Orlando City Head Coach James O’Connor
On Chris Mueller’s impact as a late substitute
“The big thing for us, we sat down with Chris and just said, ‘listen you’re not going to start this one.’ I said, ‘listen, you’re really unlucky.’ But we just felt that there was potential for Chris to be able to come off the bench and impact the game like he has. And when you have a weapon like that and you look at the way the game may go or may not go, the big decision for us is do we start him? The easy thing for us to do is start Chris tonight. Everyone would have expected [that], including him, to start the game. But when we looked at it we thought we had to be brave and we needed to maybe follow what our gut instinct was and bring him off the bench. Now when he goes and he does something like that, it’s incredible. I would say this is probably the proudest moment I’ve had since I’ve been here. Not just because of the way the players have come back, but you look at the supporters. We’ve got a rain delay, we’ve got lightning and you look around and it feels like all of Orlando is in the stadium. It’s incredible. This is a very special football club and for us to be able to go and win a game like that, we’re obviously very, very pleased. I’m exceptionally proud of Chris because when you look at Chris, the easy thing for him to do is sulk and think ‘I’m not going to buy into that, I want to start the game.’ But he didn’t. He was on board with what we had spoken about and then he’s impacted the game again in a really, really positive way.”
On Nani’s response from last week and play in the game
“Again, I think when you look at Nani, he’s a world-class player. We’re blessed to have somebody like that. I think it shows you his professionalism and his mentality to have a reaction like that. He’s got a phenomenal leap first half, scored a great header, and then the composure at the penalty. He was cool as a cucumber and just slid it into the corner. So I think when you look at his play and his experience and the way he’s trying to help the players it’s, as we’ve always said, very, very encouraging. It’s not just technical aspect it’s the leadership that he shows as well.”
Orlando City Midfielder Luis Nani
On how he’s feeling after his first goals of the season
“It’s always good to score the goals for the team. All of it will help, but obviously not the most important. We wanted to win for our fans. What they’ve been doing all the weeks was fantastic. I never saw that in my life. I’ve played for many teams, and when things are not going well, everyone knows how the fans normally react. These fans, they are special. So I wanted so badly to win, to help the team win. But, we are very happy because we did. It was a great game, a fantastic game for our team, so we must continue to work hard and believe in each other because there’s a lot of good things coming for us.”
On his emotional response after first goal
“Because I love football. When I play, I always play with heart. I wanted to score. I wanted to give something to these fans. They’ve been supporting and receiving me very well. All my teammates deserve my help, so I wanted to help, so I scored. I was feeling very emotional. I’m so happy to help my team.”
On his recent work on finishing as compared to the D.C. United game last week
“I always work hard. Sometimes too much. But, yes, it’s important to work on what you work on during the week, We work a lot on finishing. Tonight was fantastic because we got so many opportunities and most of them were inside the goal. I think coach and all the team was happy because when you produce it on the pitch, it’s fantastic.”
Orlando City Forward Chris Mueller
On the crowd chanting his name and his relationship with the fans
“It means a lot. There was a lot of mixed emotions going on in my head, but I was just trying to focus for when if I got my chance to go into the game that I could just make an impact. It’s been amazing, the fans were amazing being there holding out for those two rain delays. My hat goes off to them. The team did outstanding to lift the energy and come back and not put our heads down, we showed a lot of character and fought through a lot of adversity in that second half and I’m really proud of everybody.”
On the difficulty of his role coming off the bench
“I think the crowd lifts it up in general. I think that coming in, you already have a lot of energy right up. A lot of the guys out on the pitch are already tired and fatigued from playing however many minutes until you come into the game, so you have that little bit of an advantage to just go and give everything you’ve got and put it all into the game and that’s what I try to do when I get in.”
On his reaction to not being a starter
“Honestly it is tough because everybody wants to play, everybody’s competing for a spot. I want to play as much as anybody else but I also want to help the team in anyway that I can so when James [O’Connor] told me that, rather than getting negative I tried to stay positive and take my opportunity as it came. If I got a chance to play, I just wanted to make an impact and help the team get the three points.”
Colorado Rapids Head Coach Anthony Hudson
General thoughts on the 90 minutes
“Overall the players could not have given any more than they gave. I thought we were probably the better team. I thought we scored the best goals in the game. We gave away some bad goals and I think once again we come away from a game, we’re little old Colorado. At 3-2, if we do what Nani does to us, I’m stood here asking questions why we can’t keep our discipline and we are down to 10 men. And it seems to be every week and it seems to be where it’s easy for them to, you know for that to happen against us. My guarantee is you’d be asking me about our discipline if we do what Nani does, we’d be 10 men. So we’re 3-2, they should be down to 10 men, and we can’t ask anymore of the players. They played well, they scored three great goals, very proud of them. Bad goals we’ve conceded.”
On staying aggressive for the whole game
“Well we have to not give away soft goals like we did. We give really, not good mistakes and, where we’ve had to work for our goals and put together really good passages of play and make some great football...All the goals were really good football; Kei’s [Kamara] goal, Cole’s [Bassett] goal, there some of the runs, and movement, and passing, the cross from Cole, Niko’s header, the goals were brilliant. We have to work for it. But then we make mistakes and individual errors and we gift teams goals. And then, once again, I have to talk about it because it happens every game. If we do what Nani does tonight, we’re still here with 10 men. It’s a fact, that’s the fact, the bottom line.”
Colorado Rapids Midfielder Cole Bassett
On the 90 minutes
“A lot better football from us today. I had a rough first half personally but the second half I tried to step it up a bit, but the team played a lot better offensively and scoring three goals on the road is definitely an improvement from where we came from. But at the end of the day we can’t be giving up four goals when we’ve scored three away so we need to get a result. When we score three goals away on the road, we should be getting at least a draw or should be getting a win.”
On putting together a complete 90-minute performance
“It’s gotta be more organizing defensively because it’s not just one key. You can’t blame it on one person, you can’t blame it on just the defense, it’s a whole team effort. The guys from the back got a lead and organized and as a midfield we gotta get tight to the ball before it’s an issue, it’s everybody. You can’t just say it’s the defense letting up four goals today. It’s a whole team effort, so, we, as a team, on the last goal we gotta get pressure to the ball. I have to track my runner. We have to clear a ball and it’s a whole team thing, so on the road next time, or at home versus Seattle, we gotta be stingy defensively and we gotta try to get a shutout.”
Colorado Rapids Midfielder Nicolas Mezquida
On getting the most out of the next two games
“The good thing we get from this game is the three goals and how well we played. We played very well, we moved side to side, and we created chances from that, so that is a positive from this game. For now it’s coming to them at home and okay, we have to switch the play.”
On finding open spaces and creating opportunities during the game
“I feel that we played very well both times. In the first half we started better than them with the ball, and moving and creating chances. We started the game 1-0. Like I said before, we made one mistake and let Orlando make a goal. Of course it hurt but we came to the locker room and we knew we could come back to the game and we did. We made a mistake in the back and we got it back from Orlando. It’s hard, but we have to keep going because as I said before, there are things we take from this game, we play very well, and we got three goals away. It's hard to get it. We scored three times and we can’t lose the game next time. I hope it doesn’t happen any more.”
