Sporting Kansas City Manager Peter Vermes
On how the match ended…
I felt like, just like last game, we started off very well the first half. We were definitely pushing. We were driving the game and I guess from the opening whistle, I thought that we owned the game, we were dominating, not only defensively in not giving anything away but more importantly creating chances. I thought the goal off the set piece, throw in from the outside, I thought it was great movement by Kei, excellent throw by Besler and obviously it’s something we work on, and it was excellent timing and rhythm to the play. Getting the goal was great, I thought we created some very good chances thereafter. During halftime, 1-0, we felt very good at where we were at, we made a couple of adjustments which I thought were actually working when we started the second half.
On trying to close out the match…
We’re ten men and everything at that point is going against us and believe me, it’s not something that we take pride in giving up two goals. But at the same time when everything is being pushed against you and we’re trying, Luke [Sassano] went down and that didn’t help us with his knee. So we were nine guys, that was a difficulty.
On the equalizing goal from Rosales…
I haven’t seen it, the way I’d like to. Diop was running and felt the ball coming to where it was and Zusi got a foot on it and then they caught up and almost X’d each other out in that play. Yeah, I’d have to see a little bit more but you know, I’m sure we could have done something better on the situation, for sure. But it was late in the game at that point, we were trying to hold off with nine guys.
Sporting Kansas City defender Michael Harrington
On how the match ended…
I’m still kind of playing the plays back through my head and I just don’t think we did a great job managing the game in the last few minutes. There were some decisions that we made that weren’t good decisions and it ended up biting us and those goals that were scored were a bit unlucky with balls going through guys legs and deflecting, but that’s no excuse. It’s a heartbreaker to not get any points.
On giving up late goals to Seattle lately…
Yeah, it feels like that, definitely in the past few years. Hopefully we can right that the next time we see them.
On reacting to going down a man for the second straight match….
For the most part I think we did a good job, similar to the last game when we were a man down over the last 30 minutes or so. We did a good job staying compact. I feel like all the way until the last five or 10 minutes, guys were getting tired, we’re getting stretched out, their guys were starting to get too much service behind our backs and unfortunately they got two goals.
Sporting Kansas City Goalkeeper Jimmy Nielsen
Thoughts on the game…
Right now at the moment, it’s very painful to lose a game like we did today. I think we deserve better. I think we did a great job today.
On the Rosales goal…
There was a deflection off one of our players, a very lucky goal. Running through three people, shooting, having a deflection. It’s disappointing. We should be professional enough to finish the game better than we did.
Seattle Sounders FC Manager Sigi Schmid
Thoughts on the result…
Obviously, we’re pleased with the result to come from behind like that. You know the red card was a game changing moment. Sometimes those calls go for you and sometimes they go against you, we have been on the other side of them as well so I know how Peter [Vermes] feels. You know right after that I felt like we got into a better rhythm and you know after that we lost it again. Two tremendous plays by Mauro Rosales at the end but over all for our team after playing 120 minutes in a really hard game against a team from Panama. I was really proud of them.
On getting late goals against Sporting Kansas City…
Well you know, we like to win games a little easier than that and you know they’re a good team, Peter’s done a good job here. We picked up two good goals, and actually at the time when it was 1-1, we would have been satisfied but then Mauro made another play and we got ourselves another goal. We’re pleased from that regard, they were the first team to beat us at CenturyLink and we ended up being the first team beating them here so it evens out a little bit.
On his 150th win as an MLS manager…
I wasn’t even focused on that. I was close to that but I completely forgot 150 certainly in the euphoria of the game. It just means that I fortunately have gotten to coach a lot of players in this league. I love the guys I’ve coached and put in an effort for me. Kei Kamara did a great job when he was with me in Columbus, Sasha Victorine was great for telecast for me in L.A. and you know, it’s the players that do the business for you. I’ve been fortunate enough to have some good players play for me.
On LIVESTRONG Sporting Park…
Obviously the field and the surface, the atmosphere is tremendous. I hear it’s great for the fans so maybe one day I can come back and sit in the stands and actually enjoy the amenities. Those are by the far the most comfortable seats in the league. It’s an outstanding facility, I was actually here in December and saw it as it was being built because I was in the area and you could tell it was going to be a good facility.
Seattle Sounders FC forward Lamar Neagle
On the playing in the heat…
I feel like we’re getting used to it. Panama, Houston, and now here, but we’ll have some time at home now so we’ll get a break. They have to deal with it too, they may be more used to it but at the end of the day it’s going to be hot and we’re both going to have to deal with it. We just fought through it and played hard to the end. We may not have been putting everything together, but the effort was definitely there and that kind of showed in the result.
On third stoppage time winner against Kansas City…
You can tell that our effort is always there. At the end of the game we’re still striving to get that win no matter what the score is even though we’re down one or whatever it is, we still come back. We’ve gone down a goal many times, but we always seen to fight back and win the game, and that’s what happened.
On LIVESTRONG Sporting Park…
It was great, very nice stadium. I actually came and trained with Kansas City while I was still in college one time, and that’s when they were still on the baseball field, so this is amazing. The training facility is really nice as well.
Seattle Sounders FC midfielder Mauro Rosales
On last few minutes of game…
We played against a very tough team, they have very good players, and the heat also was very important, but we won and we are very happy about that. This is three points for us and that is very important because we cannot be far behind LA and Dallas and we are very happy about that.
On heat and trailing for the majority of the game…
We also played on Wednesday for 120 minutes, so we are without legs and without power, but in the mind we were very focused and in the last part of the game we won.
On playing all ninety minutes…
We talked about it and the guys looked very, very tired from the last game we played, so we decided to what was best for the team and make some changes.
Seattle Sounders FC goalkeeper Kasey Keller
General thoughts on the match…
They’re a good team and there’s a reason why they haven’t been beat in fourteen games. We knew they were going to put us under some pressure at the beginning and I thought they did a good job. We held on a little bit and anytime you keep the game to one goal you know there’s a chance to get something from the game and we did that. Obviously difficult for them with Bravo getting sent off with thirty minutes left and even then they still had a couple chances, but credit to our guys they didn’t give up and we got the three points.
On breaking several teams’ unbeaten streaks…
I like to think that we go into every game trying to win. We stay in games and that’s what allows us to get those points on the road, and we were able to do that today.
On LIVESTRONG Sporting Park…
It’s excellent, everything’s moving in the right direction. Great crowd, too, they were excellent the whole game. Give credit to the ownership group here, we trained at the training ground too, and it’s a nice professional training ground and this club is really moving in the right direction.