Photo and video: Daniel Gajdamowicz

John Hackworth’s postgame press conference

Postgame interviews with Ray Gaddis, Amobi Okugo, Aaron Wheeler and Leo Fernandes

 Philadelphia Union postgame quotes from John Hackworth, Jack MacInerney, Sebastien Le Toux, and Amobi Okugo

Team Manager John Hackworth
On what the win says for the club:

“I think it says we have some depth and some quality. As you know we lost Brian Carroll in the game time decision. He has flu like symptoms. Our doctors and medical team tried everything to get him ready. That’s a tough spot to lose a player. Leo comes on and does a really good job for us. I think he did a really good job in the first half. Our team didn’t change too much so I think that says we have a lot of depth.”

On Edu’s performance:

“I thought he did a good job. It’s hard to do especially in your mindset. You train all week as a No. 8 going box-to-box. To come down, the pressure is much different, the options to get the ball is much different. He can do that. Again, that says a lot about him that he can adjust like that.”

On LeToux’s performance:

“It was good. He put the ball in the net and the stadium erupts. it was excellent. Seba did a lot of work today for his teammates. He made some quality passes and a lot of quality touches. He was good and very important for us today.”

On bouncing back after last week’s game:

“We were in this position last week. We were up a goal and then while we had a good performance last week we needed to get that win. It was a little different, we held our game and didn’t give them a chance in the last 10 minutes. I think that says that we are still making progress.”

On the chemistry of the midfield:

“I think you saw in the first 10 minutes of the game it was a little shaky. The guys haven’t trained with those players in those positions all week long but Leo has been in some of those preseason activities with those guys. I thought we started to knock it around more. I told Leo that you don’t have to be the best player on the field. All you have to do is your job, play your role, manage your minutes.”

On New England mixing up their lineup:

“It was an interesting line up from them. In talking to Jay I think he had some injuries to deal with as well. Interesting for me was that they dropped their line a lot. I thought they would come and try to make an attacking game. I really like their front five mobility. I thought last year that was made it difficult for us to handle with their interchanging mobility and I think they showed that more in the second half.”

On the short notice for Leo Fernandes starting:

“Leo found out that there was a possibility of starting two hours before the game. He literally found out three minutes before warm ups that he was going in. One thing I tell my guys is that you never know when the opportunity is going to come. That’s why I want you working hard during the week, that’s why I want you to prepare just in case your number is called.”

On getting the win:

“The best way to close out the games is to get the second goal. It goes out to the fact that we were in this position last week and we didn’t get the second goal. I’ll be honest with you, I don’t think we played well the second half. My expectations going out of halftime was that we were going to do the same thing like gain possession, and have the highest number of passes that we completed in the first half. My expectations was that we have to do that again. It’s hard but the players wanted to rectify the situation last week. The whole time I was urging us to step it up and put them under pressure but that will be the next step for us, to finish that off. We had a couple of chances this week and last week to put the ball in the back of the net. It needs to come.”

On Amobi’s leadership:

“Amobi got the captain’s armband. He was constantly looking over to me. I told him to get our line up and don’t let us drop back and try to defend this one. We do that with our pressure. We think that our pressure initiates our attack.”

Forward Jack McInerney
About the result:

“We could have gotten a second goal, but that is how the game is… the important thing is that we won.”

Coming back from that draw in Portland:

“It was on the back of everyone’s mind, but we got back at it and we wanted to fix it and things went really well.”

About winning in front of the home fans:

“It’s important as it sets the tone for the rest of the season, I am really happy and hopefully we can keep it going.”

Forward Sebastien Le Toux
About not conceding a goal and starting well at home:

“We wanted start well at home and to get a shutout is really important too. We take the 1-0 lead and it was a great performance by everyone today.”

About scoring in home openers:

“I don’t know. I got a good start and hopefully I can score more goals later on, and help the team more and starting with 3 points entails a great start to the year.”

On his celebration:

“During preseason we played a lot of cards.  Fabinho, Chaco (Maidana), Vincent (Noguiera) and Leo (Fernandes) and I always played cards after every meal and we said that whoever scored would celebrate that way. It is a good way to develop team chemistry.”

About playing at home:

“We wanted to get the win. We had a great turnout and it was great. And it was great to be at the field and being able to start at the home opener.”

Defender Amobi Okugo
About being named on field captain:

“I didn’t know what to say. I was stuttering and the guys started to make fun of me. It was good you know, it was an honor filling in for Brian Carroll and trying to lead by example.”

About switching defensive partners:

“It wasn’t too tough, before Austin (Berry) came in I played two or three games with Aaron (Wheeler) as my partner. Personally, I think we did well when he was in, he won all those air balls and he made an impact when he came in. He helped us achieve this shutout.”

On his ability to communicate:

“Brian is more of a lead by example guy. He tries to keep the group positive and give everyone advice. Me being the last line of defense, I had to hold down the fort with Austin (Berry), Mo (Edu) and try to minimize the mistakes.

New England Revolution post game quotes from Jay Heaps and Andy Dorman

Head Coach Jay Heaps
On teams performance:

“We played hard, tried to win the game and we did not. Unfortunately, we did not. We did take our chances, but credit Philadelphia for their game”

On some of the changes in the lineup:

“We tried to focus on winning this game, put the best possible line-up we could to win this game.”

On being in a tough hole and bouncing back next week:

“Try to keep going, keep trying to play.”

On Andrew Farrell’s first appearance in center back:

“I thought Andrew did a nice job in the center. It was his first game back in a little bit, I thought he adapted well, and finished the game well.”

On the goal:

“It was a good smart play from their player, shielded the ball well and then unfortunately breaks behind our back line and we got to stay with runners. It was a pretty easy pass once they broke into our 18.”

Defender Andrew Farrell On tough result coming on the road in Philly and how this one played out:

“We knew coming in, they were going to be pretty amped for their home opener and they got a good result and played well away at Portland. So we know coming in that they were going to be a tough team to play against especially in a home opener. We came out and tried to do well in the first 30, last game we played we did not do to hot in the first 30 came out flat and we tried to work on that, just a tough result for the guys, the guys fought and fought well and did not get the result, and we had some chances. Defensively, we had some good spots, overall just not good enough.”

On his first start at center back at a professional level:

“I felt good, I just think coming into a new spot, playing with guys like A.J. (Soares), Chris Tierney, and Darius (Barnes) in the back, and they played plenty of times in the back line. They helped me a lot and you could see that. That one play I stepped, when they got the goal off of that, just that one mental mistake, it cost us the game. Next time, I learned there was a similar play later on, that same exact play, the guys did not get down on me and they tried to lift me up and I did better. It tough, but take some positive from the game and looking forward to the home opener and getting back on our feet.”

On looking forward to coming back home:

“We’re excited about being at home. Last year we did well with getting some good results at home and away. But I think this year we are looking forward to making Gillette Stadium a tough place for teams to get results, and we got to look at the tape, move on and hopefully get a better result next weekend.”

Midfielder Andy Dorman
On tough result, in their home opener:

“Yeah it is disappointing; obviously we knew it was going to be a tough game with it being their home opener. I do not think we have ever had it easy coming into Philly, so it proved to be that way. I think it was just the case of them taking the chances, not taking ours. We thought on the day we could come away with a point, but it was not to be.”

On some of the changes tried to make at halftime, it seemed like you got on the ball a little bit more in the second half:

“Yeah exactly, in the first half we had a lot of pressure, probably did not press as high in the second half. I think coming out and having a reaction to be a goal behind I think we did that and could of create more chances, but we are disappointed not to take anything from the game”

On being able to get back, train and play at home:

“We knew it was going to be a hard start, and our first home game would be important and its proved to be that way. We will look forward to the game next week, obviously look at the game today and see what we could of done better and hopefully pull out right next week.”