Postgame

Postgame quote sheet: Dynamo 1-0 Union

Philadelphia Union postgame quotes

Philadelphia Union head coach John Hackworth

Thoughts on the team’s standing

“We’re fine. We’ve been on a five game unbeaten streak. I think that’s a record for our club. And this is a tough league. You’re going to win some, and you’re going to lose some, especially when you try to play in these kind of conditions, third game in eight days, its just tough. So, though our team put out a fantastic effort, it just wasn’t there tonight.”

Thoughts on the match

“We tried to come here and force the game. We tried to press Houston. We knew they were going to come after us hard and to some degree that worked and other times it doesn’t. When you do that, you have to be able to put the ball on the ground and possess it a little bit and take your rest when you can. We didn’t do a great job of that the first half. We had a lot of silly turnovers and that meant that we were working a lot harder. For us to be successful in this kind of heat and humidity for the second straight game in a row, actually third straight game in a row, it was going to mean that we had to be a good team in pressing and we also had to be good with the ball and manage the match well. And that’s why I think we let things get a little bit away from us.“

On the goal

“I just watched it a bunch of times. We didn’t defend collectively as a group and we leave a guy open inside the box, and you can’t do that at this level. Credit to Houston, they were pushing the whole game; they were a team that was really trying to get on the board. To their credit, they broke through in the second half.”

On how young players who had not previously seen many minutes did

“I just think it was a great opportunity for some of our younger guys to get not only a start—I think we started two guys for the first time tonight, Antoine (Hoppenot) and Wheeler gets his first start, and Leo (Fernandes) gets his second—and it’s a great opportunity for those guys. No problem with how they played. I think they all played great.”

Philadelphia Union forward Connor Casey

Thoughts on the match

“We didn’t really establish what we wanted to do with the ball. It was a close a game. We were in it for most of the game, which is good. At the end of the day, we didn’t do enough to get a point or three.”

Difficulties of playing with several players missing

“It’s hard. We’re missing a couple of guys and it’s a very difficult place to play here with the heat and everything. With that said, we still have to find a way to do a better job and make it a little bit easier on ourselves.”

Where the team goes from here

“We have a good week of training and just look ahead. And we’re in a good place right now as a team. We have dropped some points these last couple of games, but we’re in the middle of the season now, and this is where it really counts, and that’s what’s going to separate us and show if we’re a playoff team or not.

“Today just wasn’t a very good day in general. But I think the past month has been pretty consistent, so we just have to go back to what we were doing and take it from there.”

Philadelphia Union forward Aaron Wheeler

On getting his first MLS start

“It’s a tough place to come and play, so I was looking forward to the challenge. It lived up to everything. It was a tough, physical game. It was just a heart-breaker really. I don’t really have much else to say about it.”

On whether Houston’s confidence grew as the game went on:

“I don’t know so much as confidence, but they had to push more. They’re the home team, so once the game stays 0-0, as the home team, you had to push more and go forward. They started to get the ball a little more. I don’t know about confidence, but they definitely started to put us on our heels a little bit.”

Houston Dynamo postgame quotes

Houston Dynamo forward Giles Barnes

On ending the winless streak

“Yeah it does give us that confidence obviously. It gets us back to winning ways. It’s another three points for us to climb up the table and put pressure on everyone on top of us. Obviously when you start scoring and obviously we made chances today as well, so the mood in the game was a lot different.”

On ending the scoreless run

“Yeah, it’s always in everyone’s mind that we’ve got to score early. That was what we were trying to do, you know? We got a few chances early on. We really had good chances, but Rico [Clark] put his away. But yeah, Rico put his chances away. We just knew what we had to do. Try to keep the ball and make a few more chances.

On pairing with Omar Cummings on the forward line

“Omar is lightning quick, so he gives that extra dynamic. He worked his socks off today. He did himself justice. Came in and knew exactly how to play and he is a good seasoned pro as well, so we know what we can expect with him.”

On getting the win at home

“Everyone knows it’s a hard game when you come here, so we need to get back to winning ways, so obviously opposition, when they come here, know that we’re back on top and back on form.”

Houston Dynamo midfielder Adam Moffat

On the win

“We’re delighted to get a win. It has been a long time. We could have made it a little bit easier on ourselves and scored a few more goals to put them away, but you know, we plugged away and got the three points, so were happy about that.”

On building off the performance

“Yeah I mean, yeah, now we can focus on going on a little bit of a run here right now. You know like I said, we had good spells tonight and you know sometimes where it’s just that final ball we’ve got to make sure we’re a little bit better on that, but it definitely takes a little bit of pressure off and we came out and had a lot more energy tonight, so it was good.”

Houston Dynamo forward Cam Weaver

On the win

“It’s nice to get a win first of all, of course. You know, we still could be a little bit better in front of goal and put the game away. I think we’re happy just to get the win, since it has been so long.”

Does the win relieve any pressure?

“I don’t know if it’s pressure. We’re always feeling the pressure to get wins, especially at home. I just think it brings the mood up in the team a little bit, you know, guys are smiling probably a little bit more this week in training.”

 

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