Red Bulls coach Denis Hamlett
On the play of the team:
Credit to the guys. The message from me and Jesse [Marsch] this week was that when we are at home, we're in attack mode. We want to take the game to the team and tonight, those guys were able to do that. I think once they got going, it was just a matter of finishing their chances. I think we've created a lot of at home this year, but just haven't been able to finish them, and tonight we finished them and made the game look a lot easier.
On the play of Robles:
[Robles] has been solid all year. He's made a lot of big saves for us all season. We talked about getting a shutout tonight, I think he's a little disappointed he didn’t get that, but he's been excellent for us all season.
On the play of Anthony Wallace:
I think he had the start against Columbus, but he's been around, he's been patient, and although his name hasn't come up that much, I think he's been able to take advantage of being able to train with the first team and then applying that to Red Bulls II. I think he felt that when his moment came, he'd be ready for that, and this wasn't an easy game for him to go into dealing with Teal [Bunbury] and sometimes [Juan] Agudelo.
On Wright-Phillip's play and starting him over Abang:
We felt that with Lloyd back healthy, that was the team we wanted to put out on the field. I think Lloyd's play opens up the middle of the field for Bradley, and I think his ability to cut under the defense helps us insurmountably, and when you get that package together, you see what you saw tonight. Abang has been good, he's still learning, but we're happy with him so tonight was a difficult decision, but we felt that that was the team we wanted to put out.
On how much the rest helped the team:
It helped a lot. I think it's been a crazy stretch with so many games, and big games too in terms of the New York game, and the Cosmos game. Two important games because of the proximity of the teams so I think that takes a lot out of you both mentally and physically so it was good to shut down and re-charge the batteries a little bit and prepare for an important stretch because 16 out of the next 17 games are conference games so we want to make sure we get off on the right start.
Red Bulls forward Bradley Wright-Phillips
On the first 20 minutes:
Excellent. Excellent performance. I said to Lloyd and Sasha when I got on the bench I was proud to be on the team. These are the type of things we do in training and it came off in 12 minutes and we won the game.
On the effect of having time off:
I’m not sure maybe. I have to tell Jesse to do it again and we’ll see. I definitely felt sharp and a couple of the players looked sharp. The result speaks for itself.
On being back at the top of the formation:
No. From the heart I can tell you I honestly don’t mind. I feel like anywhere attacking I like to play. You can still get chances from the left. As you see Lloyd and Mike have a good goal tally.
On extra motivation with Jesse suspended:
A little bit because it is something he drills into us. He tells us all the time this is our team. Where we are just as important as he is and today we showed that. We were organized and got the job done.
On the offense clicking as the season moves on:
I don’t know, because I haven’t felt like I’m not going to score. Every game I think that I’m going to get a chance. I just feel that it’s one of those seasons for me. Like I said at the beginning of the season, I wanted to balance out. I wanted more assists. I don’t think you are going to get 27 goals and 27 assists. I think I’m doing more for the team and I’m enjoying it.
Red Bulls midfielder Lloyd Sam
On the start of the game:
To take a three-goal lead that early, it gives us an advantage, and it’s hard to come back from, so it was a great start for us.
On the win:
It was an amazing win against our rivals, we needed it. It’s always good to beat an Eastern Conference team.
If they had in mind New England’s slump:
We didn’t take into account their form. We just thought let’s just do the best we can do from the off. We were saying all the right things before we went out there. All the players seemed fired up and you can see we just took control.
On the goal:
I was very surprised to get that much space. I hope everyone gives me that much space, I was very surprised.
Red Bulls defender Anthony Wallace
On getting his first goal:
Such a relief. It was a pleasure, and an honor and a delight to be a part of something like that, especially what we did in the first half, you couldn't ask for a better start and I thank my teammates for that.
On waiting for his time to enter the lineup:
There's always been times in my career where I've been hitting rough patches of not starting so I just always have be mentally and physically prepared when the time comes.
On if he trained differently knowing he would get the start:
No, I always keep myself mentally sharp and tuned in so it wasn't overwhelming or anything like that so I didn’t have to change any of my tactics or preparation.
On USL play:
It's been great getting games with the USL team. It keeps me sharp it keeps me tuned in and it keeps me fit most importantly so it keeps me at a high level when I get a chance to step in with the first team.
On the importance of the early goals:
It was very important. We knew coming into this game it was going to be a battle so we had to impose ourselves on them from the beginning so to jump on them with three goals like that in the beginning was the best thing we could have asked for.
On assessing the performance of the back line:
We've always demanded a lot out of ourselves both as a backline and as a team, but it's a work in progress. Every team is different so you have to prepare for every team a different way, and [a clean sheet] is something that we are always working towards.
Red Bulls midfielder Mike Grella
On the standings:
It’s good, it’s strange the way the tables are set up and matches are set up because at one point we were almost out of the playoffs and now we’re in second because all the teams have played so many games. We never wavered, never doubted, we always stuck together, we always stuck with the same mentality and continued to work even harder and harder and harder.
On going from losing slump to winning:
I think honestly, in my opinion, it was just time. We did all the same things, we just did them a little bit better, executed a little bit better, cut out some of the mistakes that were clear as day, some of the easy goals we were letting in, some of the easy chances we were missing, and not creating. We just sort of tweaked what we wanted to do and that’s been proving to be working big time.
On the Eastern conference:
I don’t think you’re ever down and out. In any league, if you put some wins together…we saw when we were not putting wins together and we lost four and were stuck on seventeen points, teams were catching us to up in a heartbeat and we had this great start and all of a sudden, bang, we were in the middle of the pack, toward the bottom of the pack, and it was just shocking. Even though we’re in second now, there’s such a long way to go.
