Vancouver Whitecaps FC head coach Carl Robinson
Thoughts on the match...
“It’s nice to be back home. I think it took us a little bit of time to get into the game. I think we weren’t at our levels in the first half, but we went in 1-0 at halftime. Wonderful goal, super technique, super cross, super touch. But I think we needed to lift it, because they’re a good team, the standings don’t lie. I challenged them at halftime, I said ‘we need to up it, otherwise we’ll get into a right game’. And we knew it would be a difficult game, and it proved to be that. But key moments in games turn games and they went for us today.”
On already getting halfway to last year’s home win total...
“We need to be better, all around, and I said that to them. On a daily basis, you need to work hard. That’s a prerequisite and I demand that. I’ll give you a bad game, a bad touch, things like that. But you work hard, if you don’t work hard then you won’t play. That’s pretty simple. If you do, these boys have got quality in that locker room, and they showed it today. It wasn’t the prettiest, but second half I thought we played some wonderful football. Disappointing we missed chances, we did have a number of chances. But with good teams they’ll always have their chances as well. Their chance came right after our missed penalty. So another big save by David.”
On consistency and unchanged lineup...
"I gave it lots of thought, I do. It’s already in my mind what I’m going to do Tuesday and Saturday now, because there will have to be changes. Sometimes you get it right when you win, or get a result or performance, and sometimes you don’t. So lots of thought has gone into it. I just felt it was right. But at halftime, maybe you would have seen three changes then.”
On Tim Parker’s first MLS goal...
“He’s been strong. He’s been very professional. We talk about it all the time with our young players, you have to be that. You have to have a discipline, off the field. He’s got that. But his performances have been very mature. I think he’s been strong. I think the first half, there were areas that he needs to tidy up, and I told him. He responded in the right way. When you have a dig at players, or a pop at players or tell them some things they don’t like, they go one of two ways, and Tim certainly goes the right way. So another strong performance by him, and Kendall, a clean sheet for these guys – the defenders and the goalkeeper. But he needs to continue to do it, because he’s got aspirations as well.”
On Cristian Techera’s performance...
“Sometimes you’ve got to be honest in this game, and if you’re honest and players are good guys – they’re all good guys in there – they want to do better, they want to try to play at the highest level they can. If it drops below, you can’t sugar coat it, you have to be honest, and I think some of us weren’t good enough last year. I told Cristian and he came in fitter, stronger. He’s healthy, which is good, [and] he’s playing with an enjoyment. You’ll see the goal – wonderful goal in the first half – and the crosses and the directness, of one-v-ones. But I see little things, like him tracking back, like in the 89th minute trying to get a second goal, and things like that. That’s what pleases me the most. Because you have to be fit in this sport, you have to be fit for 94 minutes, because there always seems to be four minutes at BC Place.”
Vancouver Whitecaps defender Christian Bolanos
On tonight’s result...
“You know it's football, Kansas City plays really well with the ball that's why they are in first place. We tried to press them and we were happy to score on the first chance we got. Football is about goals, it doesn’t matter if you get 60 percent of the ball, if you don’t score, nothing happens. The second half, we scored on the set piece.”
On the first-half goal...
“I was lucky because I tried to play quick to Techera and his first touch is a great touch, I think it’s a beautiful goal.”
On playing well at home...
“At home, you have to win every game. Last year, we lost many games at home and that’s why we didn’t make the playoffs so we try to do everything positive when we play at home or away.”
On set pieces...
“We spoke a lot this week that we have to practice the set piece. We have good quality chances when we make the set pieces and we have big guys too. I try to make good passes to the box, that’s part of my job, the game is so close and the set piece can open the game.”
Vancouver Whitecaps Defender Sheanon Williams
On tonight’s home win...
“For me and the guys in that locker room if we come here and don’t perform in front of our fans we’re letting ourselves down. All that hard work we did on the road to get those six points means nothing if we don’t come home and take care of business so we talked about that all week and we came out today and we did it.”
On his chemistry with teammates...
“As the weeks go on I have started to feel more comfortable with the players that I’m playing with on my side. That’s the result of training day in and day out with those guys. It’s been a good relationship with me and Techera, and me and Kendall, just trying to do my part and luckily today I got a good cross and we scored.”
On the team’s potential...
“I have been in the league eight years and this is definitely the most excited that I have been to be on a team. I think that this team has everything to make a deep run and to be successful in this league. I’m excited and I hope everyone else is.”
On defending and finishing...
“I thought we did a good job limiting their chances. They might have had one or two clear chances but David did a good job smothering that. I thought we could have had five goals tonight. We definitely have to do better on that end to really punish teams and put them away and not give them a sniff going the other way.”
On the work the team puts in...
“This team is a team that day in day out comes to work. Even the substitutes that come on, you can see the work that everybody does for each other is something that I haven’t seen. It’s a credit to the team and the guys we have in that locker room.”
Sporting Kansas Ctiy Manager Peter Vermes
On tonight’s result...
“Vancouver, look they scored two goals. The first one kind of mentally broke us because [with] three games in eight days, we’re pretty tired. We tried to make some changes to give us some legs. The guys who came in did well, it was just hard to do wholesale changes across the board. So at the end, they deserve three points, we didn’t score any goals. So we didn’t deserve it.”
On Tyler Pasher making his debut...
“He was with our USL team last year. He’s got very good qualities in regards to he’s a pacey kid, very good dribbler one-v-one. He’s very good in the final third. He’s got a tenaciousness to him. This was a big step for him, it was a good introduction into MLS and I think he’s got a good career ahead of him. He’s got a good mentality.”
On the Whitecaps changes...
“They’ve changed their formation. They play now a 4-3-3. I think Montero’s a very good forward, he’s a good addition for their team. I think he helps a lot. I always thought he was a good forward when he came into Seattle. He was excellent for them. He’s a very high quality player, so I’m sure that addition has been good. After that, you know I don’t focus too much on the opposing teams.”
On short rest from Wednesday...
“Well, we’ve done this twice now over the last three weeks. In both situations we’re traveling away on the third game, which I think that part has to change when you’re doing a three game schedule. I think you should be playing at home on the third game, not away, from a scheduling perspective that’s two times now in a row. So that has a big effect. You lose training days, and the amount of travel you have to do is taxing on the players.”
Sporting KC defender Matt Besler
Thoughts on the game...
“We came out with the right mentality. We came to someone else’s stadium and played extremely well in the first half – the way that we were able to move the ball in play and dictate the tempo. They scored a very good goal in the first half so we’re down 1-0. We come into halftime and we really just talked about going out in the second half and doing the same things we did in the first half. Unfortunately, I think we died off a little bit in the last 20 minutes. It would’ve been nice to finish off the game better but we’ll move on from this and we’ll get better from it.”
On the busy stretch...
“We had some things that were challenges today – having to travel here, having to play on turf, having to play a mid-week game and they didn’t but at the end of the day those things don’t really matter. We still have to come out here and perform and like I said, we’ll move on from this and we’ll get better.”
On Travis Selje...
“One thing I would like to say from our guys is we would like to pay our respect to Travis and his family, and our condolences. We’re all a big family here at Major League Soccer so we’d like to pay our respect to him and his family.”
Sporting KC forward Tyler Pasher
Thoughts on making MLS debut...
“Obviously I was excited to come in and get my debut, in the starting lineup playing up front. It took me a bit to get into the game and see what it was like playing at this level and as the game went on I started to get more comfortable and settled in with the team.”
On the transition from USL...
“Definitely a big difference. A lot faster, a lot less time on the ball. But I felt as the game went on, I started to get more comfortable and begin to adapt to the speed of play as quickly as I could. It was just good to get a bit of experience and build from it.”
On the match...
“I thought we started well in the first half. It was just one of those games where they had a good cross, good finish, and it kind of set us back a bit. Some mistakes that we made we got punished for, but at the end of the day I think it was an okay performance from us.”
On team fatigue from Wednesday being a factor...
“Maybe, but the guys came out with the same ambition we do every single game, so it was just an unfortunate result for the team.”
