Philadelphia Union manager Peter Nowak praises 'good fight' in 1-0 win over Chivas USA

Courtesy of Chivas USA's media relations staff, here are some postgame quotes from the Union's 1-0 win at the Home Depot Center late Saturday night.

If you didn't stay up to watch the game, there are video highlights below.

Impressions from the match:

We played pretty good the first half, the second half of course we should do better with certain situations, but as I said we were fighting for every point and there was good fight from the whole team.

Regardless of what happened on the field, the three points are very important to us, so I think it was a good trip and we are moving forward after the last couple of games, we won the road game which is very important to go back home and play the home game as well.

On the final minutes of the match:

I don't really want to comment on that, I think the game went a little bit the other direction right after we scored a goal. You don't want to see this kind of stuff and Chivas was trying to pull every single trick out of their sleeve to make us suffer.

But as I said it's good, the three points are very important to us, especially being on the road on the West Coast, where in the last couple of years we didn't have success. I think it's a tribute to these guys in the locker room that they put so much work to get it, that we have a couple of wins now.

Impressions from the match:

Very happy with the win, we had to fight really hard to hold on to this lead. Early on in the season things haven't gone our way, but now they are starting too, we are starting to get the bounces, we are starting to get the calls our way and today we got a good goal.

Mike made a great play and I finished it off. Our team held tight. Chivas played a great game, they made it very hard for us today.

On his goal:

I'm just happy that I was able to help my team win. It's a team effort and today just being involved in the play and scoring a goal today feels good personally, and it feels even better seeing a smile on everybody else's face.

Thoughts on the match:

It was a tough game, Chivas really brought it to us and I think we were ready for the fight, and obviously going down two guys up a goal was tough in the last 15-20 minutes, but I'm proud of the guys I think we outplayed at the time.

On keeping focused towards the end of the match:

We stay together as a team. You can see that we bunkered in a little bit, we had to we were down two guys. We just stayed together as a team, communicated and worked really hard.

Thoughts on the match:

In the first half I thought we had a difficult time solving [the Union], sending a lot of people back into their half. At times it was okay, at times we could have been more aggressive. I think we had a few bright moments early in the half, and then from there it became difficult to solve them, having a lot of numbers behind [the ball].

We gave up a goal out of nothing and then in the second half I thought that we were better and more aggressive, we got the ball into dangerous spots, we created opportunities, I feel like this is one that definitely got away.

On not being able to capitalize on a two-man advantage:

Anytime you go up a man you start to think that you should be able to create some opportunities, and if I'm not mistaken we created quite a few opportunities. Opportunities help you create [more] opportunities.

It's disappointing, it's a different story every game. I have one game in particular on my mind last year, where we went up a man, and we never looked like we were up a man, and tonight I thought we did a good job on getting the ball to wide areas, we got dangerous serves in, we were knocking on the door.

At the end if you don´t finish your chances, you walk away feeling like this.

Thoughts on the match:

Obviously disappointed. We were expecting, after two wins on the road, just to get the points at home, and it wasn't the case. Obviously very disappointed. We haven't been able to get a point at home, just yet.

Thoughts on returning to the team after being out for five games:

It's hard just to pick up the tempo of the game when you come in in the second half, but it was good to at least get some minutes. That's the only way that you get your match fitness, and I was delighted to be back. It's been a long way for me and I'm just hoping to increase the minutes as the weeks come by and get healthy.

Thoughts on how Philadelphia played:

I thought it was a typical game on the road for them. They were set back, they found themselves with a goal like that in the first half without trying too much for it. They protected the result, and we weren't able to break them.

On his physical health:

I just came back from six weeks, and it's going to take time, but I am hoping to get better each week.

Thoughts on the match:

It's the same old story: play well at home, dominate the game, and we lost. There's not too much I can say. We should have won. You don't get what you deserve in this game, you get what you put in.

Thoughts on how Philadelphia played:

They came and set in really, they just countered the whole game, but they didn't really try to play. They won, can't take anything away from them. We lost at the end of the day, that's all that matters, it's the three points.