NYCFC gutted out a rugged 2-1 win over the Chicago Fire this past Saturday, narrowing the gap between themselves and the top spot in the Eastern Conference to just three points.
Here's what the winners had to say about it...
Vieira on the Gutsy Performance...
"You don't win these type of games if you don't show a togetherness and character," said Vieira. "Today we showed a lot of desire and discipline as well. When I look at the players after the game in the dressing room, I couldn't ask for more than what they gave today.
"When you're going with ten men, players regroup together, and fight and work harder than when they are eleven. It's actually really strange. But I think we had discipline, we knew what we needed to do, and we did it quite really well."
Vieira on Lewis...
"Jonathan had a terrific game. He worked really hard from the first minute. Playing in really important games like that will make him improve, make him a better player. With his pace, he helped us to stretch them. I'm really pleased with the game that he had.
"He's been working really hard. He's just like Kwame. They come in from the draft, they need time to adjust themselves. He's growing up well, he's learning really well. We will help him to grow as a player."
Lewis on his First Start
“It was fun, but I knew it was going to be a big challenge, and I feel like as a team, and myself, we all stepped up to the plate today and we worked very hard to get the win.
"I think that we made our chances count. So, when we got the ball forward, our passes up front to me and David, they were precise and we took the two chances we got to score. Most of all, we worked really hard today and we outworked a team with one less man. That’s why we got the victory.
"We have to keep it up, but if we come out every game and outwork a team like we did today, I think that no one can really beat us and we’ll be in a very good situation for moving forward."
Villa on Overcoming Adversity...
"We don't go down, we go up. We're thinking about running more because we are down one player less. We did it and we won this game.
"It was a tough game for the weather, for the conditions of the game. We played the best team in the league, we played three days ago, we were with ten men within the tenth minute of the first half. The game was crazy for us. It was so, so difficult and we did very well.
"We showed to everyone how strong we are today."
Lopez on Tough Defending
"It's something we've been doing all year, but today we defended as a team and we were all some dogs out there.
"We prepared to force everything to go wide. We held the center as tight as we could and made everything go out wide. We played our gameplan to perfection, and we limited their chances, so I think we did a really good job.
"We tried to keep everything in front of us, not let them penetrate us centrally, so shots from far and keeping them as wide as possible was a win for us.
"We do what we do best, we bounce back. We were very disappointed after Wednesday, but today we fought as a team, fought as a family, and like I said we were all dogs out there. We scored two goals and shut it down from there."
