Philadelphia Union postgame quotes

John Hackworth

On getting first point in Philadelphia’s history at New York:

I think it says a lot about our team and the way we approached the games this year and our mentality coming into a place where we haven’t even gotten a point ever. Especially against a Red Bulls team that I thought was at full strength tonight, they were excellent for long stretches of that match; credit to our guys for really doing a good job defensively. The longer that game went on, I thought we opened them up a little bit; we had some chances to find one there at the end.

On how the defense has been playing in the past couple of games:

Yeah, defense has been great… I truly give credit to all the guys, because they have truly been committed, they were tonight; we had to be. We had to keep a very good Red Bull team with their attacking players off the scoreboard.

On Amobi Okugo’s performance:

Amobi (Okugo) was really good, Jeff (Parke) and Amobi were on (Thierry) Henry all night long. So were other guys, it’s difficult when Henry peels off those centerbacks, (Henry) inserts the ball wide and (Fabian) Espindola doing the same thing. Then you got (Tim) Cahill and Dax (McCarty) going into the middle. They were certainly putting a lot of guys forward but our guys dealt with it fantastically.

Sebastien Le Toux

On today’s result:

Important result definitely, it’s a good result because we stay close to (New York) and close to the overall standings. Getting a point for the first time, I think it’s overall a good achievement. We deserved the point, we did enough and we managed to stay close to them.

On how the defense played today:

I think we did a good job, we knew they were one of the best teams at getting in goal and going forward. It was a lot of running but we stayed compact. Overall I think everyone did a good job defending, not only the defenders but I think the forwards and the midfielders stayed compact with the other group and we looked for a good counterattack and we had a good chance to get the win at the end but they played well and we tried to continue to find a way but this is a tough place to play so it’s good to get a point.

Jeff Parke

On today’s match:

It’s a good result; it’s an important stepping stone to get us going in the right direction. That’s two shutouts in a row for us. We have played well the last few weeks to get results. We’re getting our points when needed and getting ourselves moving in the right direction and positioning ourselves to make a run.

On shutting down New York’s attack:

We had to follow runners in the box, we had to get numbers in there and it’s important that we kept our head on a swivel and realized that if the ball is getting out back to know that it’s coming. You have to get yourself going and get yourself realizing that there’s three good players that could change games with Thierry (Henry), (Tim) Cahill and (Fabian) Espindola too. We did a good job with them today but they’re a good group, I thought we did a good job and guys really stepped up and helped us earn the point.\

New York Red Bulls postgame quotes

Mike Petke

On the match:

Very frustrating; I think moments were good. I know we out-possessed them something like 65% or something like that, but besides the end I’m not sure how many shots we had on goal but we didn’t do enough to win. We had moments, we had a lot of moments actually where it was good but overall we couldn’t find a way.

On the team moving into a tie for first place:

Yeah, of course, I feel like we’re in first place. I’m a bit emotionally drained after the game, it was a long day preparing for the game, guys were up for it, the line-up was great and it’s like an opera you know, being played out. Yeah, we’re tied for first place right now, I’m happy with that. I’m not happy with the result tonight, but it’s a point. We’ll take it.

On breaking down teams:

I said it in the locker room, I take responsibility for the fact that we need to figure out when teams come and sit in, especially down the middle, clog the middle up, side-to-side, how to dissect that, how to get forward, instead of having two separate teams on the field, you know a forward line of four, five guys and a back line making lateral passes, and that’s on me. That’s definitely on me. I think the ball movement was a bit slow in the first half, I think our midfielders were trapping too deep to get it when they didn’t have to instead of giving our center backs, specifically (Ibrahim) Sekagya space to drive up with the ball. Our ball movement was a bit slow but yet again we got forward, we just couldn’t find the back of the net.

On Sekagya’s performance at his natural center back position:

He can obviously read the game. He’s got experience, his position is very good and he’s solid with the ball at his feet. I thought he did very well.

On moving Markus Holgersson to right back:

We worked this week. I felt we needed to mix it up back there. I wanted to get Segaya on the field and Holgersson has played right back in the past. I thought the buildup with him out there, we would be taking a step forward with that. I think he might’ve thought at times that he was a winger. We had to reel him in a bit, I think he was a bit excited to get forward but overall defensively we kept it zero and there were some moments there.

On the wing play:

My thoughts on it are that there were many times that we switched the point of attack and got Roy (Miller) and Jonny (Steele) in the attack but where was the options? We were on one side of the field and when the ball switched at times we didn’t adjust and we didn’t show. Instead of Roy overlapping Johnny with the ball at his feet and a guy checking into the middle, a midfielder dropping off, at times it was vacant, forcing us to bring the ball back instead of a 2v2 by midfield. We had some tired guys too. Eric Alexander is tired, we’ve been trying to get him a rest. He’s played almost every minute of every game. I think fresh legs potentially could give guys rest and spark it a little bit.

On Luis Robles’ save late in the game:

Robles has come up big for us this year. I’m more concerned with how it got to that point, but yeah, a clean sheet is good. It’s good confidence for the guys and it’s good to look up there and see a zero but a zero on the other side is what we’re not happy about right now but we begrudgingly take a point and we move on.

On Jamison Olave’s injury:

It just happened. It looked like he came up lame with his quad. He’s also a guy who’s played a lot of minutes this year obviously. Let’s hope it’s not too serious. We’ll have a report on him probably tomorrow.

Eric Alexander

On the mood in the locker room after the match:

Yeah, kind of [felt like a loss]. You always want to take three points at home and you know, I thought we had the better part of the game and it’s tough to take at home.

On why it was so difficult to score in the final third:

They had so many numbers back and they did a good job staying with runners and then they have some big boys in the back. I don’t know, it was just an accumulation of things.

On how he feels at this point in the season:

Pretty good. You know, you get good time; you get a lot of time to rest in between games. They’re pretty smart with their workload so I’m feeling all right.

Markus Holgersson

On partnering with Eric Alexander on the right in the first half:

It felt really good. We come around a lot of times, especially Fabian [Espindola] came out wide and we had a three v. two and countered a few crosses.

On how he felt playing at right back:

I played there for five years before, but I played center defender for two years now. I like to move around a little and feel another spot on the field. It was okay. It was actually fun. I had a great time, especially first half.

On how the team feels being in a tie for first place:

No. I’m, not looking at the standings so much. It’s around nine games left so our goal is to go to the playoff and we are in it at the moment and we are going to try to keep our space there.

On if the draw feels more like a loss:

Yeah definitely. Here at home we have to win every game, especially against Philadelphia. Yeah, it feels definitely like a loss.

Luis Robles

On the game:

Well it was a disappointment we didn’t get three points, but there’s also something positive about coming out of here 0-0 and getting that point. Not losing any ground to Philadelphia who’s right behind us and as you guys saw out there, the final pass wasn’t there today. I don’t’ think we had too many opportunities on goal, but we definitely played well so it’s just something that we need to go back to the training field and sort out and I think we’ll be OK.

On the one-handed save on Antoine Hoppenot:

Well when he cut across I felt comfortable with the angle so I just stayed as big as possible and luckily he didn’t hit it…he didn’t get it clean. And because he didn’t get it clean, I was able to react even though the distance was so close. I was able to react to that. My mindset going into this game, especially late when it was 0-0 and I didn’t have much activity I thought ‘they’re going to get one chance, they’re going to get two chances’ so I need to be ready for that.

On the shot that hit the crossbar:

You know, I couldn’t tell you exactly what happened. I think Seb [Sebastien Le Toux] turned one of our defenders and then he just hit a rocket. We were fortunate that he did hit the crossbar there because for him to turn in our box that deep and get a shot that clean doesn’t bode well for us, but fortunately we didn’t pay for it.

On keeping a clean sheet:

We’ve had some tough opponents and we got, for the most part, the results that we wanted outside of last week. So, yeah the clean sheet it just speaks to the organization and how well the defense played. I felt Ibrahim [Sekagya] and [Jamison] Olave played very well, Markus [Holgersson] on the outside, and then of course Roy [Miller] on the left side. It’s definitely a defensive clean sheet.