Post-game quotes: Union vs United
“They are very good players. We trained all week. We knew what everyone had to do and we were very good today.” “You just say, ‘Okay, relax now. This happens in soccer. Keep playing and the goals will come.’” “I play well with my back to the goal and I was able to spot Sebastiae [Le Toux] going down on the other side. I wanted to make sure I got it past the defender. I knew that once I got it past the defender, Sebastien would have a clear road going to goal. He did very well with finishing that opportunity.” “We’ve done quite well during preseason. We are really accustomed to playing with each other. We are playing quite well with each other and pretty dynamic going forward. It’s important when you have guys like Fred and Roger coming from behind. It makes our team very dynamic in the final third. We were able to do that today.” “We would have liked to be a little more composed than we were in the second half. In the end, we managed to get the result. It’s three points and now we move forward to the next game.” “It was great. They are loud, rambunctious and behind us. I think that’s important. Knowing that we have someone like that to help us push for a third goal if we need it or late in games in the future to help push for a game-winning goal. Thanks to them and we’re happy to be able to put on a show in our first home game.” “We had a long preseason. We played in Seattle on the road in front of 35,000. For us, we know each other well. We’ve had two weeks to prepare for this game. So I’m glad that we came out strong and that we played the way that we did. Sebastien came through tonight with three goals, tomorrow it could be someone else, so we’re happy that we got through with it and that we got a win at home. “ “We won our first game, let’s take positives out of it rather than try to take negatives out of it. For me I’m excited that we won and I’m happy about the guys around me because they came through in a clutch moment for us. We gave up two goals to bring it back to two-two and we pushed for a third and we got it so I’m taking that out of it today and I’ll look at the film tomorrow and we’ll make adjustments.” “He did really well for us, he’s real solid. Having Rodney come out wide out there as a second player is always tough and I thought he did superb tonight for us. Very solid, good in the air, and cleaned up a lot of the mess that was coming his way.” “It’s loud for sure. It’s definitely the best home environment I’ve ever been a part of.” “I was very lucky tonight, I scored three goals, I missed some too but all my teammates did a great job and I just finished my chances.” John Hackworth, Coach “Overall, I think you see a team that has a lot of ability and we look like we had probably a little more cohesiveness than people thought, or realized we had, and in the end we had a great result. We ended up giving up two goals but we walked away with three points.” “It was a fantastic crowd tonight, wonderful atmosphere for soccer in the United States and I can’t say enough about the guys in the locker room.” Thoughts on Fred: “Fred just gives you a totally different dimension as a player. He’s extremely comfortable on the ball. Having him in our midfield makes a big difference and we knew that coming into this game he would be a pivotal part of our team. He brings not only creativity but he also has the ability to hold the ball in tight spaces.” “Today was a very sad day for Peter. My heart goes out to him. He had some close friends unfortunately on the plane crash today and for them he wanted to make sure that he paid respect the right way. That being said, this is something that Peter and I have talked about for a long time. Whether it’s me going upstairs and being more of an eye in the sky or him being up there, we are very comfortable with either.”