to the entire staff, we've had this group together now for two years...its a collective effort, we're all on the same page because we've worked together now...I think we're pretty healthy and that makes it a pretty competitive situation...

...

We've got 37 points now from 21 games, which is what we had last year in 30. I think we're tied for first now, and two points ahead of Chicago. We're getting points. The only thing that might be unfortunate is that you're going to have probably a third place team from the West who's going to have a lower point total than the fifth or sixth place team in the East, and that's going to be a bitter pill to swallow.

...

We haven't made the playoffs in the last three years. That's the biggest thing I try to remind them of. We haven't done anything yet. Its like I said last week, until there's that asterisk next to our name, we've got to keep plugging away. This group is pretty good, they're realistic, I thought they responded pretty well, I thought that week off was good physically...we want to do well on the road in Dallas.