Sporting Kansas City captain Matt Besler joined The Border Patrol on Sports Radio 810 WHB this morning to discuss his team's 1-0 victory over the Chicago Fire last night at Sporting Park. Besler led all players on Sunday with 13 clearances, six aerial duels won and five interceptions as Sporting KC recorded the team's fourth clean sheet of the season.
Among the excerpts from the 20-minute interview:
On Paulo Nagamura's goal...
"We talked about that at halftime, as well, about being patient. I think you saw it on that goal. There were 12 passes in a row. I think if you look at the replay again, once we finally do get the ball wide after we've played it around and allowed our team to get higher up the field, there's 5-6 players in the box. I think that's why Paulo found some space and obviously the header finish was unbelievable."
On the play of Benny Feilhaber...
"It's really exciting to see him play at this level. This is the Benny that we all know and that we all hope for. When he's playing at this level, he's a different player. He's just fun to watch, even as a player on his own team, he's fun to watch."
On Tim Melia's debut for Sporting KC...
"He was excellent. He's had the right mentality from day one, even in preseason...He's challenged that position from day one and he's done it in the right way. He's been encouraging and he's been committed. He's given everyone on the team confidence. I think I speak for everyone in saying we're all very happy for him. He was strong and he was commanding. I think he should gain a lot of confidence out of that performance."
On moving up to fourth in the West...
"We believe that we're a team that can be at the top of the standings when the season's over. All it takes is a run. Everything is so tight right now in the standings that if you get on a decent run -- 3, 4, 5 games unbeaten -- you can find yourselves right at the top...We've got to enjoy the win, it was a great, great team win. But we've also got to improve. We've got to continue to get back to work and get better."
On playing Eastern Conference leaders D.C. United...
"I am looking forward to it. It will be a little different this year since we moved over to the West. In years past, it's always been an extremely big game because we're always fighting with them in the East...I think we always go to D.C. and play well. I think we've gotten some decent results in years past. We respect them a lot, that's probably why we always come out and play well because we don't take them lightly. They are playing well so it's going to be interesting."
Listen to the full audio archive embedded below and tune into Sports Radio 810 WHB from 7-8 p.m. CT on Tuesday for a new episode of The Sporting KC Show live from Jazz, A Louisiana Kitchen in The Legends.
