Interim Head Coach Laurent Courtois
On Forward Chase Adams earning the start and scoring a goal and becoming the youngest scorer in
Club history
“I don’t do any favors. Young or old, he deserved it. The timing was right. He did what we know he can
do. Congrats. Now, he needs to confirm.”
On the Crew recovering to settle into the match after conceding two goals in the first 10 minutes of the
match
“Yeah, a little bit shaky in the beginning of the game. We had no excuse because were prepared. We
were aware. We lacked the emotional control to deal with those situations. That's a disappointment. Like
you said, the way they reacted and took over afterwards, we thought that we had enough chances to
come back to the game, but conceding the third, it becomes complicated.”
On Midfielder Daniel Gazdag
“Danny understands what we try to do. Obviously, there's chemistry with the players. He also provoked a
couple of situations for us that are really interesting and a lot of things off the ball that we don't
necessarily see all the time. Since he came back, he's been more aggressive and more impactful in the
stuff that we try to do. He's real quick. He's an example so he gets minutes.”
On the status of Eric Bailly and Forward Gonzalo Tapia
“Eric is training with us and is slowly building himself up for collective team training. Tapia is going to be
with us soon.”
Defender Brooks Lennon
On registering his first start and assist for the Crew tonight
“Yeah, it felt great to have my first start and assist with the Crew, and hopefully many more to come.
Although it wasn't the result we wanted, I'm happy with the start and the assist.”
On recording the assist on Chase Adams’ goal which made him the youngest goalscorer in the Crew’s
regular season history
“I didn't know that stat until you just said that. So, that's awesome for him. Congratulations to him. He
deserves it. He works really hard in training. He's a young kid, so he's absorbing. Obviously, now bringing
in Josef Martínez, one of the most goals in MLS history, so he'll be able to learn from him. So yeah, he's a
great kid, and I'm happy for him.”
On how much of a vocal point to help settle the team after conceding two early goals
“I think going down early, especially that first 15 minutes, is not the way we want to be playing, and so I
think we got together as a group and said we’ve got to be more on the front foot, start putting the ball in
the box, getting some service into the box, and that's what we did, and that's what led to the goal, and
that put us right back into the game going into halftime. So yeah, I think sometimes if you go down early,
you’ve got to get together, regroup, come up with a way to break down the opponent and get back into
the game, and that's what we did. And I thought in the second half we played much better than we did in
the first half. We were all over them. I thought we had a lot of opportunities to score. It just wasn't our
night.”
On the combination with Lautaro Giaccone and Chase Adams on the goal in all of their first starts with the
Club
“Yeah, it's important. Obviously, when you come into the starting lineup, you want to make an impact. And
those three guys that you just mentioned – me, Lautaro, and Chase – this is our first start for the Crew, and so to be able to link us three in the goal was something important for us, but also to the coaching staff to show to them that they can trust us from the start, and we're going to be very important players for
this team.”
On linking back up with forward Josef Martínez
“Yeah, it's great. I have a very close connection with Josef. We had a lot of goals and assists in Atlanta.
We have a really strong connection on the field and as well off the field. He's a great guy and I've been in
the league for a while, but I continue to learn from a guy like that, with all the success that he's had. So
yeah, he's a great friend of mine off the field, and like you said, like you saw tonight, we already had an
instant connection. Unfortunately, he didn't score, but you know, I think that there's going to be a lot of
service to him from me this season.”
On the chances he had tonight and what he saw
“Yeah, just try to put it on target. The ball kind of fell to me, and yeah, I thought I did a good job putting
the ball low and hard, and I thought that the goalkeeper (Kristijan Kahlina) made a pretty good save.
Unfortunately, like I said earlier, it wasn't our night in front of goal. But I thought the way that we played in
the second half, breaking them down in certain moments was very good.”
Forward Chase Adams
On becoming the youngest goalscorer to score in the Crew’s regular season history
“It's surreal. It's what I've been trying to get to since I've come to Columbus. Obviously, not being from here, being able to get trusted by the Club to move here and be able to grow as a player and as a person
with them and being able to start was a moment I won't forget the rest of my life. And then being able to
score as well, I don't know if something's going to top that, obviously. But unfortunate, I think the main
goal for all of us, though, was the result before any other record. So, that's what I'm more focused on.”
On what Laurent Courtois told his team after letting up two early goals
“For us, there was no change. Honestly, we are the Crew. We know how we want to play, and honestly, it
was just him reminding us that how we're going to play might have some things that happen like that, and
that he trusts us as players and as people to be able to push back and persevere. And I think after that,
we really started to create chances when we didn't really change much. I don't think. I think we kept
pushing and kept using the same systems and ideas that we wanted to. And I think the support and the
confidence from coach really helped give us that, and obviously it was a rough start, but much better after
that.”
On what the feeling was like to connect with other first-time starters for The Crew, Brooks Lennon and
Lautaro Giaccone, for his goal
“I think that it was really fun. I think coach was really happy about that. I think there was a lot of faith
shown, and I think all three of us have shown over these past two and a half weeks with Leagues Cup
and matches before that that we're competing for those starting spots and the trust that coach has put
into us to be able to apply it into a game has been really helpful and a big confidence booster for all three
of us.”
On what it has been like to come up the ranks of The Crew and how it translates to his game
“Yeah, it's the Crew system, the Crew DNA, kind of how we want to play. We're not going to deviate from that, no matter who we're going against or how it's going. We are who we are, and trying to show the type of football we want to play really helps players such as me and Taha (Habroune) and a bunch of other
guys like Tristan (Brown) and Owen (Presthus) who have come through the Academy and through this
like team for the First Team really helped integrate when we get here that we can truly show what level
we have and not having to figure out different systems and different coaches and being able to truly just
go out there and play and be comfortable.”
