Quotes from Thursday's Press Conference

The Dynamo held their final pre-match press conference of the season yesterday and here is what Dom, Ching, Davis and Palmer had to say.

Thanks to Brian Zygo for the press conference audio.

Dominic Kinnear

On the 2010 Season:

"First and foremost we're a little bit disappointed this is our last press conference as we all know that we are not heading to the playoff as we hopefully expected when we got together in February. To say the least it's been a disappointing season for all the players and myself up here at this table. We hard some expectations at the beginning of the year and we haven't hit those so we go in to this last game with our pride."

"I've done about 15 postmortems this year, if you look at our record I think you'll know what I'm talking about."

"Statistics do sometimes tell a story, I think we've been different team late in the game this year. I think we've given up 11 goals in the last 15 minutes of games and that's cost us a lot of points and I think that's one of the reasons we are where we are"

"I'm disappointed with myself as well. The team reflects the coach, I've tried to keep it very much the same as I have in years past because I think what I've done in the past has been successful. Obviously player departures and injuries do play a part in your team selection but when I look at it, yes I mean the first person I look at is myself when i see the results and the record of the team. I'm my harshest critic. I don't need people to tell me or to ask me if I've done a good job or not but i can also tell you that I think I've unperformed this year and it's my job to get these guys playing better and make the team better next year"

"It's a good group but I've always said this from the beginning that I think if we had the same and started the season all over again, I don't think our record would be that same that it is"

On plans for the off season:

"The first phase is the expansion draft, obviously you've gotta see what happens to your team from then. We have set a time to have a protected list put out there, then we'll see what we lose. I think we have a decent idea of what we feel need for next year and that maybe puts us in the same direction or maybe puts us in opposite direction if we lose players that maybe we're hoping we don't lose"

"I think once we get through the expansion draft, I think we'll have a better understanding of what we need because you never know, like i said before, what's going to happen in the expansion draft, you may lose a player, you may lose two players, so that may focus your needs somewhere else. Obviously you want to if you're say picking a defender, you may pick the best defender in the group but he may not be the player that fits your style or system the best"

Brian Ching

On the 2010 Season:

"It's a tough year, it's something that we never really experienced before in one sense, so it was a whole new set of challenge. Like Dom said, I think us as the players are first ones to look at ourselves and say we didn't do enough this year"

"I think this year we can just look back on it and reflect and try to learn from it. I think I've learned a lot as far as being a leader on this team and hopefully I can take that in to next year"

On the expansion in MLS:

"I'm excited about the expansion I think it's great on one hand but does it hurt the league on the other? Probably a little bit. I think the expansion draft has hurt us over the past four or five years that they've had it because you lose a good player. It's not easy to replace a good player at times in this league, just the way it's structured. It kind disperses the talent a little bit more"

Brad Davis

On the 2010 Season:

"Brian and Dom have both touched on it, there's not a whole lot to add. It's disappointing. You look at the team and we're disappointed, the character that we have here and the talent we have here I don't think, as Dom said, our record showed. You can talk about that all you want but you look at yourself individually at the end of the year and see what you've done well and what you haven't and try and take that in to the next year"

On the team's improved play in the past month of the season:

"The one thing that does make me proud to be a part of this team is the effort and the attitude that the guys have had now this past month knowing that we've been out. I think everybody's still been in it, worked their tails off to still play for pride, so a bit of pride and work hard"

Lovel Palmer

On his first season with the Dynamo:

"I think I've grown as a player a lot. The more you play, the more you get confident. I come in and Coach Dom said to me, hey Lovel you realize you've played the game you're eligible for since you got here it's because we have confidence in you and the more you play, the more you get comfortable, so I'm looking forward to next season"