Sporting KC Manager Peter Vermes
Thoughts on the 3-0 victory over New England...
From the start of the game to the final whistle, we were very good tonight. We didn't really give anything away. I thought we worked very hard in the middle of the park. Our midfield sort of drove the team. Tactically, we made some adjustments to deal with New England. They changed their formation to the same formation we play. In regards to that, we were very intelligent and pretty balanced. To get three goals, it's good for us. Obviously, it catapults us back into first place, which is a good place to be.
On Kei's injury he sustained late in the match...
I think he's going to be okay. We'll get an x-ray tomorrow and make sure everything's okay, but I think it's just a (left) ankle sprain.
On the quick turnaround from Wednesday's win in Nicaragua...
We say our players need to be Sporting fit. It's something we take a lot of pride in. The other piece of it is that we managed the trip very well. Thanks to the ownership, we had a private plane, which helped immensely on our travel. Getting the result boosted our confidence. The guys did well with the quick turnaround, that's for sure.
On forward Soony Saad's performance...
Soony has the ability to give a final pass. It's not that he can just score. He's starting to feel himself on the field and become more of a complete player for us.
On the teams' aerial ability...
I think it is two things; it's service and movement in the box. We get a lot of service in the box. When you get good runs, then all of a sudden, you start to get the real chances on goal. We have some pretty dangerous players like Kei, and when CJ's out there, Collin when he can get in there and, finally, Ike, when he is in.
On finishing opponents...
One of the tie breakers is most goals scored and right now I think we're tied in the eastern division, so it's an important aspect as we move through the rest of the season. You don't want to keep your opponents hanging around. I think we're getting better at clinically finishing teams off at the end of the games.
Sporting KC midfielder Benny Feilhaber
Thoughts on the win...
We played the way we wanted to. We gave up that one chance, but other than that a pretty solid 90-minute performance. A shutout with three goals at home, that's what we wanted to do for the fans, who deserve it. I think I heard it was 29 sellout crowds in a row, which is big time from our fans, so we wanted to give them a good result tonight. All and all, it was a perfect night.
If he enjoys playing against his former team...
A hundred percent. I think that'll always be the case every single time, whether it's now, or ten years from now. They're guys that I've played with and they're my buddies, so it's good to beat and score on them, and obviously, it's good for the team to get the three points.
On his free kick goal...
When you have a free kick on top of the box, unless you have a really good set piece, you're going to take it. That was really the only thing I had on my mind. Once I saw the ball pass the wall, I knew it was in.
On if he saw Cristiano Ronaldo's goal on Wednesday...
Yeah, it was almost as good as mine (laughs).
Sporting KC captain Jimmy Nielsen...
On keeping a clean sheet...
We got three points. We scored some great goals. For some reason we struggled a bit when they got the red card. For some reason, it felt like we had the red card. It was a weird second half.
On Soony Saad's development...
I think a good part of our three guys up front is that they're so different. It's three completely different players. Soony's a different player, Bieler is a different player, and Kei is a completely different player so we got a little bit of everything up there and I think we used that extremely well today. It was two great assists and two outstanding finishes. It was very, very good.
On getting back in the win column...
We showed up with a winning mentality. You want to go out there and give everything that you have. Maybe you won't succeed with everything, but we gave everything we had today.
Sporting KC forward Soony Saad
On having a target like Kei Kamara in the box...
It's so easy. You just loft it up there and nine out of 10 times he's going to win it. I think he did really well to win the first one he just climbed above Austin and the second one I kind of saw him through my peripheral and saw a blue shirt running and I thought it was Kei so I just clipped it into the danger area and he did excellent to get to it, but I felt like I scored that's how happy I was. I was really excited and that second one was huge for us.
On providing assists for the team this season...
When I was younger assist were not that big of a deal and I want to help the team anyway I can by contributing whether that's a goal or an assist or working hard defensively so I'm not really worried about getting multiple assists in a game but having a complete performance.
On earning an assist with his left and right foot...
My dad's been telling me to work on my left foot so that's something I'm going to continue to do and it's very dangerous when a player is able to use his right and left foot effectively. It just becomes very unpredictable and I thought that happened in the first and second half.
On how it feels to put together a complete performance...
It feels great to get the result. Ultimately we just have to keep putting in good performances and it felt like even today when we did get the result in a convincing win that we saw some things we need to improve on like any team and I think we are going to work on that and continue to build from this and hopefully keep winning games and not have the same thing happen back to back like Montreal and New York.
Sporting KC forward Kei Kamara
On the injury to his left ankle...
It's okay. Kenny (Ishii) and Chet (North) will definitely take care of me. I'll be okay. I'm just mad I'm going to miss the Susan G. Komen cancer walk tomorrow morning. It's an annual thing for me so that's the only thing I'm mad about. I just saw something coming and I don't remember anything.
On exiting the match early...
You have to expect that if you're doing well. You have to expect people to come and get you. That's just part of it. That's a breakaway. Andy's an experienced guy and he's been playing this game for a while. He got a red card but I don't think he tried to hurt me as much as he did. He was trying to break the play down so I can't hold him to it.
On his undershirt, shown after scoring his first goal...
Baby Jeremiah. It's my sisters so everyone in my family has kids now but me. My sister just had a baby today and she called me at two o'clock and told me that she had a baby so it put a smile on my face. It's been good luck every time I write on my shirt I tend to score so I'm just going to keep writing names of random people.
New England Revolution head coach Jay Heaps
On New England's 3-0 loss to Sporting KC...
We didn't start well, didn't finish well and we lost 3-0. It's disappointing because they had three shots on goal in the game and scored on all three. That's a tough stat to look at because we pride ourselves on closing people down and trying to defend.
On New England's defensive performance...
Tonight I felt we defended okay at times, but when you give the ball away aimlessly against a team like (Sporting KC), you play into their hands.
On starting Kevin Alston at left back and pushing Chris Tierney into the midfield...
Our thought process was that we wanted to have a physical presence on (Kei) Kamara. You hope for a spark, but tonight we were flat all the way around. We didn't take our chances and we didn't defend that well.
New England Revolution midfielder Chris Tierney
On New England's 3-0 loss to Sporting KC...
We weren't great. I'm not sure there's much more you can say about it. We didn't start well and conceded a bad goal. We had a chance to tie before halftime and couldn't score. I thought we were okay in the first half but the red card made it tough.
On New England's offensive performance...
The key on the road is to defend and take your chances when you create them. We had some good chances in the first half but they didn't go in for us. Their second goal and then the red cards killed us off.
On moving into the midfield after Kevin Alston started at left back...
It was just a tactical switch on the road. My job is to get wide, get balls into the box and put (the opponent) under pressure. I'm not sure I did that tonight, but credit to Kevin (Alston). It was good to see him back out there and he played hard. But this was a tough result for us.
On New England's two-game losing streak and returning home for two matches...
We'll look forward to a positve reaction at home. We've had two bad road results in a row. We've talked about it all year that we don't want to go on losing streaks. So it's time to draw the line in the sand, and we'll come out next week fired up.
New England Revolution defender Andy Farrell
On New England's 3-0 loss to Sporting KC...
Sometimes you can take something from a loss, but I don't think we can take anything from this game. We didn't start that well and gave up a goal in the first half. But even then we had a lot of chances and the game could have gone either way. Had we scored any of our chances, we would have been in it. But they're a great team, and this was a great atmosphere. We knew we had to play well, and we just didn't do that tonight.
On New England's halftime adjustments when they were down 1-0...
We tried to push forward a little more to help Dimitry (Imbongo) up top. But when you get down 2-0 and pick up a red card, it gets really hard. At that point it kind of just broke down, so we tried to just not give up any more goals.
On Sporting KC's strengths...
They're a good possession team. We let them have a lot of the ball. Against a team like them, the difference between a win and a loss is taking your chances when you get them. We've just got to find a way to get those goals. Sometimes we play really good soccer, but we've just got to calm down and get results in these two upcoming home games.
