Columbus Crew Head Coach Gregg Berhalter
On what the first road win of the season means for the team:
Coach Berhalter: “I think it was big. It’s a confidence builder. The first half in particular, I think we played really well. There’s been times this year that we’ve gone on the road and played this way and haven’t got the result, so I think that it’s gratifying to have a strong performance and get the three points.”
On the game plan going into tonight’s match:
Coach Berhalter: “To win. We thought we’d be pressed a little bit, so we worked on some movements to break the press and we were fortunate enough to execute those moves – particularly with the first goal. It was a really good team move to get behind them and score the goal. We wanted to try and dominate the opponent. We try to go out and put our stamp on the game and we want to try and play attractive football for the fans so they can enjoy the game and it was pretty good stuff today.”
On facing a New England side that has yielded a lot of goals recently:
Coach Berhalter: “I think there’s two sides to that. The first thing is that you know they’re going to be focused on not giving up a lot of goals. The defenders will be motivated to give a good performance, but the other thing is that you create uncertainty, particularly when you go up 1-0. When you score that first goal, now the uncertainty creeps in. When teams are on a difficult run, it’s nice to get momentum and get the first goal.”
On scoring both goals in each half:
Coach Berhalter: “The message before the game was to play with that intensity. I think the intensity certainly showed today. The second goal came at a good moment. I think that they [Revolution] actually opened up the first few minutes of the half in good fashion and put us under some pressure, so that second goal really gave us the momentum that we needed to carry on in the second half.”
On the team’s defensive performance tonight:
Coach Berhalter: “I thought it was excellent. I thought it was probably our best defensive performance of the year. What I saw was that guys were dedicated to every single pass and guys giving extra effort and guys sticking up for each other. That goes a long way, particularly when you get the lead and you need to hold on. There’s going to be times where you get uncomfortable. It’s the bend but don’t break mentality that we saw tonight from the guys.”
Columbus Crew SC Goalkeeper Steve Clark
On the team’s first road win of the season:
Clark: “I think it’s been a tough stretch for everybody top to bottom on our team, so it feels really good and now it feels like the monkey’s off our back a little bit and we can continue on. It was a massive game with playoff implications for both teams, so for us to come out on top here is huge.”
On the defensive effort tonight:
Clark: “It felt like, number one, I thought our defenders did really well, Michael [Parkhurst] and Niko [Naess], and Harry [Afful] and Hector [Jimenez], but overall it was a team effort. We are at our best when we swarm, defend, and we have a lot of energy. They were a challenge for us because they were so much bigger than we were at set pieces, but we were up to the task. A lot of credit to the whole team for the defensive effort.”
On what he credits the defensive effort to:
Clark: “Overall, just the win. We have a lot of character in this room. Character over time produces results when things don’t go well. We didn’t turn on each other. I’m not going to tell you it was an easy stretch, but it feels really good.”
On how beneficial this win is going into Wednesday’s match against Philadelphia:
Clark: “I’m really looking forward to playing Philadelphia. They’re coming to our place again which is good, but we really have hit a good groove the way we are playing. We’ve kept, strangely enough, through this run a lot of confidence. I know I have, so we never got down. I think that’s credit to a lot of the veteran leaders in the room, Michael [Parkhurst] and all these guys who’ve been through this. Pipa [Federico Higuain], Wil [Trapp]. We’re looking forward to it and I think we’re going to have our best soccer ahead.”
Columbus Crew Forward Ola Kamara
On their first road win of the season:
Kamara: “Right now it’s just a very good feeling. We waited a long time just to win, not only the road win, so I think the guys get a lot of energy from it.”
On his assist tonight and his tackle before it:
Kamara: “Maybe I could have been a defender as well. I think the team effort today was good from everybody. The defense wouldn’t shut up, midfield was very good in possession and passing and they were running a lot. Even me and Pipa [Federico Higuain] were running a lot so that was what it takes to win maybe and finally we did.”
