FC Dallas Head Coach Schellas Hyndman

On making early subs:

I thought we weren’t getting anything in the center midfield. Our idea was to put more pressure on the back four by going with some speed up front, and I thought Colorado did a good job bypassing the defense, so we weren’t getting much out of it. I thought we surprisingly played much better once we made the change. That was the bright spot coming into halftime. We’re down 1-0 but the bright spot was that we’re starting to get a little bit of the ball.

On Colorado’s play:

I thought they came out and looked like they had lively legs, and they came out really hard, and they were very intense. We lost a lot of passes, they were winning a lot of second balls, playing with a lot of courage and creating a lot of opportunities that first 20 minutes. Again, I think it was a pretty even game going back and forth when you look at the full 90. But when you look at the first 20, they were all over us.

On struggling to score:

I think a lot of it is the ball hasn’t bounced right. I think that today [Matt Pickens] made a couple of really good saves in the first half. We got that knock-down ball late in the first half. In the second half I thought we had two clean cut chances, in the one Chavez put over the goal without a goalkeeper, and then the one Brek had when he did an acrobatic move and tried to hit it back on the frame. Those were two pretty good chances for us that we were unable to put on the frame.

FC Dallas defender Ugo Ihemelu

On the team’s recent play:

The last few games I thought we’ve played alright, and the ball just isn’t bouncing right for us right now. We’re getting some good opportunities and it’s just not going in. Defensively we want to get back to the basics, because at the beginning of the season we had so many shutouts, but recently we’ve been losing games 1-0. Sometimes it’s just not going to bounce right. We’re doing the right things. We’re letting down at certain times, but at times in seasons you’re going to have your up and downs. I think right now we just have to ride this out, and we’ve got to get a win to get in the playoffs. To start building for playoffs right now it’s just continuing to do things right and eventually something’s going to go right.

On the goal:

You keep them under control for most of the game, and one set piece, and Drew’s great on set pieces. That’s what he does, and he’s just hard to deal with. He’s not the strongest guy but he gets away from players and his timing is great. You’ve got to give him credit, he got up to it and he put it away.

On keeping control of Omar Cummings and Sanna Nyassi:

They’re both a handful. You’ve got to keep them a little uncomfortable, when they’re running at you, that’s when they’re most dangerous. Then it comes down to team defending when you’re dealing with guys like that. You need help from your teammates, and as much help as you can get. Try to delay them, don’t dive in, because that’s exactly what they want.

Colorado Rapids Head Coach Gary Smith

On tonight’s win:

Well, confidence gets built on nights like tonight, where there were periods in the game where we could’ve been forgiven for giving up a goal at some point, but we didn’t. Somehow we didn’t, and we got it done, there was some good football in between and some good chances. Sanna’s chance probably kills the game completely, but somehow we’ve kept a clean sheet and we’ve won a game, and that builds confidence. It builds belief. It gets everybody back on side and on track. That’s two wins in a week. Unbeaten in… well, two games. That’ll do us.

On his decisions this week:

It feels like we’ve been waiting forever for a week like this. Some big decisions to make, I felt they were the right ones, and I’ve been vindicated in that with the two results that we had. Sometimes when things are not quite going your way, you’ve got to try to do something a little bit different. I took a little bit of a chance, of course, but I think it paid off, and paid off handsomely. We’ve ended up in a real good spot in the Champions League and today’s result covers a lot of ground.

On pulling closer to Dallas in the standings:

To beat Dallas means that we go that much closer to them, and hopefully puts a little bit more pressure on them to get some results, so we’re going to try to chase them down. A clean sheet, which is nice always to get. I think the momentum that the guys created midweek somehow had to be carried on. There were some times tonight, especially in the last 15 minutes, where it was backs to the wall, but I thought we showed some qualities that could well get us into that postseason and maybe give us a little bit of a run.

On the play of Dallas:

I thought it was a very competitive game. Dallas is a very good side, I said before the match started. They’re one of the complete teams. They give up few goals, they’re a big, strong side, but they’ve got plenty of athleticism. Normally threaten the goal with some considerable ease at times. They’re having a little bit of a difficult spell and I’m obviously greatly pleased that we were able to take a little advantage of that.

Colorado Rapids defender Drew Moor

On the performance:

It was just a huge win, just a gutsy performance for 90 minutes from everybody that was on the field. We knew exactly what we had to do coming into the game. We knew it was going to be tough. Dallas is a tough team, they interchange positions extremely well, they’re very exciting, they’ve got a lot of pace. They were going through a tough time the past couple weeks, like us, and this is a huge win to hopefully propel us into the playoffs.

On the team getting an early goal:

Scoring early goals always gives you confidence, especially when it’s the first one. I thought we showed great character last week, coming back after going down a goal. This week we showed character the other way, by protecting a lead, which we’ve had trouble doing at times throughout the season. To score an early goal like that, give yourself some confidence, and to see it all the way though the 95 minutes is a huge win, against such a good team as Dallas.

On finding an opening for his goal:

I ran my guy across Jeff Larentowicz. He and I do a good job of setting picks for each other in there, just to get a little bit of separation. Jacobsen is a big guy, I knew I wasn’t going to win any strength battles with him, so I needed to get a little bit of room away from him and I was able to do so.