Post-Game Quotes

Matt Bernhardt
November 8, 2008

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

Columbus Crew coach Sigi Schmid

(on the adjustments the team made at halftime)

Sometimes you can talk too much at half time, where you say "...and one more thing...and one more thing..." I think we kept it in check that way. The character of this team has been tremendous; they're very resilient. Different people have stepped up at different times. Last week it was Brad Evans and Robbie, this week Eddie Gaven gets a goal - he hasn't scored a lot of goals. Even though Alejandro hasn't scored, in each of our playoff games he's been involved in a goal for us - which is what you need from a guy who's playing up front.

It's been great. They believe in themselves, and we want to take it to one more game.

(on the play of Eddie Gaven)

Sometimes, with all the attention to Robbie and Alejandro and Guillermo, its easy to forget about him, but one of the things I challenged him on coming into this game was I challenged Gaven and Robbie to really get at their outside backs, and I told Gaven that he needed to run Segares, because I thought he had more pace than Segares and better fitness. I think Gonzalo played a good game, but Gaven got behind him.

In general, my hat's off to Chicago. I thought they played well. They're a team that's been one of the more consistent teams in the league this year. They had a little spell in the middle of the year where it wasn't so well, but I think they were a team that was pretty consistent throughout the whole year, and they came to battle and played well. They gave us a lot of problems because of their size and their strength and their defenders. When you play in front of them, their defenders are tough to beat because they're physical and they're strong.

(on Chad's goal to equalize the game at 1-1)

It was a great goal, and obviously great service, and Chad's had a great year getting on the end of set pieces.

(on the significance of McBride being the player to score for Chicago)

No, I mean it was a goal. It was 1-0 Chicago. I really didn't think so much "oh, McBride scored" or anything like that. I just thought it was 1-0 Chicago, and now we just have to come back from that. I was hoping we'd get it back in the first half, but we didn't, so it was important, as we said at halftime, "Let's get one, and then we'll get the second goal - but we gotta get the first one first."

(on the emotions of finally making it to MLS Cup after 13 years)

I know it means a lot to Robert and to Mike Lapper, because they were there for all those years when they kept stubbing their toe on DC United and didn't get there. So I know it means a lot for them, and I know they're very happy. They were probably more nervous before the game than I was.

It's something that's great for the city, I think its great for this franchise to get over this hurdle, and now we've got the opportunity to take it one more step.

There's only one piece of hardware that we haven't got this year. This was a very, very tough game but the next game is going to be equally as tough. You can't think of it as anything different, because I know there's already going to be hype out there that "these were the two, point-wise, the better teams" and things like that. That doesn't matter. It's a one-off game, and everything gets thrown out the window.

You've got the sun that sits in your face in one half of the Home Depot field when you play in the afternoon, so there's all kinds of things that can happen.

(on the fans' energy)

I believe we're going to win it anyway, but it was certainly, again, the energy, I think goes hand in hand. The energy that the fans have give the energy to the team, and I think in the second half I think we came out with good energy and I think that inspired the fans. And then when they were starting to pound back on us, obviously the fans had the energy, and I think their energy kept us going. Because its a lot to chase or make that one run when somebody's screaming for you, and chanting for you, and all of those things.

(on playing MLS Cup in Los Angeles, where he coached UCLA and the Galaxy)

Its nice, its sweet. I'm not going to say its not, but I'd go anywhere to play in the championship game. The most important thing is that we're there. For me, having coached there, having coached in southern California, and grown up in southern California, to be able to come back to southern California... I got off the field and I looked at my phone and I had like 25 text messages - and a lot of those are from California kids, and players that I coached. My son's team yesterday, UC Irvine, they won in the semifinals of their league, so I'm excited too because it looks like they'll make the NCAAs for the first time in school history, so I may even get a chance to see them play in the NCAAs, which would be nice.

(on this being the final year of his contract, heading into new negotiations)

I feel great, you know, I'm a confident person, I believe in myself and I believe that I can get the job done.

As I've said often times, the first year here was just the weirdest year. To me in a certain extent this is year two; but unfortunately its year three of my contract.