Philadelphia Union postgame quotes

John Hackworth

It’s hard. I think there are some plays that are made early in that second half and we felt like we did all the right things coming out of the locker room at halftime. We had the momentum, get the equalizer and feel like we got the go-ahead goal, twice. For whatever reason, the officials felt otherwise. It is incredibly hard to take that part of it because it changes so much. You have to give New England credit because they were really good. Kelyn (Rowe) has two fantastic goals. They kept going after it. Obviously momentum dramatically shifted after that. Strange, strange night. We are just left wondering how, at this level, some of that can happen.

The first half was strange too. Keon Daniel rolls his ankle. He can’t play – that effectively is exactly where Kelyn (Rowe) gets his first goal from. We get in good positions and we just didn’t execute. I think we had six corner kicks in the first half and several crosses and entries into the box but the quality was missing. But we talked about what we are good at and what we needed to do in the second half and I thought we came out and did those things. Hard to swallow.

A loss is a loss. At the end of the day, that’s not what we came up here to do. We have to keep it in perspective. We’ll do what we do after every game. Win, loss or draw; we’ll go back, look at the video, try to make a lot of corrections and get a game plan ready for next week.

Danny Cruz

Conor (Casey) played a good ball through. I was in on a break and just had to touch it around the keeper and tried to finish it from a little bit of a tough angle but we were happy with that, obviously, at the time.

I haven’t seen the offside goal, so I’m not really going to comment on that. I think that calling back that second goal – the second goal that Conor (Casey) had – I think it was unfair to us. We worked very hard to get in the position that we were in and unfortunately, I feel like the refereeing was very one-sided and that goal kind of epitomized the night for us, I feel like.

We don’t have a choice but to come back tomorrow and prepare for [the next match] like you’ve seen. I’m sure you see the standings, you know where we’re at. We’re still in a position to make the playoffs and we’re still in a position to be successful. And to be fair, not to just put it on the referee because, New England was a good team tonight and they had some very, very good goals; they have some good players. But we’re better then what we were tonight and we get to prove that at home next week, hopefully.

Brian Carroll

It’s a tough one to swallow right now. It’s hard to really speak about it to be honest. It’s a tough loss. We have to find a way to stick together and respond. We found a way to respond most of the year and we have to find another way.

We have to stay together and get a good game plan together. Sometimes, results like this are a big wake up call and you can react one of two ways: you can let it get you down or you can stay strong and stay together and fight harder and do well for the rest of the season, and we have to find a way to do the latter part.

[Keon Daniel] is an important player for us and it was a big loss.

New England Revolution postgame quotes

Jay Heaps

I thought it was a good start for us. We came out with the right mentality and we had a nice goal. I thought our first half was really good, and we probably should have had a second goal right before half. And then the second half, really credit John Hackworth and credit Philly. They came out and changed their formation and really changed the tempo of the game and unfortunately we didn’t react real well until we were tied. But then, as we managed and figured out what we were doing, we had a couple communications that opened it up and we were able to turn the game around.

No (this wasn’t a statement game). I’ve got to be honest with you, we need points. Statement is when you make the playoffs and do well in the playoffs. So for us we are trying to get points. We need to continue to get points at home and right the record at home. We’ve felt like we let games slip away here and we need to right that ship.

I think that early, we were getting it wider. I think we were doing a nice job of getting it wide right. (Chris) Tierney didn’t get involved as much early, but I think that opened it up, (Andrew) Farrell getting high. We want a couple more crosses from Farrell at that point. At least we are opening that channel up it, spread them out a little bit horizontally.

I thought we came out flat at the half and I hate that, and I’m really disappointed in that. But I’m proud of the way the guys reacted and it’s one of those games where a team scores a goal, there was chance to get another goal for them, and then we had to make some subtle changes. We brought [Dimitry Imbongo] into the game and it was a real lift for us. We were able to use the players that had the energy on the field to change it, and I like that. I thought that we reacted well.

Kelyn Rowe, I think he can hit those. He hits those in training a lot. A lot of times he is trying to find the rifle, sniper shot. He’s got some good range on that shot.

I think [scoring five goals was] just a combination of a couple things. I thought we moved well, and we did have opportunities. Guys were firing well. I think once Kelyn (Rowe) hit that first goal, they started to drop a little bit and then we were finding good gap lanes, and I really like the way we penetrated. I thought we got behind them a few times, and that’s what I thought was what opened the thing up was we made good selfless runs to open up some space for us.

[Charlie Davies] had a good week in training, and we are continuing to bring him along. With Charlie, you see flashes and we are trying to make that we have more consistent flashes, and he’s showing it in training. And I know Charlie really well from many years, and I’m really liking the energy he’s bringing. You see it. Both times he came on the field, there were opportunities and he’s making defenders get a little bit weary of him because he is so fast. But in training, the energy he is bringing is great. I see him progressing, continue to progress and get his minutes the way he’s getting them, but also fighting for a starting spot.

Matt Reis

This is a huge game, an in-conference game. We knew all these games have playoff implications for us now. We’re kind of trying to climb the ladder. We did a great job of responding tonight.

I think we created chances all night and it was just a matter of putting them away. I think as soon as we started putting them away then that was the difference.

I had the ball kind of under myself and I thought I had both hands on it, and [Conor Casey] came kind of sliding in and kicked it through me. We’ll see what the replay says, but I thought I had both hands on the ball.

We did a great job in the first half, obviously they didn’t have much. The second half, they put two up top. We adjusted a little bit too late on it, but we did and after that it was easy, clean sailing.

We have the talent to [score five goals]. With Juan (Agudelo) playing well and Kelyn (Rowe) – I thought had a fantastic game – his energy running around all night was amazing. We definitely have those offensive weapons now; we just have to finish our chances.

It feels great [to get back-to-back starts.] The body is holding up well, so it’s kind of a thing with this team: we have great players all over the place and Bobby (Shuttleworth) is a great player. It pushes us to be at our best day in, day out and that’s great for the team.

Kelyn Rowe

There were a bunch of good goals, actually. It was good for us to find the net again in a big way. We’re happy about it. A 5-1 victory – taking that into next week is big for us.

First goal, you know they’d been dropping a lot. I thought: let it run by and try to hit it on goal. Luckily, it just trickled in far post.

I think just leading up to this weekend, we’ve had minimal-goal games and we had to come back strong. We know we’re capable of it. You see it with LA, you see it with a couple of 2-0 victories here and there, then obviously the 5-1 here today. We have guys who can score. (Juan) Agudelo’s finding his streak again, Diego (Fagundez) is in great spots, as well as Dimitry Imbongo, Chad Barrett and obviously myself finding two as well. We have guys who can score, so we’re happy about that.

It’s one of those where if you make one, you want to make two, three, four. For me, [the first goal] just gave me that little bit of confidence to hit that second one.

I don’t think I’ve had a hat trick since I was 10 years old. Everyone’s searching for one. I know Juan (Agudelo) was searching for one as well, so for us to win was the happier feeling.

We planned [my goal celebration] so I wasn’t just alone with myself and Ryan Guy. We hopped in, we all got in the boat and rowed away to victory, I guess.

I’m comfortable [in central midfield]. I’ve played there most of my life. I think we’ve created a good bond between myself, Lee Nguyen and Scott Caldwell, who is that defensive guy and kind of generates for us. I think the forwards up top have made the runs to open up space for Lee and I to do what we do best, and that’s getting behind defenses and playing balls in if we need to. For us, we have more space that way and that’s where I’m finding the goals.

For us, it was Juan (Agudelo) getting in behind again and finding that goal, because he missed that one in the first half. We knew he wasn’t going to miss again. For us, it’s like once we get one, then we get two, then it just opens up the floodgates for us. We do need to make sure – those chances were close for them, some lucky calls for us – I think we need to make sure that we can hold that 1-0 victory if we had to.

I think whether you shut out a team, the earlier game is nothing. We’ve had it where we’ve had shutouts here and there, then all of a sudden gave up some goals. Every game is a new game and for us, like I said, we were itching to score some goals and we had guys coming back, like Juan (Agudelo) who scored last week again. I think for us, we expect to score as many goals as possible in every game.

I was definitely surprised (by the space in the middle). I saw that they dropped off a lot in the first half. Juan (Agudelo) took a lot of their backs away and I was able to find the gaps in behind and create 10 yards of space for myself.