After a midweek 1-0 shutout versus the Philadelphia Union, the Black and Gold of Columbus Crew SC squared off against rivals Chicago Fire.
Goals from Gyasi Zardes — who scored a brace — and Federico Higuain helped secure a 3-0 win against their Eastern Conference foes.
After the match, head coach and sporting director Gregg Berhalter and several players were available after the match to the media to give their thoughts on the win.
Columbus Crew SC Post Match Quotes
Head Coach Gregg Berhalter
On the group’s confidence in getting positive results: “I think that when you lose three games in a row, your confidence goes down, as hard as you try to message the guys to keep their heads up and stay positive I think it’s easy to lose confidence. Step by step we wanted to slowly bring this group back to a place where they’re confident because they’re good players. The New England [Revolution] game was a good starting point and then as we kept going through these weeks, the group was looking confident.
On Mike Grella and his fitness: “I think the medical team has done a great job putting Mike in a position to be successful and I think when you look at him and his skill set and his work rate, he does a good job of pacing himself and giving the high intensity that we need. I think overall it was a bit of a surprise how long he went, but he’s been around the block. He knows what this is about.”
Learning more about the team and growing: “We did and when I look at what this group is made of, you think about Wednesday and us having the youngest team in club history and then tonight we had one of the oldest teams in club history, and it just shows that everyone can step up and everyone can play a part and I think tonight was a good example of veteran leadership of guys having performances help the team win a game.”
The average age of the starting lineup on Wednesday night was 24.3.
Record-setting ?
Our friends at @EliasSports impressively counted Wednesday’s #CrewSC lineup average age down to the exact day! Ave. age: 24 yrs, 109 days pic.twitter.com/sIC9tNxLgF— Columbus Crew SC (@ColumbusCrewSC) May 11, 2018
Goalkeeper Zack Steffen
On improving defensively: “We learned a lot. From failures and goals and mistakes, we learned a lot. I think our mentality has grown and can become stronger and smarter in different situations. We’re playing well. As long as we do our job and they do their job, we’ll be alright.”
Forward Gyasi Zardes
On Niko Hansen play to set up goal: “He got past the first guy and he kept running so, I was just like ‘I need to get in the box,’ just because I was hanging out a little bit and then once I saw him beat those guys and keep running, I just thought ‘Get to the box. Get to the box.'”
On team creating chances: “I love the system. I’m constantly progressing each and every single week and I’m constantly listening to the coaches. They’re masterminds and I’m just trying to become a better player.”
On Grella’s dummy to set up second goal: “Amazing. He’s such a smart player. He’s a veteran. He knows players are behind him. He saw me before I even saw him. That just shows you what type of player Mike Grella is.”
Columbus is back on the road next weekend to take on the Revolution away from home.
