Steve Nicol Quotations

We're away the whole of July and home the whole of August. That's not what anybody wants. You're hoping for a balanced season. The way it is structured doesn't help us any.

I don't expect anything else. The way they play, they are flinging bodies forward. When you do that, you leave holes behind you, and we hope to exploit that. Everyone wants to go on the road and win, but we wouldn't be too disappointed with a draw, either.

If we take the lead, they have to come out and it opens the game up.

He has a track record as a full international and comes from one of the top college programs in the country.

He was in and out at Los Angeles which is going to affect your confidence with the team. He's realizing what he's capable of.

I think it's been a steady focus. So far this year we've done it, and we need to continue to do it. It's good to hear the guys think that way; that's where they want to go.

I think the fact that we were forcing the game and we were away from home in Kansas City, who is undefeated, kind of tells you that the backbone of team. We did make changes, we were forced into a couple of changes, but it never knocked us off our straight, we kept pushing forward. But we just never got that break in the penalty box when we needed it. It's just not running for us in the penalty box at the moment.

It is great that we are able to play Pepe, even though we lose Danny. They play the game slightly differently. Pepe gives us good possession and he will calm things down.

I think we deserve it. We have had some good results at home and away from home. Tonight we should have won, even though we were two down but we felt we could get something. We said at halftime that 30 of the 45 minutes we played some decent stuff and felt we were in charge. There was just a period of eight to 10 minutes where we lost it and they got both their goals. It took a couple minutes after giving up the second one before we got back in it.

I think, as normal, it was a battle royal out there between us and D.C., because it always is. I think the truth of the matter is that we were fortunate to get the win. As far as the football we played we can play far better than we showed tonight. But, as usual, we showed that as far as guts and courage and passion, we have it in abundance. That's what won us the game.

Well we can't play 3-5-2 all the time. It is far too much for the two-way players. We have to get box to box which is not easy to do coming off a game down in Dallas. It was fairly straightforward. There wasn't much that we had to think about.

We need to work on keeping the ball more. Physically we are in good shape, and three more weeks will only improve that further.

We aren't getting penalties for whatever reason. I thought it was a penalty myself.

Whether it's a wonder goal, whether it's a deflected goal, whether it's an own goal -- we just need to get a break.

We are not going to change what we have done all season. The players we have naturally go forward, and to go against what they do naturally, to knock that out of them, would cause problems. We will keep it tight at the back, but if we have a chance to go forward, we will do that.

We had the chances to win the tie over the two games. In particular, we should have hit the net in Bermuda and that is what cost us in the second leg. Over the two legs I think we showed we were better than them without having our strongest side out there.

The worst thing that can happen is for us to be out of the tie by the end of the first game. We need to get the result we are out to achieve and so we need to start by giving nothing away and then working our way into the game and getting forward. We want to keep as good a shape as we can at all times so we have to be talking and passing people on. We don't want players running all over the place, we want to stay with men. If we do that we'll be all right.

I've seen him better. He didn't exactly have his party hat on.

Defensively we just had a day where we were no good. We've defended well all season. These things happen at certain stages.

There was nobody around him. It was just one of those things.

There's a player that we like who we think could come available.

It stinks to go on the road. Hopefully, we'll be able to relax and play.

It's not the worst, it's not the best. We're pleased with a lot of things we've done, but there are obviously certain things we're not carried away with.

It's not the worst, it's not the best. We're pleased with a lot of things we have done, there are obviously things we are not particularly carried away with, but it's early on. We feel as though we have shown teams already that, if they are going to beat us or take points of us, they're going to have to be at their best. We know where we are and where we have to improve.

It was a bad goal on Matt's part. But for 26 games he's been outstanding. We'll put this behind us and move on.

They are going to have to be in a position to defend. If we can counterattack quickly it's going to give us more chance to play.

(The national team players) are exactly where we thought they would be. They've had good training time behind them, and have given everyone else a boost.

At this stage of the season we are not physically strong enough to play with three at the back. With three guys it's pretty demanding.

In the first half, we were second best on everything. In the second half, we wanted to make sure we at least would stand in the corner and make it hard for them. And that's what happens when you don't give up.

I certainly hope it gave him a shake and made him realize what's important. He's come back and he's looked as though that's exactly what he's done. He's taken it on board for what it was and he's back to what he was.

I don't see anybody close to him. To anchor the defense as a rookie, play every minute of every game, and play with consistency, there should be no debate about it. His ability and temperament are ideal for the position.

For the players it's fantastic that they're doing well. Hopefully, for them, they go to the World Cup. I played in one (in Mexico in 1986) and it's a great experience. For us, it's the same plan, just with different people. The personnel changes and we'll just tweak it to make it suit and to make it work.

The first thing with Clint is that he likes to play the game. He trains exactly how he plays and goes hard every day, so on Saturdays he gets the benefit. He's always trying new things, new tricks. The biggest thing is to try and point him in the right direction about when and when not to use the tools he has.

The first 45 minutes, we moved the ball as well as any team I've been with. Would we have liked to put the ball in the net, well, yes, but as far as playing the game, that's how you play the game.