Post-Game Quotes: Schmid

Matt Bernhardt
October 4, 2008

Following are some post-game quotes from Crew coach Sigi Schmid

DC United coach Tom Soehn

Coach Tom Soehn did not address the media after the game.

Columbus Crew coach Sigi Schmid

(opening statement)

Things like that for me become emotional, so its just great to see the Nordecke and the support that's been there all season. You guys who have been in Columbus for a long time, I know Merz has been there from year one, covering them, I don't think its ever been like that, just the emotion and the passion that's there in that corner.

But we don't want to ignore the other fans, the rest of the fans as well, the season ticket holders, the fans who have been there and supported us. There's one guy who came up to me, he said he drives up from Kentucky for the games. We don't want to forget those people either.

Its just the culmination of a great season.

Today we dodged a few bullets, and we ended up scoring an outstanding goal. If Goal of the Year hadn't been given away, that'd be a very close candidate for it; its got to be a goal of the week.

Our team all year has found a way to win - we found a way to win games, and that was good.

At the end of the game, we wanted to be careful, that's why we took out Carroll and Evans and Carroll. We didn't want to run into a situation where they took a silly second yellow and have to miss the first playoff game so we just wanted to be cautious.

No matter what you say, when you go into the last game, and you know you're playing the next week - I've been there as a player, its been a longer time ago - you want to make sure you don't get hurt, you don't go into a completely reckless tackle, you work and you do all the stuff, but you don't quite have that same bite.

This was a good win for us; I'm confident that next week we're on an equal, level playing field, and we're coming in with the bite that we need.

We knocked out one team tonight, we want to knock out another team in the next two weks, and one after that and one after that.

(on the special significance of knocking DC out of the playoffs)

Definitely. Fans' memories are longer, sometimes longer than players' and coaches' memories are. I think they were pleased with that, and there's a history with DC in the years where Columbus was a very talented team, with McBride and John and Cunningham. Is it payback, no, because its a different teeam, but at the same time it feels good.

(on DC hitting the woodwork several times)

I think in the first half Will put some sandpaper to the posts, and had the grounds crew go out and repaint them at halftime to make them nice and smooth.

When Khumalo hits the post at the other end, you think its not going to be their day. I thought their defending effort was good, with all the engergy they were throwing forward.

(on the comparison from 2006 to now)

Its really really pleasing. I don't know, I try not to compare things, but its a little how I felt when I won my first NCAA title, where as a player I'd come up short three times. I rebuilt that team and ... that was pretty emotional. Tonight when I heard the fans chanting, I realized we've come a long way.

But the real tribute goes to the players. They're the ones who believed, they're the ones who put in the work. A coach tries to create an environment where the players can flourish.

I was talking with Soehn, and he's got 7-8 players out with injury, and I remember our first year when we had 9-10 out at times. I appreciate the patience of the owners, and I think we've given the city of Columbus a great reward.

(on the various chants touching Sigi)

"We're not done yet" - that was really important.

Alejandro has a sayng, "Do what you do". And we're not done yet, its very appropo because we still want more. The last time it was done was 2002, and I'm a little familiar with that. ...

This is the 13th year of MLS, 13 was my mom's lucky number, so maybe there's some good omens aligning there.

(has anything been surprising to you this year?)

There's been a lot of pleasant surprises with individuals, but probably the biggest, maybe not surprise, was that we've stayed on an even keel. When we've played well we stayed even, and in that 10 game stretch where we didn't play so well we didn't doubt.

We've won 8 of the last 11 ... we're a team where we believe we're going to win the game. The ball hits the post, okay, let's get on to the next thing. A player goes down injured, okay, let's get on to the next thing...

(comparisons to the 2004 team that won the Shield, which didn't play as well, where this team won it going away)

Obviously that feels good. I don't think there's anybody who will tell you that doesn't feel good.

I don't think 57 points is the highest team that won in terms of points per game, but it's certainly not the lowest. The best thing is that we finshed strongly.

I don't think the team finished as strongly or convincingly last time, they sort of backed into some ties. I don't think this team has backed into things. We've found some ways to win some games, sometimes its easier and sometimes its meat and potatoes. I think that's something that separates that team from this team.

(emphasized to players?)

Our main emphasis is going to be "It's a new season now". Its good to be done with that 30 games. Okay, good, now we can get on to the next task at hand. We're now going into a new season. We accomplished a lot in the last season, but we've accomplished nothing in the new season. If we approach the playoffs in the same way, then ...