KANSAS CITY WIZARDS 1, FC DALLAS 1
KANSAS CITY WIZARDS HEAD COACH BOB GANSLER
On the game:
"I was satisfied with the second half and with the way we addressed the game, the tempo with which we played, and the commitment with which we played. The first half we played into New York's hands by playing slowly, and having things develop too methodically. Then New York goes long and you have 80 yards to go and you have to put too many passes together. We need to play two halves like the second one and we will be OK. I trust it is a sign of better things to come but we will have to wait till next Saturday to see it."
On the play of rookie Lance Watson:
"Lance is even more so of a wide midfielder than Matt [Groenwald] is really, we just pushed him back another 10 yards and he held his own, whether he was playing against Henderson or their two tall trees. He is a strong individual and has good balance but what he gave us was more confidence going forward so we turned Henderson into more of a defender. I have always said Lance is going to start in this league and he has been patient and the time has come for him to start."
KANSAS CITY WIZARDS DEFENDER NICK GARCIA
On the result:
"Frustration is definitely the key word. Even though we tied, it almost feels like a loss. So for us it's still disappointing. We wanted and needed three points. I guess we need to take our point here with the tie and move on. We have more games to concentrate on. I think our second half was better than our first half I thought at times we were lackadaisical. I thought at times we were a little slow on how we played and read the game but I think everybody picked it up and regardless of the penalty kick we would have had another opportunity for a good chance on goal. But we will take what we can get right now."
NEW YORK RED BULLS HEAD COACH MO JOHNSTON
On the game:
"What I can fault is some instances when we let ourselves down. Obviously Jeff (Parke) lost it in the lights, my guy said that it wasn't a penalty but wasn't him I see. It had gone away from the goal. It was no point; it looks as though it was running through his legs. I am a little bit angry that he didn't go and challenge it initially, but again, he lost it in the lights."
"The second balls are always going to give you trouble. Mark (Lisi) has been struggling a little bit with that and he has been struggling from a groin injury we are going to take care of that this week. Obviously Danny (O'Rourke) tucking in allowed us to win some second balls and get some clear-cut chances. We needed one in the first half when we should have scored."
"Obviously, coming off a corner kick, he headed it back to Steve Jolley and Chris Henderson in a good play right there. At that angle it was a very good goal."
Thoughts on being back in Kansas City:
"That doesn't mean anything to me. I am not a sentimental person and I won a championship here in 2000 and I haven't looked at the championship medal in a very long time. Coming here and coaching doesn't really matter. I wanted three points tonight and we came up short and I am sick of getting ties."
NEW YORK RED BULLS GOALKEEPER TONY MEOLA
On the game:
"It was a tough tie, not a good way to tie for us. A little bit unjust, we had a lot of chances. We could have been up two nothing at half and Youri goes in a breakaway and nine out of 10 times he is going to bury it and tonight it didn't go in. But we were resilient enough to get a goal and then the penalty kick, I just missed her."
On the penalty kick:
"I did think it was outside the box, but it's hard to tell from my position. The one thing I can tell you is that where the ball went in the corner, there is a lot of work to be done to score a goal from that position. I think they will take a serious look at that."
On playing in Kansas City:
"Now we can finally wrap this chapter up and I'll still never be out of here because I have the business here and I will keep that, 'cause that is going great. Kansas City is a great place for me and came at a great time in my life a lot of great things and met a lot of great people. I am so happy with Red Bull and I think that the future for me is someplace in the organization."
On his big plays in the game:
"Pretty much from my curve, I have always taken a pretty good stance with breakaways and the one Davy Arnaud in the first half and Sealy I had a feeling that he was going to dribble me. I was going down and I was able to make it on the second hop over. Not my favorite play to make, but it came at a pretty good time for us."
On the team's penchant for earning ties:
"The positive is that we have lost two games of nine, I would have taken that at the beginning of the season. The negative here is we have given points away in the end and hopefully we can fix that. I think tonight was a little bit unjust but that's how that game of soccer goes."
NEW YORK RED BULLS DEFENDER STEVE JOLLEY
On the tie:
"It's almost becoming like a punch line, you tie six of nine games. The only positive I can see from it is that you used to be content with a tie on the road, and then you win the home games. Our problem is that we are not winning the home games. There were times when we played good soccer and created our chances but in the second half they came to us and it was the same thing that happened to us against Dallas. Dallas came up to us with a little more defensive fire that day and got the victory against us."
