Sporting Director and Head Coach Gregg Berhalter
On tonight's result
They played an excellent game. We weren't at our best tonight and when you're not at your best it's very difficult to win. I thought that we hung in there. The second half picked up a little bit, but overall not enough on the night.
On what to expect this off season
I think like any other off season, you get better. You identify positions you want to strengthen in and you get after it. There's already been a lot of work identifying targets, and then it's about strengthening the group. The East is tough, you got to get better every year if you want to compete in the East.
On driving force throughout the season
It's the character of the guys. We have a strong group, we have a good group, we have guys that want to come to work every day and perform. And that's what gets you through it. People talk about the staff or the support staff, but in the end it's the players. It's the players that come to work with a good mindset every day, they want to improve, they want to play the way we play, and it helps you get through difficult times.
On tonight's game plan and Gyasi Zardes
I think that Gyasi had a very bad shoulder injury on -- what day is it today? Sunday. On Wednesday in training, where he separated his shoulder pretty bad, tore all the ligaments, and we weren't sure he was even going to be able to play. And it shows. The guy had a season like he did for a reason because he battled and will give everything to help the team win. And I felt like we utilized him too much, playing too directly through him. I felt like we never really got comfortable into our game and give Gyasi credit, he didn't stop and he kept battling on the entire game. But I wanted us to put the ball on the ground more, switch field more and try to get him some service on crosses and when you see 14 open play crosses, three in the first half, it just wasn't enough, it wasn't enough from us.
On the difference between this year's New York Red Bulls and the 2015 team
I don't work with them so I don't know. I know it's a good team this year and I know they played a good game on a night that they needed to play a good game. So give them a lot of credit.
