Quote Sheet
Chicago Fire at New England Revolution
Gillette Stadium - Foxborough, Mass.
July 12, 2014 – MLS Regular Season
Chicago Fire Head Coach and Director of Soccer Frank Yallop
“No, it was not easy to get this result. We played against Kansas City on Sunday, went to Atlanta for an Open Cup game a couple of days later, and then came here for a tough league match. To get two wins and a tie out of these last few games is fantastic. We went to the quarterfinals of the Open Cup where we saw some great competition and then came here and got three points. I would say this has been a successful week.
Sean (Johnson) has been outstanding these past four or five games. He’s a young goalkeeper and he’s finally starting to have really good performances and he’s also starting to look the part. Things like this make the difference and it was the reason we won tonight. Although it was a great penalty that was taken, Sean also made a great save that was able to keep us ahead in the game.
I don’t think we deserved to draw as many games as we have. When we drew against the Revolution at home we missed a penalty like you guys did tonight. It’s a great thing for us to win tonight, in conference, because of the tough week we had, but we did very well. I was proud of the way we played, even though the second half was a little bit ugly and they were all over us. In the end, we were able to seal it out and get a win. We got it done as a group and that’s what is important.
My philosophy is to start quickly and try to score first. If you can do that, I believe that you can usually get a draw. My big thing is to get after it in the beginning, and we did. Mike [Magee] and Quincy [Amarikwa] were really lively in the first half and it went well. I thought we could have scored more goals, but you know, that’s how soccer is. I’m happy we got the win.
Quincy did the same thing against New England at home. He’s a very strong player that knows how to use his body the right way. Along with that being said, our squad was rotated a lot during these past three games. Everyone performed well. I tip my hat to them because the full squad of 18 has been doing well and it’s shown in our results.”
Chicago Fire forward Quincy Amarikwa
“It’s really important, especially if you can come away on the road and get a win and get three points. I mean that’s huge, especially in this league. We’ve just been right on the cusp of breaking out this year. We’ve got a lot of draws but that just means we’re hard to beat, as proved by tonight. And hopefully it translates into more wins and we jump to the top of the table.
Everything is about building momentum. I think we’ve been doing the right things. We’ve been working hard as a unit. We’re really sacrificing ourselves out there and it translated into three points tonight, and hopefully we’ll carry that into our next game.
I was hoping to catch them flat-footed. I think there were two or three opportunities where I picked the back line or their holding defensive midfielder and I don’t think they were ready for it. Luckily, we were able to capitalize early and prevent them from scoring.
Sean made a huge save. We always like our goalies to save everything they’re supposed to and save at least one or two that they’re not supposed to a game. Sean came out on top doing that big time for us. I think that will further boost morale and keep us going in the right direction.
I’m more trying to predict at what speed and strength [the defender] is going to be coming in, and you lean in one direction to compensate for that so that by the time he hits you, he’s kind of hitting you upright. It’s a balancing act. You learn the strength of each player on the field as you’re playing. You try to – almost like a chess match – you try to outplay them.
I think though I make runs in behind and I get runs in behind, I’m fairly decent at my hold up play and most people might not think that, thinking of my size. I think it plays to our advantage, because defenders don’t know if I’m going to hold it up or if I’m going to run in behind. Hopefully we capitalize on that more throughout the rest of the year.
[My partnership with Mike Magee] is good. It’s developing. We’re always looking for each other. We’re usually involved in each other’s goals in some capacity and hopefully it translates into more goals and more assists and more chemistry.
Especially with three games in the short period of time that we had them in, I was going to have to sit some minutes. Unfortunately, [last game] was due to yellow card accumulation but the guys showed up in Kansas City, got our point on the road. It shows our depth as a team and this is probably the biggest week we’ve had all year especially in terms of results. That’s three road games in a very short span of time and we came away with seven points so these are positives to build on and hopefully they carry out throughout the rest of the year.”
Chicago Fire goalkeeper Sean Johnson
“It was just instinct. I think when it comes down to those moments, you kind of have to live in the moment. You don’t really think about it too much. You just kind of react and I just got a good jump on that side and was able to save it. I mix it up in the moment. I’ve gone left, I’ve gone right. I mix it up quite a bit so you never know. If the striker makes it difficult, which he did – it was very well struck – but I was able to get a good jump on it. I was surprised to see it bounce backwards because it was on turf. On grass it just stays put. I was lucky to have the post there. Someone was looking out for me there on that one.
This is my fifth year playing. I’ve faced a lot of penalty shots myself. I just kind of develop my own checklist I go through on the day and it’s different every day; depends on what I really think about when I wake up. Just in the moment I was able to save it. I watched it the whole way. I saw the ball the whole way. I knew it was going to take a bounce; didn’t know where it was going to go. I just got on my feet as quick as possible and I just took it off the line; turned around and took it. It’s really great.
This was huge. At a point in the season where we’ve gotten a lot of ties and we needed to really push and get over that hump. I think it really took a win like this – one that took a lot of grit and a lot of fight to really get the result. Three points and a shutout at that. I’m proud of the boys, and it’s just unfortunate to give away a PK when we worked hard. It shows the effort we put in defending and we were able to come out with a victory.
It’s bittersweet. It’s great to get the early goal, but you’ve got another 87 minutes you know the other team is going to press you to equalize, especially at home. To keep them off the scoreboard tonight was just great.
This week in general has been great for us. We’ve had a long week on the road, the entire week, and starting with Kansas City. To grind out a result on the road, and get the Open Cup win down in Atlanta – which I got to play in front of my family and friends in my hometown – is huge. Using that momentum to roll in, play the game on turf—have that experience coming in—we were able to get the job done.
It’s really great. It’s almost a sense of relief. We can’t relax yet, you know just those three points have been so evasive for so long. We’ve tied so many games. It’s very frustrating. We almost tied there at the end with the PK. We’re getting closer and closer to putting together a complete game. This game for us was great. We played well for 80-plus minutes and it’s just really grinding it out to see the game out in full. We’ll get better.
There is a ton left to play for. We had to regroup, starting with the Open Cup. We had two things to focus on: Open Cup midweek and then shift focus back to the league. It’s huge for us to get this result. We want to keep it rolling. We’ve got a lot to play for, a lot of games left, and we’ll get back to training and get better and get back to it this weekend against Philly.”
New England Revolution head coach Jay Heaps
“Tough loss. That one really hurt because I thought we had some tough decisions against us last week and I thought we responded well. Then tonight, I thought we were going to come out flying and we got punched right in the face the first two and a half minutes. We have to be better and it’s on us.
I thought that we definitely had more chances (in the second half). I thought Jerry (Bengtson) did a great job coming in and impacting the game and I thought Steve Neumann did a good job, as well. It was a little bit of a change to a 3-5-2, it helped out our attack. It would have been nice to punch one in there.
(Lee Nguyen) is one of our playmakers and someone we look to to facilitate our attack. At the same time, I thought we have enough fire power to create. Right now it’s a really tough run. We have to dig ourselves out. We have a penalty kick in the 85th minute and I thought it was well deserved. I thought it was earned. I thought we were trying and we were doing everything we could, but sometimes we’ve just got to make our stamp on the game.
I don’t have the update on Andy (Dorman) yet, but it was significant. Andy’s a tough guy, so we’ll find out more in the next couple days. In terms of Scottie (Caldwell), I thought Scottie did a great job. Scottie came in and had no warm-up time and went in and really was chomping and biting and trying to make plays.
I don’t know if there were positives in all those four (previous games), some losses were worse than others, I believe. But tonight it’s really raw right now. Going back, the subs did a nice job coming in. No one gave up, that’s for darn sure. During the penalty kick in the 86th minute with a team that’s punkered in, it’s not easy. You’re trying to probe and pick teams apart. It’s unfortunate, but you’ve got to use the positives and just keep going. You’ve got to dig even deeper now.”
New England Revolution defender Andrew Farrell
“Every time we have scored a goal first this season we’ve won. It’s tough to get scored on in the first three minutes. Our back line gave up some sloppy goals, and we need to stop that. We carried the majority of the game later on in the first half and the second half but when you make a mental mistake like that and put the whole team behind it’s really tough. Obviously, they are a team that fights a lot, they have 10 ties and that says a lot. We’ve gotten down a goal in the last couple of games, and that really needs to stop.
I thought we had some good chance. We had a few solid set pieces and the PK obviously. I thought for the second half, besides the one on one we gave them, we carried the play, but that’s soccer. We could have come away with a victory but it just wasn’t our day.
It’s soccer and this stuff happens it’s obviously very frustrating. You have the momentum and you think we are going to score but giving up that early goal was just too much. We get one there, we get four more. It wouldn’t feel as bad if we weren’t losing so many games but this one hurts a lot. We thought we were going to come out in front of our fans and give a good performance – which I thought we did – we just couldn’t find the back of the net, and I’ll take full blame for that goal.
I was in the back so I didn’t hear what they said but it happens. I mean Chris (Tierney) is a great PK taker and it was a big-time save.”
