Sporting Kansas CityManager Peter Vermes:
About the goal before half to tie it...
“It’s a big goal of ours every game to be even or ahead at halftime so no doubt to get into halftime being even was good because we didn’t have to then go chasing the game in the second half. I think that was an important aspect of [the game].”
On giving up the first goal...
“It’s their home opener, you can expect they are going to come out and try to drive the game and put us under a lot of pressure, and to be fair they did a good job of that, especially early on in the game. Once we found ourselves a little bit I thought that we started to posses the ball a little better, our building out of the back was good, and then in the second half I thought what was really good is that we were breaking their lines quite often and that was just a couple of adjustments at halftime.”
On keeping a shutout in the second half…
“I think when you play against a team that is counter-attack oriented, which they are, as soon as they win it they just want to play it and get it up overtop of you, we just needed to get a little more pressure to the ball and the initial guy who got it so he couldn’t play that next ball and he either had to play square or backwards which slowed them down and got our numbers behind the ball. That was a big difference and the other thing was we had our two outside backs pinch in a little bit more which condensed the space for them to play in.”
On Jimmy Nielsen's performance...
“ Jimmy is such a solid goal keeper he made a save in the second half on the header I believe it was from McInerney, the guy makes world-class save after world-class save, that’s why he was Goalkeeper of the Year last year, just comes up big at the right moments.
“He got his hand on the goal [Le Toux] scored and he almost kept it out. That was a point blank shot, but in the second half he made some saves that turned the game on its head for us. Jimmy is kinda like that way he makes a good save and the confidences just starts booming.
“There is no doubt that experience is a big part of it. First off opening game is always a difficult game for any team, doing it away from home is even tougher based on the fact you are going into someone else’s place, full stadium, they want to drive the game, and everyone is trying to find themselves. Like I said before, one of the things I really enjoyed about our team today is that we never panicked. We stuck with the game plan, and we just made a couple adjustments at halftime, and the guys found a way to get the win and to get three goals which I thought was great.”
On scoring three goals on four shots on goal...
“It was good, we are a little more patient with our play in the final third so I think that’s why when we are there we make it count.”
On the Rosell goal…
“The feeling always is that when you bring someone in everyone is like ‘the guys gotta do it.’ But we have patience with him, it’s going to take him a little time to adjust to the league and to our team, and you don’t really get any experience playing in MLS until you play in MLS, and this is his first game. I think it’s big that he gets the goal, but he was very good tonight in so many other areas and that’s why he is a very very good addition to our team. He still has a lot to understand on how and what we want from him at his individual position and how it ultimately affects the collective.”
On his team’s resiliency…
“The part that I liked is the fact we never panicked, we stuck to our game plan. I talked to the guys and said the game can throw a lot of different things at us but we have to stay consistent to how we want to play and our game-plan. Credit to the guys, they did that. We also wanted to make sure we were even or ahead by halftime and the guys did a good job of making that happen as well.”
On the experience of the Sporting KC back line…
“No doubt that consistency is an important thing in this game. For us it’s something we’ve made sure we keep as many guys as we can together from our core group, so having all those guys back and having them understand what we want to do is monumental for us moving forward especially with the three competitions we are in this year.”
On the shift in mindset after Zusi's goal…
“What we didn’t have to do is we didn’t have to come out in the second half and chase the game. We knew that they were going to have to push forward to try to win it, being that it was their home opener and they were at home so it opened up the game for us a little bit. We made a couple adjustments at halftime, I thought they did well the first 25 minutes of the game they put a lot of pressure on us but we expected that to happen, we never really panicked and that’s what I liked about the group is they stayed calm and stayed to the plan which I think ultimately worked well for us. We found areas that we wanted to. We talked about scoring a goal off a play in and one off a set piece and we did a little better, we got two off a play in and one off a set piece.”
Sporting Kansas City Forward Claudio Bieler
On his debut…
“It was really tough at the beginning but we knew that we could come around and win this game. It was hard to control the ball when I was between the both defenders but with the pressure they gave us they opened spaces and we created good chances. We are coming from a very hard preseason and this is our first official game and we have players with a very high level and I think we can play better. Personally I am still adapting but I feel very comfortable and physically I feel wonderful.”
Sporting Kansas City Midfielder Oriol Rosell
On his goal...
“I just hit the ball and I just took the advantage of the opportunity. Every soccer player knows that every chance they get they have to take the advantage and this was important for the team to take the three points and keep going with the season.”
On starting his first complete season in MLS…
“I feel really good, when you start the year with the preseason is good because we can train together and keep going and the road is very long and we need to keep going and working. My parents are in Spain and my girlfriend will be with me in ten days. I haven’t talk to them but I think they’ll be happy for me for scoring a goal.”
Sporting Kansas City Forward Graham Zusi
On getting the win after going down a goal…
“It was a rough start for us we found ourselves chasing the game a little bit but to get one back before the half lifted our spirits and turned the tide I think we came out the 2nd half more aggressive and take the tempo of the game back.”
On his goal to equalize...
“I wish I had the whole net to shoot at I made myself nervous for a second there and I had to put it out over his head but rebounds I’ll take them all day.”
On the experience factor…
“We’ve been in these situations before and it was fairly early on in the game so we knew we could possibly get one back before half and discuss some changes at halftime and try to rectify our play after the first 30 minutes”
On the free kick for Rosell's goal…
“On those situations you know people have definitive runs in the box and my job is to just put it in a dangerous area and let those guys run onto and do their thing. Rosell made a great early run in to the 6 yard box and those are the tough for the keeper to deal with to make a decision whether to come or stay and Oriol got in front of him and redirected the ball in.”
Philadelphia UnionTeam Manager John Hackworth
Opening Statement...
“I’ll start by saying I’m extremely disappointed. I feel like we let the fans down. I feel like we let ourselves down. In a game where I think we felt like we should have been up on at least a couple of goals, to give one up in the last five minutes of the first half was so far from what we had worked very hard on. In the second half we gave up that free kick and that kinda undid us a little bit and then we didn’t even have the courage and fight to get one back when we should have. So like I said I’m very disappointed.”
Difference between the first and second halves…
“I don’t know - We took our foot off the gas for sure in the second half. We really felt like we had the chances and were playing the game and then there were a couple of tiny plays that seem so inconsequential… but credit to Kansas City because they take advantage of those little things. They believed in that and thought they could come back and in fact they did. But at halftime I don’t think anyone in our locker room would have said that we would have gone out and given up two goals in the second half and not gotten at least one or two.”
On the starting line-up...
“Sure, Ray’s been really good and hopefully you guys can write about it - I guess you’ll write about anything you want to - but hopefully you’ll write that he played a good game today and he did. He played very well defensively and he had one of the best guys in our league to try to negate. He did a great job. For us, we feel like Conor has had a great preseason but we wanted to press and we did. That’s not playing to Conor’s strengths. We feel like Conor still needs time to get integrated and same goes for Baky. He’s had a solid preseason but we’ve gotta go play a 90 minute game where we know we’ve gotta play the two time defending champion and we feel like we’re gonna take the game to them so our decision was to go with Amobi… Ya know, you get to write that they were the wrong choice now but the reality is they are decisions that the coach has to make.”
On Gabe Farfan moving to midfield…
“Everything that we tried to take advantage of worked for almost the first half. If we take advantage of the opportunities that we have I think we would walk in after halftime up 2, maybe 3 goals. Unfortunately that didn’t happen. That is a matter of us managing the game, reading critical moments and execution and, on the flipside, that was Sporting KC did tonight. But I’m looking at stats here and we have 17 attempts on goal and they have 7. We pushed the game right way and we did what we wanted to do but then we didn’t execute.”
On LeToux scoring in his first game back in a Union uniform…
“I’m glad he scored a goal in his first game back but the fact is that this is a team sport and, from our perspective, it’s unacceptable to play at PPL Park and lose the way that we did.
On Keon Daniel...
“I really liked Keon. I thought that he had a really good start to the game and I don’t want to be critical of any players but the fact is that we all have to be better. It’s a 90-minute game and we have to play it that way. Despite our good start, we have to finish things and certainly we didn’t do that.”
Philadelphia Union Midfielder Michael Lahoud
About Kansas City’s first goal...
“That definitely was a momentum killer, it definitely slowed down the pace a little. I thought we were flying high feeding off the crowd, feeding off our own play. And then second half I feel like it was a tale of two halves. They kind of found a rhythm, they had some set pieces and they were getting the ball wide and crossing it. For us moving forward when we are a team on the ropes like that for most of a half we have to have more of a killer instinct in the box from all of us. That doesn’t fall on one guy it falls on all of us.”
Being in the starting 11 and the match up...
“For me I am always happy starting and playing every player wants that. Today I felt like it was a good match up for BC and I, especially in the first half we didn’t give them a sniff. At times we were playing two verses three and other times we were playing three vs. three and as they found there rhythm it became a little more difficult. We had to drop off a little to keep our shape.”
Philadelphia Union Forward Sebastien Le Toux
On his first goal...
“It is good for my confidence as a forward, for the past year now I’ve played a lot on the side and I know I can do it but I prefer to play forward so scoring this goal was huge for me but I am just disappointed in the result, so I am not really thinking about my goal today.”
On what he saw on his first goal...
“It’s a great ball from Keon and I am lucky I got to hit it right away with a first touch, I am lucky it went in and it was good for the team too. I am glad it happened, we worked on it in practice this week, it was a play I like to do and you find some connection with a player and we had that with Keon.”
On his missed opportunity...
“It was a huge opportunity for me and I am so unhappy with myself. If I had scored it would have made the score 2-0 and it would have been a different game.”
On being back in front of the fans...
“It was great and fantastic, I kind of never left here with my spirit kind of here and people like me a lot here and I like them just as much. Having my name said for the starting 11 it was a great reception and I could not ask for a better one. I am very thankful to them and I am just very happy to be back.”
Philadelphia Union Defender Jeff Parke
On presume and getting to wear a Union jersey…
“It’s a dream of mine to come back to Philly and play for the Union, and to walk out there and here the crowd get themselves all fired up for the game. It is something that I have looked forward to ever since I got on the team.”
On his first 30 minutes...
“We looked great, we knocked the ball around great. We just didn’t put them away when we had the chance and there were two or three of them that we could have put the second one in and that would have been a different game. It sounds cliché but people still say it goals change games. tonight it definitely would have put them back on their heels and totally changes the game.”
On Kansas City’s adjustments…
“They did a good job, they came out and reorganized, there coach probably laid into them and told them they needed to get things right or they all would have been going home with a loss, so hats off to them. It was our game to win but we didn’t do enough to get it and we gave up to many chances.”
On Colorado next week…
“It’s a fresh start now we gotta put this game behind us I know it’s difficult to lose the first game coming out of here but we have another game out there and we have to come together so we can be kind of in a different environment together. Its gonna be a tough night and maybe be upset for tonight, but tomorrow is a different day and we need to get ourselves ready for Colorado next week.”
