Colin Clarke Quotations

We are aiming to win the league and cup this season, and also return to Europe.

We're still looking at all decisions this week. Obviously, we have Carlos (Ruiz) missing. We have got to decide what's the best way for us to go. So, we haven't decided on a lineup yet.

We've got good flexibility in our midfield and with our forwards. He's played there last year and this year, so you know, we'll see how it goes.

(Mina) was bright, lively and strong. Helped people out, created chances. I thought he did very well.

Me and him talked, and we decided it was best that he took the time off to sort out what he needed to sort out.

Obviously, his size is an advantage. He's got good feet for a big man. He played up front in his early days, so he's got good feet and is good on the ball. He needs to keep improving as he is certainly being pushed from behind by some of the young kids. It's good to have that competition as well.

On the road, 0-0, clean sheet with a chance to take it back home, we'll take it. It wasn't one of our better nights. We couldn't pass the ball very well. ... But we're probably happier with the result than they are.

From the end of last season I had spoken with Carlos of my desire, and that of the organization, of being able to count on his services. We knew that everything would depend on the negotiations and the financial deal. I have to again reiterate my satisfaction at having him for two more years.

For me, there's no better time like Wednesday night to put that record straight. We've met a lot of challenges this year as a team, and this is another one. I firmly believe that we'll get a result on Wednesday night.

He is a good player. We've seen him grow, we knew of his career and we're sure of his ability. We had to give him the opportunity to play in our team. He is one of the best players in the north of Texas. Now that he's already returned, we know that we've acquired greater experience and we're going to see it in action. He'll be able to help us in our cause.

He ended up playing 90 minutes last week when we didn't really want him to because we are trying to ease him back. It's an injury in a place that he is going to get a lot of contact so we have to take it slowly.

He made a couple of big saves, one in the first half off a header. He did well - came off his line, read situations and tidied things up. He was solid, a good first game.

He made a couple of big saves, one in the first half off a header, ... He did well - came off his line, read situations and tidied things up. He was solid, a good first game.

We've got to make sensible choices about what's best for the team, and we've got to be sure we're 100 percent right at the important times.

He's a great player and now that he's scoring goals, he's full of confidence so I'm absolutely delighted for him. There is always healthy competition for spots in the team and we have a couple missing at the minute and he's having to do the workload and he's doing a great job. He was fantastic tonight.

He's done very, very well. He started last year for the most part and has remained the starter this year. He needs to keep improving, getting better day in and day out and becoming a big, strong, hard, nasty defender.

I though Drew Moor was excellent. I thought he was magnificent today, against probably one of the -- apart from our own -- best front threes in the league.

I thought they did well. The second half we were better, we moved it quicker. Kenny (Cooper) got his goal, they worked hard. I just didn't think our passing in general was for the whole team as sharp as it needed to be in the first 45 minutes.

I thought the boys were magnificent, ... They come to compete, they come to play from the first whistle. . . . We're a good league, a strong league with a lot of good players.

I thought that Carlos was great after he came on and could have had two or three goals.

I think we'll strike gold with more than one of them. We got some very good players. We're very happy. We come in with a list of players that we had targeted, and we got them all. We're absolutely delighted with that. Now it's time for the work to begin.

I think that was an edge that we've missed, and missed a lot more than people think.

Just having a look at some different options. Steve played out there (at right back) in L.A. and did a good job and he did a good job tonight. I thought Bobby was great in front of him, he could have scored another two or three he got forward well. It's a more solid look, just to have a look at it going into the playoffs and just open our options up.

Last year at times our defending let us down, not only the back four but as a team. We've got another year of experience under our belt for some of them and that's good. They've just got to take the next step.

Mark played very, very well. He came in and got his goal. I was very pleased for him. He was here last year and played towards the end of the year. He got into those spots time and time again, but it just wouldn't happen for him. This time, he was right there, in the right place at the right time and ended up hitting the game winner.

I think it will be great. It has always been a great rivalry. But now, it's a whole new dimension. This takes it to a whole different level.

I thought he made some questionable decisions. I didn't think Szetela's (foul) was a red card. Frankie's was. Frankie reacted to what happened. Szetela's was unlucky.

I thought Mark Wilson did very well tonight. He worked very hard in midfield and it's nice to get the first one -- he didn't know much about it -- but he was in a great spot in there closing him down. I'm very, very pleased for him.

We really need to go out and beat Colorado on Saturday. They're still right at our heels, so it's important to get the win in that respect, but it also important to keep winning and keep the confidence high, especially at home going into the playoffs. I thought that we thoroughly deserved the game and I would have been disappointed if we didn't come out with a win.

We have some tough decisions to make this week. But I think we're in a good spot that we have those tough decisions to make and it will stand as a good position to be in throughout the season.

We had a lot of good opportunities we didn't take advantage of, and Walker comes up with a great save to keep it at 1-0.

We could have kept both of them, but it would have been very, very difficult -- nigh on impossible. We would have had to make some other major moves and changes to our roster to make that happen.

We need to stick together and hang tough. It's not a good situation that we're going through, but we're only going to come out of it together. We just have to keep believing that it's going to happen.

We have a very, very deep squad the whole way through. You never have enough depth as far as I'm concerned it just makes for a lot of tough decisions.

We'll know more tomorrow. But it doesn't appear to be anything too serious ... nothing that's going to keep him out four or five weeks.

Yeah, he has played well. He has a bit of a groin strain, but he went through 45 minutes (Saturday against Houston) and I thought he showed some nice touches and combined well with the group, so he's doing well.

We definitely deserved to get something from the game. We played well enough, even with 10 men, to get something from the game. But our own errors cost us two goals in the first half,

We want to look at the young players as quickly as possible because we have to be roster compliant by March 1.

You have heard about what was going on with San Jose and L.A.. Now it is our turn. A hotbed of soccer will be here as well.

When you do that, you make their defenders have to make different decisions and adjust to what you're doing.

We've got to be careful that he doesn't hit a wall further down the line.

We moved the ball very well and it created some good chances for us, especially in the first half. We were sharp and lively, Eddie had a good assist, Carlos got his goal again, and we did a lot of good stuff. We had two good chances from inside 12 yards in the first half, and if one of those goes in, we're one up and it's a different story.

First half we dominated the game. We had a couple chances (and) the first goal we knew was going to be important. We dragged ourselves back twice from behind; we showed a lot of character. ... We played 120 hard minutes on Wednesday night and I think it took its toll on us toward the end. We couldn't get close enough to them at times and we gave up a few chances.

We were tied to the salary cap. We had to make a move; it was one of our options, and that's the option we chose.

What best players? ... Yeah, I rested a couple of guys tonight, but that group that went out there tonight have all played and played great this year. I'm not taking anything away from that group that played tonight. They were magnificent.

We just could not get into gear even after we scored despite having most of the possession.

We missed his energy and his life through the middle of the park.

We're very excited and happy to be able to add a player with Scott's experience, ability and leadership,

We're very excited about it. Young kid, a lot of talent, heard a lot of great things about him. It will be interesting to see how he does with us.

Very very good performance, very solid. I thought that defensively we were sound all night and never really gave them a sniff, created a couple of great chances going forward,

Very pleased for him -- he had a very good season. I think all the awards were very well deserved.

You don't just go from being injured to being back in form. It takes time.

We are on a good run. We are unbeaten in four games now. We had a tough run in the middle of the season that was well documented, but we've turned it around, and the boys are getting very excited about the games we've got ahead.

At the start of the year, we set our goals, and this is very high on the list. Obviously MLS Cup is the No. 1 goal. We put the Lamar Hunt (U.S.) Open Cup second to that.

At the start of the year, we set our goals, and this is very high on the list, ... Obviously MLS Cup is the No. 1 goal. We put the Lamar Hunt (U.S.) Open Cup second to that.

There's so much more to his game than just scoring goals. He sees passes that other people don't see. He holds the ball. He attracts a lot of attention.

There's going to be a lot of tough decisions. We've talked about the fact that we have a good squad of players; it's pretty deep and that leads to a lot of tough decisions week in and week out.

It was an end-to-end game with plenty of chances. The humidity probably had a little impact on everybody -- the first time everyone has played in that kind of weather.

The spirit has always been pretty good. We always had belief, we just weren't getting any results because of some little things, ... There wasn't any one reason that things weren't going right so we knew that once we got the first result that things would lift off. This is our home, our home field and it took a while to give it ourselves a home-field advantage, but we're starting to do that.

Ronnie started in the middle but he has freedom to roam. With Ramon playing outside of him, and with Ramon being comfortable outside or inside, it's good that they can switch and that again gives us good flexibility.

Defensively we were pretty solid. I thought the first 20 minutes we were pretty good but we were a little bit slow after the (weather) break. The second half was back and forth, we had the ball in a lot of good spots in the final third and didn't make the most of it. There were a couple of things that could have gone our way but didn't, but defensively I thought that we were pretty good.

They had three in the back so we pushed three up front. They had to make some difficult decisions and adjust to what we were doing. I wouldn't say that it had a direct effect on the goal but (Cooper) was on the field at the right time.

It's just not a position you're going to learn in three, or even six, months.

It means that any loss of data on conversion is not as critical as it would otherwise be.

It's very disappointing. We were decent defensively, we had some great opportunities going forward that just didn't go in and at the other end we gave up a bad goal. It's getting to the point where we need to put things right.

It's obviously a huge loss to be without your starting 'keeper, and it looks like he'll probably be out for six weeks minimum. That pretty much takes us to the end of the regular season so we just have to re-evaluate our situation and decide whether or not we need to add someone to the roster.

It's one that we don't want to push, because we don't want it becoming a continuing problem.

It's the first game of the season, you want to get off the mark and get that first win under your belt so we're very happy to get the three points. ... We gave up two bad goals, but with that, we were able to come back twice which is good. We showed a lot of character and that is something I think is really important.

It's great for that group over there (The Inferno) because I know the Brimstone Cup means a lot to them. We keep it here against the old enemy, so to speak, and it gets us into our cup final. First time we've been in one of those for a long time, so a lot of positives. Now we've got to be sure we build on it.

It's probably the most difficult decision I've had to make in the time I've been the head coach. I'd come to this club around about the same time Eddie was drafted. He's grown up here while I've been here, and, you know, I put a lot of faith in him two years ago and he carried our team nearly all the way to the playoffs. I've seen him mature and get better as a player and win national team honors, so, yes, that was a very hard to let Eddie go.

Eddie is a valuable part of what we are trying to do here, so obviously we are going to miss him. However, we want him to get the rest that he needs in order to get healthy and we're looking forward to getting him healthy and getting him back as soon as possible.

It was a good exercise. We got the main group through 45 minutes each and that's what the goal was and I'm happy that everybody came out unscathed.

They've started very, very well. They came off last year a little bit disappointed about the way things ended for them. I know they felt they should have got to the playoffs and probably deserved to. So, they have come out this year after it. They are a very good team and are playing well.

Any time that you get a win it's a boost, and we needed that win against Chicago, at home, there were a lot of positives. But more importantly we knew that it was important to build on that win and not let the momentum go.

The kid's playing great. He's full of confidence and he's always had the ability to do what he did tonight. He hits shots that move and dip. That's a great goal and I don't think you're going to see a better one around for a while.

I knew when the first one came it wasn't going to be easy. It was never going to be a three- or four-goal cakewalk - we knew we were going to have to earn it and survive a few moments. But I thought the boys were magnificent - unbelievable tonight.

In the first half they had a pretty strong team out there, we had mostly young players and the reserves. They edged the first half and probably deserved to be up 1-0 at halftime. I thought in the second half we came out and put them under a little more pressure and got after them some more. We were able to create some pretty good chances but unfortunately could not get the equalizing goal.

Can't complain about anybody, ... You get to the final and you're narrowly beaten. A lot of credit goes to my boys for getting here. This was a one-off, playoff style game and we had a lot of 20-year-olds out there. The main goal is the MLS Cup.

Before we installed Enterprise Vault in 2002, housekeeping in Exchange 5.5 was a nightmare. Recovering old e-mail was impossible.

I don't know if it was offside. It changed the game.

(I didn't know until) this morning. We were happy to have him back; he gave us a boost and a lift. We worked on a few different things during the week but having him was only a positive.

I'd rather go to their place with the advantage.

(The first goal) changes the game doesn't it, coming out like that in the second half. I thought that the first half was pretty even, they had the one chance where (Ricardo) Clark got through, and we had two or three opportunities that were close. We just need one of them to go to give you a lift and a boost, but that just didn't happen tonight.