Houston Dynamo head coach Owen Coyle
The bottom line is the boys are working their socks off to try and prove. Have we improved since last year? Absolutely. The bottom line is, the boys are investing in everything, trying to win games for the fans, win games for the club. That's what they’re trying to do. And what we want to do now is finish those last three games strongly. I think they are ready to play. There will be times for whatever reason not if your getting your best players available and it can be difficult without over-analyzing.
On Barnes getting back in the goals column
I think today there were so many positives in so many aspects of the team. The performance of Giles, and Will Bruin. The two of them led the lane. He wouldn't of had to score to see their contribution. It's always nice when Giles gets a goal. Offensively I thought we looked so pleasing in the eye. Scored great goals, could've added two. All in all it's a great night. So moving on we know we got a game next week, we'll look to rest and recover a we did from Wednesday for this game. And ready to go to Dallas and look to give a big performance.
Houston Dynamo midfielder Giles Barnes
This is the second time the team has won two in a row all season. How does it feel different right now with this team as opposed to another time in the season where it hasn't gone as well?
We're whole. We're at full capacity right now. It's important to have your main pieces playing consistently. When you can have a rock solid base, you always got a good ground to work on. And we're confident when we got our team healthy we can beat anyone in the league. And we've shown that all season- LAs, Portlands, Seattles, et cetera, and we've shown again, Vancouver who is at the top of the table who came here we beat them, We're so confident in ourselves that when we're healthy, we got everything going for us.
It was good to get back in the goal column for you.
Yeah it was nice obviously. I played slightly deeper this year as well, but it's not about me. It's about the team getting results. I want my team to do well, and that's the main thing. Wherever he wants to play me, that doesn't matter. If I score, as long as I'm contributing in some sort of way, and we're going in the right direction it doesn't matter to me.
Houston Dynamo forward Will Bruin
Thoughts on the game?
It was a much-needed win. At this point it's advance. It's pretty much like tournament play. Win in advance. We can't drop any points. We can't afford to drop any points. Doesn't matter how you win, as long as we get three points.
Did you see everybody more involved? Dynamo mentality today?
These last few games I feel like were prime Dynamo games. Grind it out, get three points. Doesn't have to be pretty. At times it was. But it doesn't have to be pretty, it has to be effective. Three points is good.
Houston Dynamo midfielder Ricardo Clark
Thoughts on the game?
It was a good win. Going into the game, we just wanted to do what we had to do to win, and we got the job done. Everybody fought. We let in two goals, but the team showed a lot of character to get back and bite and get the win. Everybody wanted it tonight. I think it showed, DaMarcus Beasley, what can we say?
I think we wanted to take advantage of the home game. I think it was a mentality thing. And we came out and we wanted it. Everybody did their job. A little bit of slip-up before half, but the team showed a lot of character to come back. I think for the most part it was a good performance, and we're just looking to build confidence off it.
Colorado Rapids head coach Pablo Mastroeni
First off, overall thoughts on the game?
I think anytime you concede an early goal on the road, it's going to be a tough game. I thought we fought back and got in the game a couple of times, but I think on the night overall, they were beating us for a lot of first balls, second balls and we just made too many individual mistakes on the back line—too many poor decisions defending. When you have that and you concede three goals, you're never going to win a game. I commend the effort, I commend the fight in the group to come back and make it 2-2, but I'm really disappointed with the mentality and the mindset that we had given up a goal in the first minute after the break.
Speaking of Vicente [Sanchez], how important was his presence—two goals in the first half, almost had a third one. What did he bring to the team today?
Well, he was obviously a bright spot tonight—his contribution on the scoresheet is what kept us in the game. I thought his effort was good. Defensively, I think it was one of his best performances to date for the group, so unfortunately, there wasn't enough of those performances and the result [reflected] that.
It was a tough matchup through him [Vicente Sanchez] and [DaMarcus] Beasley. How did Beasley's performance affect your plan of attack?
The focal point was to try and get him behind with Luis [Solignac] on the left side and allow Vicente to isolate 1v1 and I think he did a really good job. Again, there was some very good play in between there, the second goal in particular, some very good football. We had some good chances. I think we were impotent in front of goal and too many bad decisions on the defensive end, and those two aren't conducive to getting the result.
Finally, moving forward, what's the team's plan for the next couple of weeks? For next week?
We've got a couple of days to recover here, prepare for Salt Lake and make sure we put on a good performance. We've got the Rocky Mountain Cup at stake here, something to fight for. Make sure we come out with the right attitude and we've got a lot of work to do on the defensive end of the ball, but I was pleased with some of the forward play, so just finding ways to bring those two together and get a good performance for our fans.
Colorado Rapids midfielder Jared Watts
First off, thoughts on the game?
Yea, it's a tough one. You go down - put yourself in the hole two times. We fought back, but unfortunately we couldn't do it at the end. We had some chances, but again, I think we just kind of shot ourselves in the foot a couple of times and put ourselves in some tough situations, so it's one of those things. We've got to continue to push forward these last games and we need some points out of those. It's just one of those things, coming into a place like here in Houston, we know both of us are desperate teams—we want points. Unfortunately, we just couldn't get out of the hole there in the end. But we fought hard—I thought the effort was good from the guys - it was there. I don't think that was the issue; just a couple of bounces here and there.
What is the character of the team coming back twice to come back and tie things up, but then at the end, losing it?
Obviously going down one goal twice, I think it showed a lot of character coming back from that. It's one of those things that you don't want to be in that situation, but at the same time, these guys are not going to give up. They're going to keep fighting, we know that. We fought til the end—til that final whistle, so we were pushing for the game and going to get something out of it. I thought the effort was there.
Finally, how was Vicente [Sanchez]’s performance? Two goals - he almost had three or four. Speak about his experience and his leadership.
Anytime he gets the ball, you know he's dangerous. Isolating him and having him run up defenders is something that we want to do. And we're going continue to do that, so it's a big testament to him—keeping us in the game, getting the ball, and being dangerous. Every time he got the ball, he was dangerous, but we know we're going to get that out of him with a player of his caliber.
