U.S. coach Bruce Arena
On the outcome:
''Over 90 minutes, Turkey were the better team today. They made the important players count and surely deserved to be the victors. We had a bunch of players with sub-par performances, and you can't get away with that. On a given day, two or three players aren't playing their best, but today it was five or six players, and that impacted us.''
On the change in formation:
''We tried to start the game with three types of forwards, with Beasley and Lewis being wingers. We couldnÆt hold the ball, we couldnÆt get them in the game, so I just moved Landon up to be a second forward.''
On naming Frankie Hejduk captain:
''In the group we had today, heÆs our most experienced player. HeÆs been through a lot, and he deserves that recognition.''
Tim Howard
On the unfamiliarity of the U.S. defenders:
''You have to gel, and there isn't a lot of time to do that here. I donÆt know why we didnÆt play well, but I thought we could have done better.''
On whether there is extra pressure on him to play well in this tournament:
''I can understand why people would think that, but if you allow it to affect you, it could hurt your performance on the field. IÆm very focused on trying to play well every game for this team.''
Landon Donovan
''Turkey were certainly the better team today. I thought we played very poorly. That said, we did enough to at least get a point out of the game, and we were a little unlucky not to.''
DaMarcus Beasley
On scoring the USA's goal:
''It doesnÆt mean anything unless you win the game. ItÆs good to go up, 1-0, early, but we got careless and we gave a way a goal in the next two minutes. It was a tough loss, but we have to regroup and get ready for Saturday.''
On Turkey's players:
''They've got a lot of great players. Even though they only had four guys from the World Cup, they have 23 guys who can really play and know what to do when they get the ball.''
On whether the pro-Turkey crowd made a difference in the game:
''It doesn't bother us. Even when we play at home, we have to deal with it. The crowd has nothing to do with it. We tried to get the crowd out of it in the beginning and that's what we did with the first goal, but we just didn't keep our lead. That s just the way football plays sometimes.''
Eddie Lewis
On whether the teamÆs inexperience was a factor:
''Overall, looking back it was probably a factor. Having said that, one of BruceÆs goals was to give young players experience. He didnÆt put a ton of emphasis on results for this tournament. If you look back, in some key positions on the field, we had some very young and inexperienced players. ThatÆs a tough role, but if they were to grow from today, and they are better players a year from now in qualifying, then maybe itÆs the right decision. But itÆs disappointing to lose anyway.''
Frankie Hejduk
On wearing the captain's band for the first time ever for the national team:
''To have Bruce let me wear the captain band felt great and showed he has confidence in me. It s a good feeling.''
On how the defense played together:
''I thought in the first half we should have dropped off a little more. We were really trying to really hold our line tight and test them. We weren't pressuring the ball deep enough in the first half, and they were able to play some long balls over the top of us. It was a new back four. It was our first time playing all together in the back. Anytime you start a new group it's tough. The back four is definitely something that takes time to work on. You can't get it done overnight. It's something that needs work, but I think we did decent playing all together for the first time.''