Sporting KC Manager Peter Vermes
Overall thoughts on the match…
I thought we were very good on our game plan tonight. The biggest thing for me is I thought we were very good on both sides of the ball. I thought we were excellent on our set pieces and very dangerous. We could have scored easy two or three goals on the set pieces. I thought we were very good. Sometimes they don´t go in but to play like that, I like where we are at. I like the way we are progressing as a team. I like the way we are starting to understand how to play. I think we are moving in the right direction.
On the quality of Sporting KC’s performance…
We´re at home. We have to make sure that this place is a hard place to play for everybody. It is part of who we are and it is the way that we have played here ever since this place opened, and we are going to continue on that same game. As I said before, we have some new players on the team and not only this place, but also the team is new to them and they´re getting a feel for what it is like to play here. I´m very excited about what I have seen thus far with the group and the way that with each game we are progressing in a positive manner. From that point of view I am very happy. I thought that we had very good chances in the first twenty minutes and I also thought that throughout the second half we also were in and around their goal. You have to give them a lot of credit. They battled very hard defensively as well. I could talk about a couple different plays where, even Bernardo [Anor] when he came in gave us a good charge to the team. He lifted the game up a little bit and he was pretty dangerous going forward with a couple of opportunities. They blocked a couple shots I thought were on target and were difficult to stop. Again, I think as a group we created good chances and really didn´t give anything away. I thought the guys really stuck to the way that we wanted to play and that´s what I´m really pleased about. We made some strides in some areas that we´ve been talking about quite extensively over this past week.
On Jimmy Medranda’s first appearance of the season…
Jimmy made a big step forward this year since preseason. He´s consistently getting better and better. He brings some interesting little qualities to the game. It is a really big game for him. He doesn´t play all that often and this was his opportunity. I thought that at times he was really good on the ball. His service was really good and you saw that little brilliance in the first half where he dribbled through everybody and laid the one ball off. He has that ability to do that more. His thing is that he needs to grow as a player from a physical perspective to be able to go do that, and have a little rest—go do that and have a little rest. He is not there yet but I think all in all, it was a good performance for him and he is a kid that I think has a lot of potential in the future.
On Jalil Anibaba’s Sporting KC debut…
He was excellent, he really was. The objective was to keep him home a little bit more because they really like to break out with four guys all the time. Adi, Nagbe, Wallace and Asprilla—they have the green light to go so I wanted to be sure that we did not get unbalanced. He was told to stay at home more so than de Jong and I thought he did an excellent job. He was great in his individual duels. He made some very good decisions of when the time was to just whack it out and not try to play. At the same time, I thought he was pretty dangerous on a couple of set pieces. He almost had a diving header in the first half and he had that one that just squeaked past the post late in the second half. He had a very good game for us.
On the positives of the performance…
It was a combination of things. I think that limiting the service to Adi is number one. The other was trying to rule the day on second balls. A lot of balls get played up front direct, and because of that, balls drop down in and around at the top of your box or thirty or forty yards away and that is what causes the danger. I thought out guys did a really good job on the second balls.
On narrowly missing a handful of scoring chances…
I think we had better chances. I think Ike should have put one of his two away. I would have liked to see us walk away with three. My opinion is because of the chances we had that were more clean-cut, we should have walked away with three but I thought that they did well. They are a very good team and I like that fact that they came to play. From that point of view, it is unfortunate that the fans couldn´t see that aspect of it. I think they saw two teams that really went after it.
On getting shut out…
I am always more concerned when you don´t make chances. I have lot of confidence in our team in regards to scoring goals. I really do.
Sporting KC defender Jalil Anibaba
On Sporting KC’s 0-0 draw against Portland…
It was a hard-fought and intense match from minute one to 90. Throughout the game our team had good resolve. Defensively we were solid, so from that perspective it was a step forward tonight.
On Sporting KC earning the shutout…
They have a lot of attacking options—a lot of guys who are really dangerous going forward. But like I said, I thought defensively we were great tonight. We limited their chances, and I thought we were mostly on the front foot for the whole game.
On Sporting KC’s early position in the standings…
At this point we’ve just got to keep a cool head. We’ve got to keep working hard in training. We had a great week of training this week, and we need to back that up in the game going forward. We know it’s a long season. It’s not just about climbing up the table but keeping things in perspective. We know what type of football we’re capable of, and I thought we showed good spurts of that tonight.
On making his Sporting KC debut…
It was great. We put together a great team effort defensively. We were very solid in that regard, and that’s what I wanted in my debut: a shutout. It was a step forward, and I’m looking forward to many more home games and a lot of success here.
Sporting KC defender Ike Opara
On Sporting KC’s 0-0 draw against Portland…
In one regard, we (shored) things up defensively and did a good job stopping their potent attack, especially on the counter. I thought we did a very good job dealing with those situations. We gave ourselves a chance to win obviously with the clean sheet, and we unfortunately couldn’t find the back of the net to capitalize.
On Sporitng KC earning the shutout…
We’ve had three different lineups defensively in the first three games, but all the guys have worked hard and given their all. Tonight it finally gelled for the full 90 minutes. For the first two games, I thought we were good at times defensively, but we had a couple lapses. Tonight we did a good job of minimizing those lapses.
On partnering with Jalil Anibaba on the right side of defense…
Jalill did a very good job tonight. He’s a fighter as well, and he’s always going to give it his all. He hadn’t really trained too much at right back up until this week, but he established himself early and was confident. He just down those attacks on his side of the field.
On nearly scoring off a header in the second half…
I positioned myself at the back post and when the ball came in, I knew I was free. I just missed it, and there’s no excuse for that. One of my strengths is heading the ball, and from point blank I should score that.
Sporting KC midfielder Benny Feilhaber
On Sporting KC’s 0-0 draw against Portland…
Another draw at home is not what you want. You always want to get the wins. But having said that, it’s still early in the season. I think it’s more important at this point in the season to improve on the field, and I think we did. I think we played better this game than we did against New York, and it was definitely a better performance than in Dallas. I think we outplayed Portland for the majority of the game. I don’t know if we deserved three points, but at this point we’ll take the one and be content with the fact that we’re improving each game.
On limiting Darlington Nagbe’s impact on the game…
That was my number one goal defensively, for sure. But it’s a team effort—you can’t defend a guy like that one-on-one. So a lot of people were aware of where he was on the field. When he got the ball, we had numbers behind the ball and I did whatever I could to make his life difficult, whether it was trying to poke the ball, nudge him, or create difficult situations for him to get out of. He’s a great player and the more you can get him off his game, the better.
Portland Timbers Manager Caleb Porter
Overall thoughts on the match…
I thought it was a good performance. Sporting Kansas City's a good team. It's one of the toughest places to come and get a result. I thought it was a very good game, about 50/50 in possession, so we kept the ball better this game, which allowed us to control periods. To put yourself in a position to get three points on the road, you have to keep the game tight, especially against a good team. You hope to finish your couple chances, which we didn’t. But if you can't finish your couple chances to win the game, getting a point on the road here is a positive. We're unbeaten in three games against three very good teams.
On earning a point on the road…
We're unbeaten in all three games home and on the road. I think we're always a good road team. We looked very mature, just like last year when we won seven games on the road. We looked organized and we limited their chances to set pieces primarily. There's some very good attacking players on that team: Zusi, Dwyer, Espinoza and Feilhaber and these guys. I thought overall from the run of play they didn’t have much other than set pieces.
Portland Timbers midfielder Jack Jewsbury
On playing in Kansas City…
It's always nice to come back and to see the atmosphere that's been created over the past few years. When I got traded back in 2011, it was right before the stadium opened. So it's always special to come back and see what's transpired over the past four or five years.
On Rodney Wallace's first-half scoring chance…
The ball popped out to Darlington [Nagbe] on the left side. In the holding spot, I just try to be an option to hit that shot. I actually mis-hit the ball, to be quite honest. I was trying to shoot, but didn't hit it as well as I wanted to and it went to Rodney [Wallace]. Unfortunately, he was offside. We had a few chances. Defensively, we felt like we were really solid and didn't give them too much, but obviously we would have liked to sneak one in on the other end as well.
On controlling Sporting KC attack after first 15 minutes…
To be honest, we never felt like we were under fire that much. We felt like we had a pretty good grasp on the game possession wise. We knew the first 10 or 15 minutes were going to be a bit hectic, especially here where they are trying to push the game. But once the game settled in, we were able to get a hold of the ball and play well.
On earning a road tie…
Any time you tie at home, you are disappointed because you wanted to get three points. The road is a different story. You are pressing to get three points if you can. But at the end of the day, if you come away from the road game with a point it can be considered a success.
Portland Timbers defender Nat Borchers
On earning another clean sheet…
I think tonight we showed we can go on the road and battle and, honestly, we out-possessed them quite well and pressed them the whole game. Really we just did a good job on this side of the ball.
On maintaining a good pace throughout the match…
We came into this game knowing we had gotten two ties at home. So we needed to come out flying against a team that hadn't gotten a win yet. I just thought from start to finish we played like a mature team and played like a team willing to do the dirty work to get a result.
On Caleb Porter's message postgame…
It was all good. We did a lot of good things on both sides of the ball. I thought our possession was really good tonight and if we continue to do that we'll start to get some points here.
