Midfielder Felipe
Forward Bradley Wright-Phillips
Midfielder Sean Davis
On the formation:
Yeah, we worked on it a lot in pre-season, I think the staff has done a great job in making it a lot more clear for the guys. Things are a lot more defined than the last pre-season when we worked on it and for me personally I feel pretty good in it whether we are doing the 4-2-3-1 or 4-2-2-2. I think Felipe and I are building our relationship and things are feeling a lot more comfortable from game to game.
On the physicality of the game:
Yeah, we knew that Vancouver are a very physical team. You know, you just got to look at their performance from last season to know that. And we know that they are a team that like to be physical and try to put their stamp on the game that way so we went into the game expecting that and I think at times in the game you guys saw that but I think for the most part I thought we handled that well and we were able to break them down a few times by playing forward, playing quickly and getting into the box.
On the experience of Vancouver versus facing Central American teams:
That’s a great point. I think last season we had a lot of experiences down in Central America that helped us prepare for a game like tonight and I think those experiences were really important and this doesn’t really compare as much as a game in Central America where you know teams are more physical than Vancouver. You have to give Vancouver credit, they were very physical and that is there game plan and they were ready to hit us on the counter. I think the experiences in Central America helped us prepare for tonight but Vancouver plays a slightly different style.
Defender Aaron Long
On his first match after signing with first team:
It felt great, I felt comfortable out there, my teammates give me a lot of confidence as well as my coaching staff. I felt comfortable, happy to get at least one point and hopefully we can take care of the rest in Vancouver.
On if there were any pre-game jitters:
Well I did play last year so it wasn’t the same jitters so a little bit of nerves because it was the first game. Nothing serious though, I think it’s all good confidence.
On playing alongside Aurelien Collin:
The one thing about playing next to Aurelien (Collin) that I love is there’s no lack of communication; he’s always talking to me, he’s the best, he always takes care of me back there. He’s a real veteran so I appreciate that from him. Thank you guys.
Vancouver Whitecaps head coach Carl Robinson
On if this the game he expected from Red Bulls:
Yeah, it’s not ideal, as both coaches have spoken about in preseason preparation, but it’s the same for both teams. I think the effort, I can only talk about my team, the effort, the application, the determination that we put in, especially when we went down to 10 men for the last half an hour, was phenomenal. If you put the work in, you get the rewards. Today we got a little reward, we know there’s a lot of work to do in the game, but we’re fairly happy.
On if the road draw is like a victory:
If I’m being honest with you, and I think people who know me know I’m honest, they were actually disappointed that we conceded a goal because when you put that work in, and I wouldn’t say it was a great goal for them, it was a cross and it was a little ricochet, and obviously we know then that they’ve got an actual goalscorer in their ranks and he took his chance. We maybe dodged a bullet with the penalty, an were a little lucky there, so maybe they deserved their goal.
Again, we’ve been hit with injuries prior to this game. Obviously there’s one or two that will be missing next weekend as well. If we’re going to go through, we’re going to go through against all odds, and that’s what makes this game sweet.
On feeling good going into the home leg 1-1
Uh, no. We’re in a decent position but Red Bulls are a good team, and they can score on the road, we know that. The objective today in our play was to try and get that goal. The way we set up with our players and personnel, we wanted to attack quickly. I thought you saw it time and time again. I was actually disappointed that we only managed to score the one goal, because we got into some great situations with overloads of 3-v-2’s and 4-v-3’s and made wrong decisions, but that’s what happens with young players. You don’t criticize them, you get back to work and try and give them pictures to make other decisions and one game they’ll get it right. Today we got it right at times with the goal, but we obviously got it wrong at other times. We’ll continue to work with them because there is some exciting attacking talent out there on our side.
On injuries going into the second leg:
We’ll brush ourselves down, we’ll have a good rest, travel day tomorrow. Recovery and then travel day. It’s a long flight back, then we’ll be back in over the weekend and we’ll prepare for a tough game Thursday and a quick turnaround on Sunday. We’ll put the best team we can out with the personnel we have. Obviously there will be more young players that get the opportunity to play because we’ve got some injuries and suspensions, and we’ll try and win the game.
Vancouver captain Kendall Waston:
On getting the draw:
It’s a good result for us. It wasn’t the result that we expected. We wanted to go to Vancouver with a clean sheet but in our stadium, with our fans, I think we can win this match and hopefully we can qualify for the semi-finals.
On the importance of the away goal:
A lot because away goals value double and hopefully at home we don’t concede any goals and we have a really good match.
On getting in front of the home crowd:
It’s good cause we are in our last part of our pre-season now and our legs are still going strong and I think now in Vancouver with our fans the emotion will come back again because we love playing in front of our fans and hopefully we can win that match.
Vancouver defender Jordan Harvey
On getting the result:
It was a good result for us, I thought we came in, we got our away goal, we defended well, it was unfortunate with the red card. I’m excited about the home leg and playing in front of our home fans. It’ll be our home opener in the CCL. We have to come into that game like we did today and hopefully get a goal.
On how we felt physically in the first game of season:
There are times throughout a game where I make a run forward playing fullback, you get a little out of breath, but we put in a lot of work this preseason and we had three good games in Portland for that tournament and I thought it prepared us very well for this; especially when we go down a man and we defended as we did, I feel great about it.
On David Ousted and saving a PK:
I don’t just think it’s just Red Bull Arena. He’s been great with penalties since he’s come into the Whitecaps; I don’t know what he was prior to that? Last game I believe it was Wright-Phillips, this game it was Kljestan. I don’t think it’s a phsyche thing, he just reads the game well and he obviously made a big save for us and kept us in the game.
