Tough One

The last-second goal is always a tough one to swallow, but it's now halftime of the 180-minute game. Watch next Saturday on HDNet or Metro Sports at 6:30 p.m. CT live from Columbus. Absolutely great goal from Davy.

KANSAS CITY WIZARDS HEAD COACH CURT ONALFO
On the game
“It was a hard-fought game. We said from the beginning this series is just a 180-minute game. Right now after 90 minutes, it’s even. I’m disappointed because I felt we should have walked out of here with a win and a one-goal advantage, but we didn’t. Nobody ever said this stuff is going to be easy. We know we have a difficult challenge going into their place where they’ve been very, very good. Having said that, I believe in these guys in this locker room. We’ve been through worse than this and we’ll find a way to rebound from this.”

On the team’s mentality after the game
“In some ways this does (feel like a loss) but we don’t have time to worry about that. What we’re doing is focusing all of our energy on getting ready for Saturday’s game. We’ve got to regroup, get it out of our system and move on.”

On the fans at sold-out CommunityAmerica Ballpark
“Our crowd was unbelievable tonight. They were loud the entire match and helped push our guys. We all want to thank Kansas City for coming out and getting behind our playoff run.”

KANSAS CITY WIZARDS GOALKEEPER KEVIN HARTMAN
On the second leg of the series next Saturday
“We’re definitely excited to go there and play. We did enough offensively the last time we were there to get a win. Unfortunately we had some defensive mistakes and they were able to capitalize on it. They’re a very, very good team. We just want to get a win. They had the better of us in the series this year, and we’re looking forward to having the opportunity to play well, and satisfy not only ourselves but our fans as well and try to move on to the next round.”

KANSAS CITY WIZARDS MIDFIELDER JACK JEWSBURY
On the game
“For the most part we played good soccer tonight, it was just a matter of closing the game out. We knew coming in the series was going to be 180 minutes long. We’re done with half of it and we’ve tied and now we know what we have to do going on the road to Columbus. We’ve got to go in there trying to win to advance to the next round and that’s what we’re going to do.”

KANSAS CITY WIZARDS MIDFIELDER DAVY ARNAUD
On the game
“I thought the goal was going to hold up. The guys worked really hard, and we put ourselves in a great position to get a win. What happened to Herculez wasn’t his fault. If you’re playing hard sometimes things like that are going to happen. I thought we continued to battle hard and had an unlucky break at the end. Having said that, we’re all square. We obviously wanted to win at home, but we didn’t lose any ground so we’re going into next weekend even and with everything to play for.”

On his goal
“I played it to Claudio, and I just wanted to get myself in the box and get another body in there since he had pulled wide. I just made a run and Claudio played a great ball. I just had to get my head on it somewhere on target.”

KANSAS CITY WIZARDS MIDFIELDER HERCULEZ GOMEZ
On his red card
“I put my team in a bad position. I put the referee in a position where he had to make a tough call and unfortunately it didn’t go our way. I’m just extremely disappointed in myself for the position that I put my team in.”

COLUMBUS CREW HEAD COACH SIGI SCHMID
On his decision to sub in Steven Lenhart
“At that point we were playing a man up and we wanted to bring in another forward and Steve’s a big guy. We figured he could get in the box and get on the end of some crosses. The team sometimes calls him ‘magnet’ because the ball just seems to find him.”

On the game
“We believed we were going to get the equalizer. Their goal was a very good goal. It was a great cross by Lopez and a great header by Davy Arnaud. But I thought we had a little more of the game and we were creating some chances, but we weren’t putting the final touches on it. I think the next game, at home on a bigger field, I think that will make it a little better for us.”

On getting the game-tying goal
“It’s obviously important. I know Houston did the same thing today in New York. It’s been a while since our club has been in the playoffs, so there’s always a little bit of apprehension and tentativeness. I think to get the first game under our belt knowing we didn’t play our best game and being able to come out on equal footing at the end of the day, I think that was very important for our team.”

COLUMBUS CREW DEFENDER FRANKIE HEJDUK
On the game
“Our team battled back. It was a typical playoff game. Both teams were battling back and forth. The field conditions made it a little different because the game is a lot tighter. We knew that both teams were going to get a lot of chances. I thought we did what we needed to do in the first half, I thought we dominated and we had a couple of chances. In the second half, they came out with a lot of energy and brought the game to us. Obviously the red card killed them. That made it a whole different game. We had a never say die attitude but that’s not a shock. We’ve been doing it all year and we knew we were going to come back.”

· Kansas City is now 12-14-5 all-time in MLS playoff games.
· The Wizards have scored 44 goals and allowed 44 goals in post-season play.
· Kansas City is now 11-3-2 all-time at home in the playoffs.
· The Wizards are undefeated in their last three opening-round playoff series.
· Kansas City defeated Chivas USA last season, San Jose Earthquakes in 2004 and the Colorado Rapids in 2003.
· Los Angeles dealt Kansas City its last lost in an opening round series in 2002, while goalkeeper Kevin Hartman was playing for LA.
· Saturday was the first-ever meeting between Kansas City and Columbus in post-season play.
· The Wizards have now played post-season games against 10 different teams.
· The only MLS clubs Kansas City has not faced in the playoffs are:
o Toronto FC
o Real Salt Lake
o Red Bull New York
o New England Revolution
· Kansas City also faced the now-defunct Miami Fusion (2001).
· The Wizards are now 0-2-2 against the Crew this season, including three regular-season games.
· Decisive Game 2 comes next Saturday at 6:30 p.m. CT at Columbus Crew Stadium on HDNet, Metro Sports (English) and Time Warner Cable Channel 5 (Spanish).
· Midfielder Davy Arnaud scored his 4th career post-season goal, good for 3rd on the Wizards all-time list.
· Arnaud also scored last season as the Wizards upset top-seeded Chivas USA 1-0 on aggregate over two games.
· Arnaud won the team’s 2008 Golden Boot award after leading the team with seven goals on the year.
· This is the first season Arnaud has led the Wizards in goals since joining the team in 2002 out of West Texas A&M.
· Arnaud now has on goal in each of his last three games, including scores against the San Jose Earthquakes and New England Revolution.
· Arnaud was inducted to the West Texas A&M Hall of Fame last month.
· Argentine striker Claudio Lopez assisted on Arnaud’s goal for his first-career postseason assist.
· Lopez now has three goals and four assists in his last three games for KC.
· He was voted MLS Player of the Week after a one-goal, two-assist performance in week 30 against San Jose.
· Goalkeeper Kevin Hartman made three saves on the night to extend his MLS postseason record to 154 career saves.
· Hartman also leads in postseason wins (22) and shutouts (14).
· He surpassed former LA Galaxy Cobi Jones for career post-season minutes played. Hartman ended the night with 3,952 career playoff minutes.
· He will become the first MLS player to reach 4,000 career playoff minutes next Saturday at Columbus.
· Hartman also moved into a tie with Jones for the all-time lead in games started (43).
· If the Wizards reach the Eastern Conference Final and Hartman plays in both games, he would tie Jones for the all-time lead in games played.