USA-CZECH REPUBLIC: Coaches' Quotes

12 June 2006

Bruce ARENA (USA)

It was certainly a very poor start to the game, down a goal in the first five minutes of the game against a team like the Czech Republic, which actually defends very well and at that point were very comfortable in sitting back and absorbing any kind of pressure and countering us.
I'm very disappointed in our start. I'm very disappointed in the performance of a number of our players over 90 minutes. The better team won today. Give them credit. They punished us for every mistake we made. At 1-0 we had a chance, Claudio (Reyna) hits the post, they come back and get an absolutely great goal by (Tomas) Rosicky.
In the first half I though we played OK, but we go down two goals and we're chasing the game and to chase the game against a team of that quality is very difficult. Karel BRUCKNER (CZE)
(The injury to Jan Koller) was the only negative thing from this match, and unfortunately his injury is quite serious. He had to be replaced. He did a great job today, and we also lost (Vladimir) Smicer and (Milan) Baros, so we have to deal with these issues.
I'm very proud of all my players and I would like to thank them very much. They were very disciplined, they were quite good in the defensive phase and especially in these, let’s say, not very easy climatic conditions.
(The injury to Koller) makes me really sad because the injury is really serious. As I’m sure you know, Koller was eager to get back in the start list and this was really tough luck. Football today is about solving situations that are extraordinary and these situations are solved by extraordinary players.
It's a nice feeling to have won the first match, however we're can't feel too satisfied because there are two tough matches ahead of us.