Columbus goalkeeper Andy Gruenebaum
On Sporting KC’s 3-2 win over the Columbus Crew…
With a high-scoring game, we don’t like it that way. We didn’t like how open it was, and we got a tough break. A couple bounces didn’t go our way. We fought and battled hard, but we weren’t dangerous enough offensively. Defensively we definitely didn’t do enough. It kind of gets repetitive after awhile, but we’ve got to refocus quickly because we’re on the road again (Thursday at Los Angeles Galaxy).
On Sporting KC’s strengths…
They pressure high and try to win the ball back right away, so it’s a lot about them capitalizing off your own mistakes. They also have a lot of guys who can fly forward; that opens the game up really well for them and makes you spread out defensively. They’re a very dangerous team that can do it on the ground, but then on set pieces they can also play in the air. It’s a very difficult team.
On how Columbus can reverse their recent two-game slide…
We just need to tighten up defensively and take advantage of our chances. I’d like to score one without giving one up for a change.
Columbus defender Chad Marshall
On Sporting KC’s 3-2 win over the Columbus Crew…
It was frustrating to be able to tie it up twice and not be able to hold on for at least a point. That was just a disappointing result for us.
On Columbus’ two goals scored in the match…
Both of our goals kind of came from nothing. We weren’t really able to keep possession tonight. Jairo (Arrieta) made a good run to beat their center back and he slotted it well.They obviously gave us one for our second goal, but it was very frustrating not to keep things at 2-2.
On Sporting KC’s strengths…
Kansas City is a good attacking team. They have plenty of quality players and interchange well uptop. That causes problems for defenses. They were really able to do well in the middle tonight and create space. That opened up chances for their forwards who finished well.
On Columbus’ recent struggles…
I don’t think it’s a back four problem. You defend as a team and attack as a team. We’ll just have to look at the video this week and get ready to travel to Los Angeles and play the Galaxy. At this point we just need to eliminate the mistakes in order to get better.
Sporting KC defender Kevin Ellis
On his debut performance…
Tough question. I mean I think as a team we did good, I just try to do my job on the team. I feel like I did my job in the 25 or 30 minutes, I don’t know what it was, but in my mind I did… at least to help the team.
On how it felt to be on the field for the first time in an MLS match…
I mean the adrenaline was definitely going, it’s a good feeling to do what you love in front of a bunch of people.
On the nerves of the debut…
I felt I was calm. I had plenty of time to prepare for that situation, you know, coming into a MLS game. I wasn’t really nervous at all, I was just anxious and ready to get in and try and help the team.
On how he can help the team going forward…
Just continuing to work hard. Just coming in with a positive attitude and doing what I can with the opportunities that I’m given.
Sporting KC forward Dom Dwyer
On making his season debut…
That’s why I’m here. You know hopefully I’ll get more time and with that put more points on the board. It’s nice to get more time and once you get a taste you want more and more so obviously I want more and I want to get on the board a bit more. It was 2-2 when I was about to go on, but then Kei scored to make it 3-2 so it was a change in tactics, just run around and be a nuisance, so that’s what I tried to do.
On looking forward to more playing time…
I’ll take whatever I can get right now. I was playing 90 in Orlando, regular time, so I feel sharp and ready to go and whatever they want from me, I’ll give them.
Sporting KC captain Jimmy Nielsen
On the two goals given up versus Columbus…
First goal…we have got to give a lot of credit to the guy who scored that goal. That was a pretty good detail. Second goal we all know what happened. We bouncedback from that and showed extremely strong mentality after that. It’s tough to get scored on twice when you’re up and you’re excited and everybody could see that we had good control of the game. But you know, they came back, it was 2-2 and it was a big disappointment. But we bounced back the right way and we’ve been talking a lot about that.
On the team’s response to allowing a soft goal…
We have to keep our heads up. Because I thought we did an outstanding job out there today. We played some very good soccer and created some great chances. We just got to keep going.
On getting the full three points…
Huge win for us. We did so many things right today that it would have been one of the biggest heartbreakers if we didn’t end up with three points. Fighting hard for each other, we out-battled them, we played some very good soccer and you look up and it’s 2-2 and you think “What the hell is going on here?” But you’ve got to keep going and we got rewarded out there for what we did for 90 minutes.
On Soony Saad’s performance in place of C.J. Sapong…
He did a hell of a good job. We all know Soony is a great player. I think he proved today that he can play on this level here. Outstanding. Brilliant. I am very, very happy for him. He’s been working very hard for this year. Local kid, you know, he deserves a lot of credit for his performance and the work he has put in for the last 6-8 months. He’s been working very, very hard and he’s been very, very patient. He’s my hero today.
