Sporting Director and Head Coach Gregg Berhalter
On his thoughts on the match...
"I think that the way I see it is that we lost total control of the match after we scored our second goal, complete control. The movement wasn’t good enough, the passing wasn’t good enough, the ability to win balls from them wasn’t good enough, and to be honest they deserved it. They definitely deserved this win, because the second half from us was not good."
On reasons for his team’s loss...
"They made us expend a lot of energy defensively and because we couldn’t win the ball back they put us in some tough spots when we had the ball in terms of the movement we needed, the positioning that we needed we weren’t getting into position. I saw it coming at the end of the first half when we were playing too vertical, we weren’t stretching them side to side enough like we did in that one period and we paid for it. We couldn’t make the necessary adjustment to keep the ball moving from side to side."
On his thoughts of giving up two late goals...
"Well we scored in the second half and we scored early in the second half. I think the first half could have been one of our best halves this year of soccer. You know nice spacing, getting guys in good positions, dangerous on crosses, and like I said I think after we scored that second goal it was nothing."
On Federico Higuain’s performance...
"I think he had some good moments, for sure. Great goal, I’m not sure if he was credited with the assist. It looked like to me he touched that ball to Ola [Kamara]. No, he didn’t? Still heads up play to let it go and overall I think he was solid. Again, I think the inability for us to win balls made him expend a lot of energy shifting defensively."
On his team’s composure in the first half...
"That’s a good question. I think that anytime you give up a goal at home eight minutes into the game, you aren’t happy with the start. I think, by and large, I was happy with the first half. I think the way the whole thing was playing out was we were playing very well. To answer your question, I’d say the whole first half was pretty good."
On the effect of New York City FC’s changes lineup...
"Well when you put a guy like [Yangel] Herrera in, he’s an excellent player and we knew he was going to give us difficulty, very powerful player, very good player. I think [Maximiliano] Moralez is another that seemed to shine with the absence of those players. I think that the last thing you want to do is let your guard down and say that because they’re missing two designated players this is going to be an easy game because this is a good team."
On Jukka Raitala’s injury...
"He’s fine. I think he just took a knock to the head."
On his feelings about his team’s performance...
"I’m frustrated with the result, I think. The guys have been great, the guys have been working hard, the guys have been doing everything we asked and soccer is like that sometimes. You don’t always get what you want out of a game. I think, maybe the disappointing thing is how we lost control of the match after the second goal. We are a better team than that and we didn’t show it."
Forward Kekuta Manneh
On his debut and Crew SC Supporters...
"I thought the crowd was amazing today. They lifted us when we needed them and I thought it was very unfortunate we had didn’t have the equalizer or win the game but the crowd was unbelievable. Thank you to the fans and all the support. We need to pick it up and get a good result next game."
On debuting in the final minutes...
"It’s obviously very different. The mentality was to come in the game and be positive. It wasn’t easy, we tried but we just need to take a positive outlook and get ready for the next game."
On the high-scoring match...
"Both teams want to get on the ball, attacking teams. I always knew, even when I came here, that Columbus [Crew SC] games are always like that, a 3-2 game, 4-2, or high scoring games. There’s going to be goals, it’s going to be a matter of who takes chances."
Midfielder Wil Trapp
On his thoughts of the second half...
"I think we just didn’t get a hold of the ball. We concede a lot of possession, started to have to shift a lot, got tired every time we did win the ball. I don’t think we were in a good enough mental spot to play out of tight spots and get the ball out of pressure so that just compounded onto them bringing wave after wave of pressure on us."
On his team’s mentality...
"I can’t think of one individual thing I think it’s just little plays—I mean look at the third goal. It’s one of those plays that we have to be better at plain and simple. It’s not on one guy, it’s on the whole team moving and executing. We did so it’s a game of inches and we lost that battle today."
On New York City FC’s defense in the second half...
"They move the ball well and they’re comfortable so that’s something if you’re not giving pressure to them they can pick out passes and that could have been better tonight."
On his takeaway from this match...
"We got to light a fire and we just got to snap out of it and attack teams. You see it in spurts but it is not sustained."
