Sporting Kansas City head coach Raphael Wicky
Thoughts on the game…
It's a great team performance and a great win in a difficult place against a team who is in really, really good form and is in the top three of the table. It's not easy to come here and win, even against 10 men. We knew that. I've been long enough in the game that even when you play against team with a man down, it's not going to be easier. I'm very happy about the reaction after the Philadelphia game, because the Philadelphia game was a hard one. When you're 3-0 up and you lose and you have a really, really good 61 minutes and then you have 10 minutes where you're a disaster and concede four goals and you lose that game, that's mentally very hard after the whole season we've had. I'm most pleased and happy and proud of the reaction. We had a good training week and we came here and we showed up. We didn't give up and had a good performance. So that is what I'm pleased with the most. I also am very pleased with the next man up mentality. Moises (Mosquera) out, Jansen (Miller) in. Jansen does a good job again. He already had a very good game against St. Louis. And then the guys who come in just helped the team. There are some young guys getting minutes: Ruben (Ramos Jr.), Seymour (Reid), Kweku (Agyabeng) plays 90. So I'm pleased with that. We could have killed the game if we scored to make it 3-0 early on in the second half. We had a chance to make it 3-0 and I think then it would be even harder for Houston to stay in the game. We didn't and 2-0 is always a tough result. I'm very pleased with what I saw and I hope this gives the team confidence. I think over the last weeks or even since the break, besides maybe two games, we've shown that we're competitive with most of the teams so I'm happy with that.
On the midfield partnership…
They have grown together. I think Kwaku had some really good performances as a young player in the last weeks. He deserves to be on the field, but we need everyone. Zorhan (Bassong) is coming back from an injury. He's still on minute restrictions, as is Ian James, as is Andre (Luiz), as is Owen (Wolff). So we have quite a few guys who are on minute restrictions, which doesn't make it easier. The two guys work well together, but I believe that all our midfield players can work well together. Zorhan worked really well together with Lasse (Berg Johnsen) when Zorhan was healthy and played well. So we need all of them. They show that they're there and Kwaku has done a good job. They were not able to play through us so much. Houston is a team who is really, really good in possession. They have really good and experienced players and they want to play through you so we tried to force them wide. We tried to press a little bit higher, but it's not easy to press that team to be honest. And obviously, the heat is also there but their ability to move the ball and to rotate is pretty good with Guilherme coming into the pockets. So we said, ‘hey, let's try to close the center and have them go wide.’ That's where they're less dangerous even though they have very good players there as well. So, in general, that's not just the midfield duo. That's the whole team who works hard.
On the shutout…
A clean sheet is always what you want, right? If you have a clean sheet, you at least have a point. So we always want that. But, of course, that's not easy. We would have wished to have clean sheets earlier in the season, which would have given us more points. At the end of the day, I'm happy that we have a clean sheet. I think that gives the guys confidence that we can actually do that. We can actually play a game without conceding. At the end of the day, as a coach, I want to win the games, right? I would have rather won 3-1 against Philadelphia and not have a clean sheet. If we win the game, I would take a goal against but ideally you want to have clean sheets. That's obviously not that easy. But this one is for sure important. It shows them, because it's been a long time, that they can actually have a good defensive performance.
On the team’s attack…
I think as a team we have been working well together in the attacking phase since a while now. We're trying to focus on certain things to have positioning, to have clear roles and responsibilities and obviously to still have creativity as well because some players in the final third need creativity. And then finding those guys rhythm. Taylor (Calheira) and Stephen (Afrifa) work well together. First of all, they work very hard for the team defensively. Calvin (Harris) has given us a lot on that side And obviously then with Andre Luiz, you have a player in there who is always a special player who can change a game with an action. He can take two guys on the dribble and then another guy is free like he did today. I think it's the whole team knowing more and more how we want to be positioned when we have the ball and where do we want to move the ball.
Sporting Kansas City forward Calvin Harris
On his goal…
I saw Andre pick the ball up and I know when he gets the ball one against one he's going to beat him somehow. He puts him on the floor and gets on that left foot and I knew that there was a chance if I just get across the front post. The ball flashes across there and I get my left foot just in front of the defender to put it in.
On the result…
It feels good. We've scored a lot of goals in the last four games and we want to continue to do that. But also on the defensive side, that's been the area of improvement. I think even today we can take a lot away from it with the things we did well but also how we could be even better managing the game once we're 2-0 up in the second half. The lads did really well today and I’m happy to get three points.
On bouncing back from last week…
I don't think much changed throughout the week in terms of the way we approach the game. We take what we can from the game and learn from it, but it's football. Sometimes it's just the way the game is. Unfortunately, the other day it went against us. If you watch any game of football, you're never going to dominate it for a full 90 minutes. It's always going to be a 10-minute spell and during that 10-minute spell, Philadelphia did something that you don’t see often. Not much changed throughout the week with our mindset. We knew that we're playing well and we're scoring goals. We just need to continue to do that.
On the team’s attack…
It's just naturally fallen into place. There hasn't been major tactical changes or whatnot. It's just kind of fallen into place where all the players have a good understanding of one another's strengths and ability. We've just been able to play off each other really well.
