Ben Olsen Quotations

Sometimes it's tough when you are already in the playoffs and there is nowhere to move up or down to maybe focus as much. I think we were guilty of that tonight.

That was a very special goal and probably one of the biggest goals I've ever scored. Whether that's my last game in a while with the national team is up in the air.

He plays very well against us every time, and he's a handful. He's one of the best forwards this league has ever seen, and he's going to do what he does. We need to not give him chances, and be aware, because he's a guy who can hang out for 30 minutes or 80 minutes, and then all of a sudden he gets that one chance and you're down 1-0. We need to focus on him the entire game.

I bet a lot of people didn't think I would be back on the national team.

It always feels good to score the first one -- even though it took me nine months to get it, ... We just screwed up on the goal we gave up. Besides that, it was good soccer. We kept playing well and today, finally, we buried a team. That's what we have been missing. Once we had the lead, the question was, could we get that third goal, could we get that fourth goal? We did it.

I'm trying to be realistic about this thing and I'm obviously a bubble player. Where I am on that bubble is up to Bruce. If people don't get healthy and he needs a guy who can play in several positions, he knows I can fill in those spots if he gets into injury trouble with the other guys.

The realization right now is that we have one cup to play for. All the others are gone, and we've had some tough losses, but they're completely behind us. It's unfortunate and fortunate. It would've been nice to have stayed in those tournaments but it has also given us the opportunity to have one goal in sight.

My girlfriend's a high school teacher and she told me it's just like a 16-year-old, ... She deals with them every day. They say things and they spout off and then they get punished and they learn lessons or they don't learn lessons. He got punished and now we move on.

Landon (Donovan) did a great job realizing they (Jamaica) were a little unorganized.

It's that time of the year when the intensity is raised. It happens every year, and I think we responded very well. We fought the battle and we also played some pretty good soccer in the meantime.