New York Red Bulls midfielder Eric Alexander
On if the team played well enough to win
No, definitely not. There’s certain things that we can start doing better. It’s falling on the players’ shoulders and we’re just not getting the job done.
On feeling of one goal not being enough
We always want to score as many as we can and try and keep the shutout. Tonight, we did have a couple chances and sometimes you get that feeling where if you don’t get the second one it might bite you in the butt a little bit and it did. I think we’re all just a little bit disappointed.
On the Earthquakes’ forward Steven Lenhart’s goal
I had a terrible header for a clearance and then I don’t know if someone volleyed it across the box and it was just a scramble and they got a touch and scored.
On what team can improve on at this point of the season
At this point in the season, I can’t even remember the last time when we had a clean sheet, so defending as a group. Also, we’ve given up a lot of early goals, I know tonight wasn’t one of them but just starting off the game strong and playing as a unit.
On defending well for a majority of the game
I think the defenders did a great job tonight and obviously my missed clearance was a big part of that last goal. I think they did a great job and Luis (Robles) always does a great job so I think we’re all a little bit disappointed in how it ended.
New York Red Bulls defender Chris Duvall
On marking Shea Salinas
He’s a great player just like a lot of guys in this league, they’re veterans and they’re great players and they’re tough to play against. As long as we focus on our defensive duty and concentrate on that, it’s our job and we have to handle it. I think we did an ok job but of course we didn’t get the shutout so it wasn’t good enough.
On defensive improvements
We’re constantly working to try and figure things out and work on our partnerships with the people next to us so that will just continue to get better but of course we were still five minutes away from a shutout so it needs more improvement.
On Earthquakes’ forward Steven Lenhart’s goal
We talked and we worked on not letting them get crosses in because that’s what they’re looking for, so I think if we could have denied the cross and of course get more pressure on him once he got the ball we could have stopped that. Not getting a shutout, there’s no excuses for it. We have to work on that.
On frustration of conceding a late goal
I wouldn’t say it’s frustration. We just have to deal with everything, you can’t have a perfect game, they’re going to get opportunities. We dealt with what came to us and unfortunately we weren’t able to get the shutout today.
New York Red Bulls goalkeeper Luis Robles
On tonight’s performance being good enough to win.
No, no. How many games have we played? 20? I think from our standpoint, we have to be looking to improving all the time. It just seems like the goals we’ve conceded in the last five six games, they just seem to be on replay, not responsive, reacting too slow. We’ve got 14 games left. We have to have the mindset of fixing our mistakes. If we don’t fix our mistakes then we can kiss the playoffs goodbye.
On any commonality among goals being conceded
I think the only common variable on all of them is that we’re reacting too slow to the play instead of anticipating where the ball is going and closing off those lanes where the forward is going to go. We’re letting them take space, we’re letting them play too easily in and around the box. I felt like in the first half we did a good job in limiting their crosses, and even some of their crosses that were dangerous, our defenders were able to get back and make great plays. But it takes a sort of mental toughness to do that for a full 90 minutes, and right now, looking at the last four or five games, that’s the question.
