I didn't have to step up into a leadership role, ... I just had to be there and help out where I could. But this year I had to be more of the man. |
I didn't really believe we could do it, ... I thought the season was over. We went from being a team that had absolutely no confidence and was playing as poorly as any team in the league to a team that in one game switched everything around and turned into the best team in the league. |
I don't know about the rest of the world, but I know in our region everyone is gunning to beat us. We have a new challenge. |
I don't know if we care about the result. At the end of the day it doesn't matter. It's not like we're battling to get a 0-0 draw. We're going to go play and make the game fun. |
I don't like how they treat us, how they conduct themselves with us. They intend to humiliate us and want to do that at whatever cost. But the people who will be doing the humiliating is us. We'll do that in the most painful way of being humiliated, on the field. |
I don't like their talking, |
I expected more from them. At least for the next three or four years, they'll shut up. They can't say anything. |
I got to a point where I was really pissed off that we might not qualify for the World Cup because two sides couldn't come to an agreement, ... It was kind of like a now-or-never point, so I finally just decided to call Dr. Bob [ Contiguglia , the U.S. Soccer president]. It must have been 3 in the morning. It was pretty brief and had nothing to do with numbers. It was just, 'What can we do to get us back in camp and playing? What's a compromise? And then we can talk about the other stuff later.' He was clearly on board, and he wanted this thing to happen. |
I have no regrets, and I am not sorry, ... You gotta do what you gotta do, and in that moment that's what I did. |
I hope we can do it. It would be the best possible ending to our qualifying. |
I just don't like the talking, I don't like the mannerisms, I don't like the way they treat us and the way they don't respect us, ... I want that to change and I'm going to try and be a big part of that on Saturday. |
I know that sounds weird. But that's how I feel. It's not just another game for me. I clearly, desperately want to beat them. I'll save my comments until after the game. |
I looked up and (Glen) was kind of fading away. So I just tried to put it in a good spot and he finished it. I don't know if he meant to, but he finished it. |
I love winning and any team I'm on, I expect to win. I don't think we could have said that 10 years ago. |
I think [the Mexicans] feel a lot of pressure to come at us and score and beat us. For us, we want to win the game, but we don't have to go out and attack them and impose ourselves on them. We can be patient. . . . If they get some possession and come at us, we're going to wait and then, going the other way, they'll have a lot to deal with [in the U.S. attack], so they've got to be careful. |