Columbus Crew SC Sporting Director and Head Coach Gregg Berhalter

On being ejected from the game

I was told that I came on the field and kicked the ball back into the field. I did not go on the field.

On his team’s performance

I thought it was great, I thought it was good. It was a tough game when they had some changes in the lineup and it’s the first time this back four has ever played together and I thought they held firm. Together with Zack [Steffen] they did a good job. We created a number of good chances to score goals, a couple fantastic goals that we did score, so overall very pleased. This is a tough opponent, they scored three goals against Seattle [Sounders FC] last week. It’s not an easy opponent and it was good to get the win.

On moving Nico Naess into the midfield

They played a narrow diamond and we wanted to take advantage of his passing in that spot in the middle and keep bombarding them with diagonal balls to open up space in the middle of the field, eventually. I thought he did a good job of doing that. You could see that he was intent on doing it. I told him that his legs could be sore the next day from hitting so many diagonal balls and hopefully tomorrow it will be.

On Wil Trapp’s performance

I thought Wil [Trapp] did good also. Again, we still had him control the midfield. It was a balance type of performance from him, but I thought he did well.

On Josh William’s performance

It wasn’t his first start, he started against D.C. United as well. Josh [Williams] is a guy that’s been solid all year. We brought him here for a reason, that he could play an important role in what we do and today was an example of him having an excellent game, I thought.

On Federico Higuain’s performance

He’s got a special gift, you know he was close in the first half to scoring a beautiful move, beautiful play, and in the second half he got his goal. I thought it was an excellent play overall and a great finish, almost reminiscent of what his brother [Gonzalo Higuain] did running in to space to finish. I think his finish was a little better though, Federico’s [Higuain].

On Harrison Afful not playing

Harrison [Afful] was excused from the game to spend time with his family and baby.

On Hector Jimenez’s performance

We know what Hector [Jimenez] can do and a big part of our success this year is going to be dictated by guys who can come in and do a job for us. We need depth and when you bring guys like Hector in, like Josh Williams, and you can get wins it means a lot.

On Waylon Francis’ performance

I thought Waylon [Francis] was good. He’s been fighting for playing time and we told him to stay positive and keep working. I thought he had a good game and just good energy, great work rate. I was just happy with his game.

On Wil Trapp’s consistency

I think so. Today I thought the calmness was there and that’s what we need from Wil [Trapp] and when you see him amongst all the craziness, him being able to be calm and get the ball from one player to another at the right moment, at the right time, that’s what makes Wil Trapp a special player and it was good to see tonight.

On his team’s performance against New England compared to last week against New York City

I think it was, again there’s going to be times when the opponent has more of the ball, there’s going to be times when things aren’t going your way in the game and it’s how we respond to it. I think this response was much better than last week. It wasn’t the end of the New York [City] game that was what hurt us. It was that first period in the second half that really hurt us, but the guys today, whenever New England got momentum, we were able to stay calm and keep focused on what we needed to do to win the game.

On Justin Meram’s performance

You know, I challenged Justin [Meram] before the game. I wasn’t super happy with his last two performances and I challenged him. I said “You have to step up your game”. To me this is what I meant. It wasn’t about if he scores or has assists, it’s about the work rate, the determination, the willingness to keep going and it was by no means a perfect game on his part, but the effort and all that was there big time. I thought he did great.

On the danger Ola Kamara poses to other teams

Ola [Kamara] is a guy that you can’t take your eyes off of. If you do he’s going to hurt you and what I liked was he was elusive at times, but also embraced the battle of what the game was going to bring towards the end when we had to be more direct. That’s a good quality that Ola brings.

On Federico Higuain’s season so far

Pipa [Federico Higuain] has been, over the course of these last four years, a big piece of what we do. I think from the outside, I don’t think sometimes that it’s understood how vital he is to what we do. For us it was an easy answer because of his quality and because of how he makes this team run.

On the short time period between games this week

That’s part of the league. Toronto [FC] has the same thing, right? They were in Seattle today playing on turf in hot weather, so they face the same challenges. I know they rested a couple guys. It will be a good game. It’s a good team, I think it’s a powerful team and it will give us some difficulty.

On the Nico Naess – Wil Trapp partnership

Again, we have a long week, we have a lot of games in this week and I wouldn’t be surprised if we mix the personnel up throughout the course of the week.One thing I’ll say is that in my eyes, the reason for the behavior is because of the foul that I perceived. I think that fouls like that have no business in soccer, I don’t think it was a soccer play. I’m looking forward to seeing how video review looks at this play because it was unacceptable in my eyes because it endangered the safety of one of my players. Any time that happens, of course you are going to get a reaction and that was the reaction tonight.

Midfielder Justin Meram

On how the win against New England speaks to Crew SC’s ability to regroup after a loss

It’s obviously a positive—we knew last week that option would happen. We know how good we are at home, especially when we have the lead and we knew we were going to come back and get a win tonight.

On his smooth transition with Waylon Francis

I’ve known Waylon [Francis] for years so it’s no different—like when he stepped in against Portland [Timbers]. I’ve played with Waylon, Jukka [Raitala], Hector [Jimenez]—I’ve played with numerous left backs over the years.

On how it is to play with Federico Higuain

It’s special man— We love when we have space and we can combine and you guys see it between us both in the pockets when it’s kicks, turns, and we love it too. It’s always good and I said at halftime we need to get him the ball a little bit more.

Goalkeeper Zack Steffen

On his team’s response to recent defeats

Two defeats in a row is not anything that we want to accomplish so it was back to the chalkboard, back to training, and back to grinding hard and focusing on each and every play and detail and it paid off.

On whether he thought this was his best performance of the season

It’s tough to say, but I do feel comfortable and I felt really good tonight. In warm ups too, I felt very sharp and awake and it was good and I think it relates to the game and I’m happy with my performance.

On feeling comfortable despite having a rotating backline

I felt comfortable. I know everybody here is going to work hard and is going to listen to what each of the players are saying and what I’m saying behind them, and they’re going to work hard and get the job done. Nobody wants to lose, nobody likes to lose, but I thought they were great tonight.

On the back line shifting as a unit

I was pretty pleased. There was a few times that they had a real little stretch and they came down the middle, but I mean that’s going to happen and we corrected it, we kept a shut-out. I’m pretty pleased with how our defensive shape was.