D.C. United 7, Toronto FC 1
Q. You've been with this team for a long time, you've been with this league for a long time, what do you say to that room to help them get past this result today?
MICHAEL BRADLEY: After -- after 90 minutes like that, there's nothing to say. We let ourselves down. We let our fans down and we let everybody who follows us down. Not even close to good enough. Not who we are, and I'm sorry. When you play like that, when you lose like that, words mean nothing afterwards.
So over the course of the next few days and the next few weeks, we'll have our chance to show a real reaction. But there's nothing to say that has any -- has any value after a game like that. After everybody, you look at yourself, you look at first and foremost what you can do and what you have to do to help this whole thing. Like I said, that's the main thing.
Yeah, one of my worst days at the club for sure. Like I said, we're not in a good way right now and it's nobody's fault but ours, the players. People want to look around and point fingers and say it's Chris's fault, he's not done a good enough job. Bullshit. The players, we have to look at ourselves and find more. I've not done a good enough job as captain. I've not been a good enough leader. I've not been a good enough player and people should look at that, people should look at the guys on the field. It's too easy, too convenient to look at everything -- to look at everything else. Like I said, we're going to work to put this right but obviously right now, it couldn't be a worse moment. There's no two ways about it.
Q. We asked Chris this question and he suggested we ask the players. Do you think that all your teammates left everything on the field tonight?
MICHAEL BRADLEY: Like I said, we have to look at ourselves, the guys who are on the field, and not just tonight. Obviously tonight is the latest, most recent 90 minutes, but it's not been the only 90 minutes that we've let get away from us this year.
It's frustrating, beyond frustrating. Look, there aren't any words after a game like that, honestly. I'm here because when you lose a game like that, you can't hide, especially when you are -- especially when you are captain. You can't just walk on to the bus and put your headphones on and think that it's all just going to go away. And so I accept all the responsibility that comes with every part of being captain of a club like this. The good moments, the bad moments, and the really bad moments. And so, you know, like I said, I'm not here to give -- I've got no answers right now. There's nothing I can say to anybody that's going to -- that's going to make anyone feel better, that's going to put anything right in this moment. Like I said, we'll have our chance over the next few days, the next few weeks to really respond, and that's it.
Q. I think you've said everything you need to say but I'm curious what goes through your mind when that first goal goes in 73 seconds into the game?
MICHAEL BRADLEY: Yeah, look, we're in a moment right now where everything has come together in a way where we're so unstable, and so it's just the first moment where things, you know, where things don't go how we hoped or how we expected. The first time they get into our end; the first time a ball bounces loose. Like when you -- good teams, when you start to -- when you're in a flow and when you're playing well, you know, there's confidence and there's an ease and a stability in the team which helps you navigate all different parts of the game, and right now we don't have that, at all.
Again, that hurts us because that means our ability to deal with certain situations, to deal with things that -- to deal with little advantages that the other team has, it's not what it should be, right, and so you know, we talked -- we talk a bunch of times about it, having a good start to the game, what we want that to look like.
But again, when you're in a moment like this, just because you talk about it, it doesn't -- it doesn't guarantee you anything, and then when you get on the field and now you have to deal with that, yeah, it's not too easy.
So again, the starts to games are one of a bunch of things that we've got to really look at and get right because we're killing ourselves at the beginning of games.
Q. What, if anything, gives you hope that this season is salvageable?
MICHAEL BRADLEY: Because there's still, you know, what is it, 23 games left?
Q. 23, yeah.
MICHAEL BRADLEY: You know, 69 points on the board still. So we have good players. We have a good coach. We have a group that has gone on plenty of runs over the last few years where you go, you know, five- to ten games with -- and pick up a lot of points. We can't even think about that right now. We've got to take things one game at a time and stabilize ourselves and get ourselves, you know, back going in a good way and take things one game at a time and you let that -- you try to let things build from there.
I don't need to tell you the history of the league and the number of teams that have been able to -- in second halves of seasons or in the last 20 games of seasons have been able to go on, you know, put things together in a real good way and go on a really good run. We certainly can't take that for granted, that's for sure. But we're going to -- until it's mathematically impossible, we're going to keep going and try to get things going in a real way.
Q. Would you say that Chris Armas has the full confidence of the locker room right now from where you sit?
MICHAEL BRADLEY: Yes, 1,000 percent. 1,000 percent.
DraftScripts by ASAP Sports
FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports