Head Coach Patrice Carteron
On facing six MLS players:
“I said to the boys at halftime, tonight we are playing six MLS players. I think it’s the best Seattle team all season, and I told them at halftime, please feel confident. Everything you are doing is great. You have to face very good players tonight, but I’m sure we can do it. Stay strong, well organized and finally we scored the goal. I’m very happy also for Josh (Cohen) because he is very talented and what he did to save the game was absolutely great.”
On keeping the team’s confidence up against a talented side:
“We have to accept the rule, that is it. I didn’t want to talk about it before the game because I didn’t want to disturb the players before the game, for them to think, oh my god, we are facing MLS players. I just did it to give them some more motivation and positive vibes at halftime. I could feel the end of the first half was not that good, and to give them some new energy I told them I was very proud of what they did against those MLS players. We have to keep on being well organized, and I was sure when it came to the attack we would have an opportunity to score.”
On what he has done to ensure the team won’t give up a late goal:
“For the last thirteen games, we have one of the best defenses. When I first came it was a weak point of the team so it was not easy for me to find a way to find the organization for us to become better defensively. I really think offensively we have some fantastic offensive players and Didier (Drogba) is not here right now (so) it’s fantastic for us to have those players and Didier will be back in a few days. I’m really happy because we want to qualify the club for the first time for the playoffs and right now, physically we are getting stronger, the boys feel more and more confident, and I’m very happy because our fans were once again absolutely fantastic. We wanted the three points for them so, what a good evening.”
On bringing in Amadou Dia and AJ Gray into the match:
“I had the feeling that to face this opponent, Amadou Dia is a left back but he is very good offensively. I had the feeling on the side we could have some more opportunity to score and I wanted to give more freedom to Jason Johnson and Chris Cortez. I decided to have fresh blood on the side to give more freedom to Chris and Jason.”
On the play of Josh Cohen:
“He saved a goal. He saved a goal. That’s amazing…He deserved it; he was working so hard in training. He’s very young for a goalkeeper, he is 24 years old and I’m sure in the next year he will become a very good goalkeeper.”
On having two solid goalkeepers:
“For sure. The only problem right now is that Carl (Woszczynski) has an injury so he won’t be able to play for three weeks. But, Josh is ready so that’s the good news of the evening.”
On getting the team ready for a midweek match against Orange County:
“That’s true. Another great game for us in three days. We spend a lot of time with our staff for all of our players to be ready; tonight Dia was ready, AJ (Gray) was ready, Sam Hamilton was ready so we will take the time tomorrow morning to who is able to start the next game, but we also have some fresh blood.”
Midfielder Amadou Dia
On his goal:
“I saw that he was either going to shoot far post or drive it low to the back so I tried to get in a position where I could either get the rebound or have an easy tap in and luckily I ended up getting both so it was alright.”
On what the coaches told him when he entered the match as a sub:
“Well Rick said come in and try to make as big of an impact as possible and he said score a goal for me. So I did exactly what he said.”
On what his role was for the game:
“Just play in front of Victor. He had a great game the whole time so I help him out as much as possible and try to get a goal and if we do score then lock it down with Vic on the left side.”
On being out of the side for a couple matches now:
“Oh, it’s hard. It’s always hard when you’re not playing but you want to play, you want to get those minutes and stuff but it’s part of the game so you can’t have a bad attitude you’ve got to stay positive and do whatever your team needs you to do and then when your chance comes like mine did tonight you’ve got to take advantage of it and then just keep going from there.”
On if his mentality changes as a sub instead of a starter:
“I mean it doesn’t change really much. As soon as you step on the field it’s war out there and it’s either them or us and it has to be us especially when we’re at home we’ve got to protect our house so to me it’s the same mentality to work as hard as possible and then enjoy it.”
Goalkeeper Josh Cohen
On getting back from injury:
“Yeah it definitely felt good to get back on the field. Fantastic effort here tonight. We put together two back to back wins, both at home. We finally got that elusive home shut out, and I’m feeling great right now.”
On what he saw out of Seattle:
“We watched the film, we kind of knew what they wanted and they had a style and I think yeah, they had some pressure but we did a really good job handling anything that was dangerous and letting them have the stuff that wasn’t that dangerous that we knew we could handle.”
On what he was thinking when he made his stoppage time save:
“I was just thinking; I can’t let this one go in. Can’t give up the shut out this late in the game.”
On how he dealt with being out of the lineup:
“It’s a different mentality whether you’re in the 18, and on the bench or not, but everyday you’re part of the team, you’re a member of the team, and you do everything you can you just work for the team and pride in whatever you can.”
On his team’s mentality:
“Our mentality is keep working hard. You saw the effort out there. If we do that every game and we can maintain that we’ll be fantastic especially on this road trip. We have a lot of depth on the team so everyone is going to be ready for this upcoming stretch I think we have seven games playing Wednesday, Saturday alternating and so everyone needs to be ready, everyone is working hard and trying to maintain they’re health so we can be successful.”
On the relationship between himself and the other goalkeepers:
“We got the GKU, that’s Goal Keeper Union for those of you that haven’t heard of it before. And at training, we’re the ones wearing the orange pennies so sometimes we’re the orange squad also, but we have a great rapport you know all of us encourage each other, help out and really push each other in training too so that all of us can get better throughout the season and work on those things so that we’re successful together.”
Head Coach Patrice Carteron
On facing six MLS players:
“I said to the boys at halftime, tonight we are playing six MLS players. I think it’s the best Seattle team all season, and I told them at halftime, please feel confident. Everything you are doing is great. You have to face very good players tonight, but I’m sure we can do it. Stay strong, well organized and finally we scored the goal. I’m very happy also for Josh (Cohen) because he is very talented and what he did to save the game was absolutely great.”
On keeping the team’s confidence up against a talented side:
“We have to accept the rule, that is it. I didn’t want to talk about it before the game because I didn’t want to disturb the players before the game, for them to think, oh my god, we are facing MLS players. I just did it to give them some more motivation and positive vibes at halftime. I could feel the end of the first half was not that good, and to give them some new energy I told them I was very proud of what they did against those MLS players. We have to keep on being well organized, and I was sure when it came to the attack we would have an opportunity to score.”
On what he has done to ensure the team won’t give up a late goal:
“For the last thirteen games, we have one of the best defenses. When I first came it was a weak point of the team so it was not easy for me to find a way to find the organization for us to become better defensively. I really think offensively we have some fantastic offensive players and Didier (Drogba) is not here right now (so) it’s fantastic for us to have those players and Didier will be back in a few days. I’m really happy because we want to qualify the club for the first time for the playoffs and right now, physically we are getting stronger, the boys feel more and more confident, and I’m very happy because our fans were once again absolutely fantastic. We wanted the three points for them so, what a good evening.”
On bringing in Amadou Dia and AJ Gray into the match:
“I had the feeling that to face this opponent, Amadou Dia is a left back but he is very good offensively. I had the feeling on the side we could have some more opportunity to score and I wanted to give more freedom to Jason Johnson and Chris Cortez. I decided to have fresh blood on the side to give more freedom to Chris and Jason.”
On the play of Josh Cohen:
“He saved a goal. He saved a goal. That’s amazing…He deserved it; he was working so hard in training. He’s very young for a goalkeeper, he is 24 years old and I’m sure in the next year he will become a very good goalkeeper.”
On having two solid goalkeepers:
“For sure. The only problem right now is that Carl (Woszczynski) has an injury so he won’t be able to play for three weeks. But, Josh is ready so that’s the good news of the evening.”
On getting the team ready for a midweek match against Orange County:
“That’s true. Another great game for us in three days. We spend a lot of time with our staff for all of our players to be ready; tonight Dia was ready, AJ (Gray) was ready, Sam Hamilton was ready so we will take the time tomorrow morning to who is able to start the next game, but we also have some fresh blood.”
Midfielder Amadou Dia
On his goal:
“I saw that he was either going to shoot far post or drive it low to the back so I tried to get in a position where I could either get the rebound or have an easy tap in and luckily I ended up getting both so it was alright.”
On what the coaches told him when he entered the match as a sub:
“Well Rick said come in and try to make as big of an impact as possible and he said score a goal for me. So I did exactly what he said.”
On what his role was for the game:
“Just play in front of Victor. He had a great game the whole time so I help him out as much as possible and try to get a goal and if we do score then lock it down with Vic on the left side.”
On being out of the side for a couple matches now:
“Oh, it’s hard. It’s always hard when you’re not playing but you want to play, you want to get those minutes and stuff but it’s part of the game so you can’t have a bad attitude you’ve got to stay positive and do whatever your team needs you to do and then when your chance comes like mine did tonight you’ve got to take advantage of it and then just keep going from there.”
On if his mentality changes as a sub instead of a starter:
“I mean it doesn’t change really much. As soon as you step on the field it’s war out there and it’s either them or us and it has to be us especially when we’re at home we’ve got to protect our house so to me it’s the same mentality to work as hard as possible and then enjoy it.”
Goalkeeper Josh Cohen
On getting back from injury:
“Yeah it definitely felt good to get back on the field. Fantastic effort here tonight. We put together two back to back wins, both at home. We finally got that elusive home shut out, and I’m feeling great right now.”
On what he saw out of Seattle:
“We watched the film, we kind of knew what they wanted and they had a style and I think yeah, they had some pressure but we did a really good job handling anything that was dangerous and letting them have the stuff that wasn’t that dangerous that we knew we could handle.”
On what he was thinking when he made his stoppage time save:
“I was just thinking; I can’t let this one go in. Can’t give up the shut out this late in the game.”
On how he dealt with being out of the lineup:
“It’s a different mentality whether you’re in the 18, and on the bench or not, but everyday you’re part of the team, you’re a member of the team, and you do everything you can you just work for the team and pride in whatever you can.”
On his team’s mentality:
“Our mentality is keep working hard. You saw the effort out there. If we do that every game and we can maintain that we’ll be fantastic especially on this road trip. We have a lot of depth on the team so everyone is going to be ready for this upcoming stretch I think we have seven games playing Wednesday, Saturday alternating and so everyone needs to be ready, everyone is working hard and trying to maintain they’re health so we can be successful.”
On the relationship between himself and the other goalkeepers:
“We got the GKU, that’s Goal Keeper Union for those of you that haven’t heard of it before. And at training, we’re the ones wearing the orange pennies so sometimes we’re the orange squad also, but we have a great rapport you know all of us encourage each other, help out and really push each other in training too so that all of us can get better throughout the season and work on those things so that we’re successful together.”
