On nine of Sporting KC's 11 starters playing the full 90 minutes...
It definitely showed in the last 20 to 25 minutes, but at this time of year you don’t expect to be operating at 100 percent. It was necessary for these guys to have to push through physically and mentally to get 90 minutes. I think they managed that along with the rest of the game really well.
On finalizing Sporting KC's roster for the 2015 regular season...
In terms of filling the final roster spots, I think we have a good idea of what the guys within camp can contribute. I think a lot of our young guys have done extremely well, and we have a very good idea of which guys are going to stick around. You can see a lot of that with Connor Hallisey, James Ansu Rogers, Saad Abdul-Salaam and Amadou Dia. Those guys have really done extremely well in their introduction to the professional game. We do have a good group; it’s just going to take time to build them to the level where we want them to be. Like I said, they don’t have to be 100 percent right now. In the preseason, you like winning and you like taking a role in building the team as a group.
On the strong preseason displays from Sporting KC's 2015 draft picks...
I think with this year’s draft, we went in knowing the players we wanted to pick. And we got exactly who we wanted to get. They’ve shown us a lot from the standpoint that they’re extremely capable of performing at this level. It reminds us a little of the years when Matt Besler, Graham Zusi, Roger Espinoza and Chance Myers were selected. I think that was the last time that we were really able to have multiple draft picks [make an impact]. Obviously when you have success in this league, you’re not afforded the luxury of getting high draft picks. Fortunately, the way that we managed our roster, we were able to pick a very good group of guys in the first round. We also got some very good value in the later rounds. Obviously it’ll be important to see how they develop over the course of the year, because a lot of times these kids come in and there’s a huge drop-off. We’ve seen that before. But with the character and talent of these guys, we see no reason they can’t grow substantially in our group.
