Sporting Director and Head Coach Gregg Berhalter
On creating scoring chances in tonight’s match
I think it’s positive, what I saw was the urgency, what I saw was some good soccer at times, some really good soccer. I think we were able to play through them very effectively, our positioning, our spacing was much better than it has been the last couple weeks. It’s unfortunate I think, you give that goal up right before half time, because we looked energetic. If you don’t give that up I think the second half would have been different.
On opposing teams answering quickly
I think the second one 100%, we knew they’re a dangerous team, we knew they have attacking pieces. The second one right before halftime, it was weird like as we got the lead the guys started looking a little nervous. And that’s what happens when you lose three games in a row. You start to think ‘oh here we go’. I think that calm will come, second half we settled in, and again made it very different for New England and were unlucky not to get the win.
On whether Crew SC created enough chances in the second half
I think so. What I would say is we produced enough high-quality chances to score a goal in the second half.
On Crew SC’s youth and confidence
I think tonight went a long way, I think when you see the intensity that we played with, I called it urgency. When you see the urgency that we played with I didn’t necessarily see that in the DC game. For whatever reason, you could say the turf the weather, whatever it was, I didn’t see that urgency. Today it looked like a team that wanted to win the soccer game, and was very aggressive, it wasn’t perfect, by no means. When you look at the stat sheet, there are some pretty good things.
On Niko Hansen returning to the starting lineup
So, what I think is what we talked about was, you’re going look to make some changes, I think you have the right to make some changes if you lose three games in a row. We wanted to give an impulse to the team, we thought Niko’s speed and strength would help the group, his directness would help the group. And I think he did a good job, we were pleased with his performance, the energy level that he gave us, a couple chances he created, and he had for himself. So we were pleased with his performance.
On Gyasi Zardes scoring again and playing out wide
Absolutely, I think he had a good game, [he was] unlucky to not get a couple more goals. I think in the end it’s a disappointing result, at home you want to win your games. There’s some positives to take from it, we’ll be ready to play next week. I think based on game stat perhaps, it gave us an option especially when the ball is crossed from the right side to have him coming in from the left side of the field is a dangerous option on crosses. So, I like that and based on [the] game state we may do something like that.
On trusting Crew SC’s system
I think so, you said it yourself, if you look at the last three games – the losses – and then you add this game into it, we haven’t been horrible, and we have created a lot of chances and some of the stuff hasn’t gone our way. But that is going to happen over the course of the season, we talked early when we hadn’t lost, and I said “Guys things happen. There’s going to be a time when we’re talking a different story.” I think the guys did well now to gain some confidence, and to me I think the group is growing in the confidence for sure.
On defending and conceding goals
I think if we talk about how the second half can bring us confidence, Zack Steffen will have a lot of confidence from the second half he made a couple big saves. That’s the Zack Steffen that we know, and he was a monster in the second half coming up with two big saves. Over all I think the collective defense has been good today and I think we gave them maybe both the big chances they had, but give them credit. They were a good team they were and energetic team and they caused us some problems.
On Artur’s performance
We have to be careful to maintain our balance, and you saw a couple times he went forward he had a great chance but they’re countering the other way. That we made some adjustments at halftime to keep balance but in the first half I think it’s the recognition of who the guy is that goes forward, it’s our central midfielder, we need to balance out with one of our fullbacks.
On Crew SC’s morale and recent skid
I think that sometimes young players have amnesia, it doesn’t get to them, and they’re not affected by it. We try very hard to focus game by game and to focus on the upcoming opponent and that is the best we can do. We’re obviously not happy with four games in a row not winning but again I think the effort was outstanding and the desire was outstanding, and we played some good soccer along the way.
Midfielder Wil Trapp
On Crew SC breaking its two-match scoring drought
I think it’s just good we were generating the quality of chances and the magnitude of chances, especially after two games without a goal. We got Gyasi [Zardes] scoring, and the first [goal] was a freak goal, but the fact we were getting our attacking guys in good spots and they were all contributing, with Niko Hansen having a wonderful game, could have had [a goal] but it took a nasty bounce on him. [Niko Hansen] contributed well, Cristian [Martinez] came in and contributed well, Pipa [Federico Higuain], Pedro [Santos], Gyasi [Zardes] obviously scored, it was good to get those guys back into a rhythm.
On erasing a three-match losing streak
We felt like we played well enough to win the game. The urgency that we feel like we have lacked the past two games was certainly there. The quality of chances was certainly there, but you always want to win your home games, so we are disappointed that we did not get the three points.
On attacking the New England Revolution in different ways
They came out trying to press, but quickly learned that was going to be a tough 90 minutes for them, so they did not do that the rest of the game. It was good for us to be brave in the early moments and try to play through it, and then once we broke them, it took them out of their game plan. I thought we did a good job being patient and exploiting them in different spots. The second goal was a perfect execution of finding Pedro [Santos] in a pocket, finding the next guy in a pocket, and then Gyasi [Zardes] taking a great touch and scoring.
On Crew SC’s mentality moving forward
We have to continue to work, continue to play one game at a time, and continue to try and go 1-0 each week.
Forward Gyasi Zardes
On Crew SC not scoring in the second half
It’s my opinion, but it is disappointing because we worked extremely hard. That’s the game of soccer. Sometimes you are just unlucky. There is a couple of opportunities that went off the post. It just happens that way.
On Crew SC’s momentum going forward
It’s a positive step in the right direction. It is crucial to get points each and every single game whether it is one point or three points. It is a long season and I think we are moving in the right direction.
On trying to figure things out as an attacking unit
We are growing. Each and every training session we are constantly growing and trying to understand each other. But I have had a couple of games under my belt to understand my role. And also, we tried new things. So, I learned something new this week which is great for an attacking advantage. Like I said, I want to progress each and every single week.
