SAN JOSE EARTHQUAKES HEAD COACH DOMINIC KINNEAR
On confidence gained from a win like this:
“It definitely can be a turning point and I told the guys that. That just shows you the attitude you have. Obviously things were against us at different times of the evening, but the attitude was fantastic and I said that should be our attitude every game, no matter what. So hopefully it’s a sign of good things to come. We scored some real good goals tonight, defended well. But the guys were fantastic. David [Bingham] coming out catching crosses, blocking shots, bouncing balls in the box, everybody was alert to it and they just really wanted it a lot tonight and I’m happy for them.”
On what he told his team after the game:
“See you on Monday, that’s a great win. Talk to you later. Way to go. We talked at halftime because the guys were really upset about the first red card and felt we were a little hard done by. I think we lost our focus and they got the goal. I just told them here at the half, ‘Hey, just stick together.’ We set up our formation the way it is, just gave the guys certain hints about the roles we want them to play and you just kind of hope it goes – usually when you play with 10 men you’re going to need more defending but you’re going to need that little bit of individual magic I think most of the time, or a set piece, to win you the game. And obviously Simon’s [Dawkins] play tonight was fantastic for us.”
On managing such an eventful game:
“You don’t want to get too bent out of shape about what’s going on. So you just try to keep the guys going, just keep encouraging them – 1-1, halftime, it’s like, okay, if it’s 1-1 I think we’ll be okay. Obviously when Simon [Dawkins] scores you want to get a little bit greedy and go, okay, can we win this game 2-1 with nine guys? So it was just make sure the ball turns over, you get behind the ball, you get good shape. I don’t know how it looked on the sideline with me and my demeanor, but I definitely was dying inside.”
On the team’s impressive defensive performance:
“It’s just that. The amount of possession the other team had, the amount of shifting you had to do. It was a real difficult game, and you’re playing a pretty good team, too. And even though yes they did play on Wednesday, I think the red card gives them a little more confidence and momentum going into the second half and they have that little magician that plays up top for them. He’s such a good player, so you want to try and make sure you limit his moments on the ball. It’s difficult. The second half seemed to last about six hours. Especially after Alberto [Quintero] got sent off. And you’re just willing them to win and I think the thing was, they were willing themselves to win, which was even better.”
On how Simon Dawkins’ goal lifted the team’s spirits:
“Not just the team, but the entire stadium. That was maybe the loudest I’ve heard this place. And I think it really made the fans go from being mad to being really hopeful. You could feel the sense of the stadium and everybody just the attitude change by Simon’s goal. He’s scored two goals for us this year and both of them have been fantastic, so I hope that continues for him and for us.”
SAN JOSE EARTHQUAKES MIDFIELDER SIMON DAWKINS
On winning the match with only nine men:
“I think it was just our hard work and our teamwork. The season hasn’t gone our way in terms of luck and some results have gone against us. Today, you could see [this match] meant a lot to us. We stuck in there, even with nine men. That just shows the good players we have here and the team spirit we possess. We are really happy with the win.”
On the game winning goal:
“Cordell [Cato] played the ball to me and I thought we weren’t going to get many more chances, down two men. I felt that if I could just have a go, take a shot on target you never know what could happen. Thankfully it went in.”
SAN JOSE EARTHQUAKES DEFENDER VICTOR BERNARDEZ
On team’s response after second red card:
“The team’s mentality was strong. We knew we still had a chance to win this game we had to have. We took advantage of our chances tonight. Luck was also our on side, which is something we did not get last week. We still have work to do and we need to take care of business on Friday against a tough Real Salt Lake team.”
On losing Godoy and Quintero for next match:
“It’s unfortunate, but we have depth. We have guys who we can play. You look at Matias [Perez Garcia] who has a chance to help this team once again. We are still enjoying tonight. We know it was improbable and we want to continue with good play.”
