Sporting KC Manager Peter Vermes
On Sporting KC’s 2-0 loss to the Colorado Rapids…
It was two counters. I think we were fine in the game, but two very easy goals that we give away—we made it too easy for them. It was a lack of discipline on our part in both situations. Two big mistakes.
On the parity and unpredictability of MLS…
I’ve said it a million times that anybody can beat anybody on any given day. And that’s just the way this game is. If you don’t come prepared to play with total concentration for 90 minutes and you don’t play with intensity for that amount of time, anybody can beat you in this league.
On the importance of Sunday’s match against LA Galaxy…
It’s a final. We’re in the playoffs: we’re playing a play-in game to get in the playoffs. That’s what we’re doing. We just happen do be playing it at home. It’s that simple; there’s nothing else to read into it.
On what was lacking from Sporting KC’s performance…
I don’t think that we drove the game from the beginning. I think we found some situations in and around their box, but I don’t think that we played a real up-tempo game like I expected us to. I’m not exactly sure why, but that’s got to be a different case on Sunday, that’s for sure.
On Sporting KC’s approach to the game…
I know that you’re not always going to win every game, but I also know that you have to come out with a certain approach and intent. And we didn’t do that in the game. I hope and know that the players feel the same way. We weren’t right in that environment, and it’s hard to understand why because to me these are the easy games to play. You know when something’s on the line that it’s time to go, and we didn’t have that tonight.
Sporting KC midfielder Benny Feilhaber
On Sporting KC’s 2-0 loss to the Colorado Rapids…
I don’t think we had our best game today and didn’t deserve the points, and that’s kind of the bottom line there. I think we had some good chances in both halves obviously. As time starts to dwindle you have to start pushing more people up behind if you want to try and get the win, but I don’t think it was good enough today and thankfully we have another day to try and correct that.
On the reason for Sporting KC’s defeat…
We definitely didn’t have our best game in the sense of touches and movement. I’m not sure exactly why; some days it’s like that. I can remember us obviously getting some opportunities even with the poor soccer aspect of the game, but you sometimes have to just fight through it and get a result. There’s plenty of time this year we didn’t play our best and were able to get a result. Today not only did we not play well but we weren’t able to push through to get three points, so it’s disappointing.
Sporting KC defender Kevin Ellis
On Sporting KC’s 2-0 loss to the Colorado Rapids…
Every guy in here is going to take responsibility for that, myself included. We didn’t do what we needed to do, whether we were lacking urgency or we didn’t play the ball, didn’t keep the ball well, didn’t defend well, didn’t finish our chances — it’s everything. Every guy is going to take responsibility for that. We knew exactly what we had to do and we didn’t do it.
On the importance of Sunday’s regular season finale against LA Galaxy…
Of course, we should have approached this game like it was a final as well and we didn’t do that. We know we have another game and a quick turnaround. We have a game on Sunday, and that’s what we are worrying about. What’s done is done and we know we have to go get three points on Sunday.
Colorado Rapids Manager Pablo Mastroeni
On catching Sporting KC on the counter-attack...
That was definitely the space we were trying to exploit. I thought they were quite organized for most of the night. I thought in the first half we had some really good chances on the break. Those were things that we talked about and worked on during the week. It was good to see two good goals from those breaks as it validated all the work and the planning that we did.
On shutting down Sporting KC's one-v-ones...
To be fair, they have been a very dynamic team this year. They have found ways to win games playing all types of different tactics. For us, we needed to make sure we were organized defensively, which we did a really good job of. We wanted to minimize space and then on turnovers, we wanted to break quick. It¹s not that I wasn¹t surprised. I think we did a good job defensively to minimize the one-v-ones because I thought if it was available they would have exploited that.
On the game plan following Sam Cronin's red card...
Well, obviously, you don't anticipate a player going out of the game at that point. Especially a guy who for 80-plus minutes in there, was a beast breaking up plays and starting our attack. But again, everyone is well-versed in what we are trying to achieve. Marcelo [Sarvas] dropped back into that spot for Sam, Nick [LaBrocca] came in on the right, [Kevin] Doyle dropped a little deeper and they handled themselves really well for the last 10 minutes.
On the approach despite being out of the playoff race...
As a matter of fact, I think our best 10 days of training happened over the last 10 days. It¹s so easy to not have a chance and give in. It's so easy to lay down and let anyone run over you. But what I saw over the last week said to me something really important about the group. I hope it's a reflection of everything that I talk about, the mentality of the group. Guys are playing for something greater than the playoffs and that's their careers. We are all playing for careers here and so that was my message, and I think today was a reflection of the attitude with which we approached the game.
Colorado Rapids midfielder Dillon Powers
On Colorado's 2-0 win over Sporting KC...
It feels nice after not winning for awhile. It makes a lot of things feel a lot better. I thought it was a great performance from the team. We didn't have a lot to play for but we battled for each other, and it felt great.
On Colorado scoring a pair of counter-attack goals...
It's definitely something we focus on in practice. We stress good defensive shape and when teams try to break you down and get a lot of numbers forward, that's what tends to happen is those counter-attacks open up. Tonight we took advantage of that.
On his goal in the second half...
I just kind of ran out of room and had to chip it, and it felt good to finallyget back on the score sheet. It was a goal coming into the season to get on the score sheet more, and I fell short this season, but it's nice to finish off like that.
Colorado Rapids goalkeeper Zac MacMath
On Colorado’s 2-0 win over Sporting KC…
I thought the guys really came together in a tough spot late in the season with not a lot to play for and everything KC had to throw at us, we matched it and even more. So I was really proud of the guys to come together with not the most motivation to play well, but we all played well and got a well deserved win.
On Colorado’s defensive performance…
They all played really well. They haven’t played too much together this year and I think that goes to show, we can plug guys in anywhere and they can play well. They did a great job blocking shots and keeping the ball out of the back of the net.
On the motivation of hampering Sporting KC’s chances of making the playoffs…
We can play spoiler and they’re a Western Conference foe and one of our closest rivals, so I think that’s a great opportunity for us to play spoiler like we said and we did a good job of that today.
On his approach after backing up Clint Irwin the majority of the season…
Just to go out there and be myself and show that I deserve playing and deserve to be out there every game. That’s all I can do. I think I did a good job of organizing and keeping the team right tonight.
On Colorado’s potential heading into next season…
We have been good all year. We have shown that potential, we just haven’t had that killer instinct and the ability to go on the road and to hold a shutout and to get the goals that we needed. This is probably one of our most complete performances all year, and that just goes to show the hard work that everyone put in this year.
