Head Coach Veljko Paunovic
On his team’s performance
"Congrats to Columbus on a win, first of all, and good luck further in the season. I think today we actually killed ourselves. I think we conceded things and mistakes that we had and the adjustments we did weren’t good enough. I just think in the second half especially, at some point, even controlling the game we dropped the attitude and the concentration; we lost a couple of very dangerous balls and teams like Columbus will always punish you for that. I think without taking credit [away] from Columbus, I think we lost the game definitely today in our approach in the second half and we all have to get better. It’s individual mistakes that kills us. If we want to be a successful team and a team that dominates, which we want, we have to do better in these kinds of games, especially on the road."
On Crew SC’s counter-attack
"I think they did very well, but I think we conceded very innocent mistakes, we gave up a couple of balls that you just cannot do that; against a team like Columbus, you cannot do that. You cannot do that against [Toronto FC], you cannot do that against [D.C. United] you cannot do that against any team in this league, so we just have to understand. This is the game for men, for the guys who compete, who will fight for every ball and obviously don’t commit mistakes and that’s something we have to improve. Our team has to mature if we want to be the playoff team and fight for the Supporters’ Shield."
On the Supporters’ Shield race
"We are just focusing on us. We obviously follow other teams, [Toronto FC] is doing well and we have Toronto at home very soon. We have to get better, we have to comeback where we were at some point this season where you couldn’t find the difference playing at home or on the road, so that’s what we have to achieve again."
Midfielder Michael de Leeuw
On his goal
"I don’t remember—but I think it was a rebound. The ball came back to Dax (McCarty) and I watched the line and I saw that I wasn’t offside and I think a great ball from Dax and I had a perfect in so great goal."
On positive takeaways from tonight’s match
"So right after the match what’s positive? That’s difficult because now only what’s in my head is like the way we played. I think we played well in certain parts of the game but most of all we were very sloppy. I think we had twenty unforced errors and at the end, the goals came from red I was also the third goal was a mistake for me. The positive -- I think we played well but the sloppy mistakes were too much."
On what to improve on before the next match
"Well the sloppiness -- we have to play better and when we play possession. Just hold the ball and not make stupid mistakes because Columbus profit big because of that. I think that needs to be better but yeah it’s no shame Columbus is a good team. Great for them, great match for them, good team. We have to keep going on and Wednesday we play against Montreal and we just have to keep doing the same without the sloppy passes. "
