Sporting Kansas City head coach Peter Vermes
On getting the win before the World Cup break
It’s always good to go in before a break with a win under your belt. It helps a lot, but I think the bigger point is that with as many guys that we have out for a number of reasons. Obviously some of them have injuries, and others have international duty to the World Cup, and things like that. This group of guys deserves three points, after the last I’d say four games. It was unfortunate because I thought we started the game really well. I haven’t seen the play on the red card, I didn’t see it so I can’t comment on it. We go down a man, and (Paulo) Nagamura goes out, we have to make a sub. Two guys come out at halftime, both guys injured with Benny Feilhaber getting injured right before the half on that play, which I thought was a red card, but it didn’t go our way. You look at, we have one guy on the field that’s 19, another guy on the field that’s 17. We have four guys that are 21, and if you look at the overall age of our team, it’s probably 24 years old on the field which is incredible. For them to be able to come in here, get a result, go a man down, with all the changes is fantastic. From that perspective it’s more for us than three points going into the break.
On if seeing goals scored is seeing the luck turn
I would hope so, but I thought from those situations we created those plays. We were pressing them, even on the corner kick. We probably could’ve had three more goals with Dom (Dwyer)’s break in the second half, and (Alex) Martinez, and his breakaway in the first half. Dom had another one that was cleared at the line. We had a lot of chances, and I like the fact that we still played, and we were trying to go for a win. This is not an easy place to play it never is. The heat is always a factor. We haven’t had heat like this before, maybe two days of it. For us to get down here, and get acclimated with it was not easy. The guys dug deep, and from that perspective we battled and grinded out a win. Now it’s time for us to move on to the next.
On ending a winless streak with a win while going into the break
It’s good, we have an Open Cup game on the 18th so we still have something to play for during that time. It’ll test us a little, but hopefully we’ll get some guys who are injured to get healthy, and there’s a couple other guys who we’ll have to smart about and make sure they can help us in the game as well. It’s a good time for us to have a break, and it’s a good time for us to get three points.
Sporting Kansas City forward Dom Dwyer
On stopping the winless streak
It’s funny actually, this whole winless streak thing, because other teams if they tie games they’re undefeated, but for us it’s winless. Obviously it’s nice to get three points with the break coming up. We were up in it today with the red card early in the game. It was a lot of running for us, but we stayed in touch of the game. We were smart, and we got the result we deserved.
On being down a man and getting three points
I guess we’re ‘Sporting fit.’ It was a good test of character. We have a lot of guys who don’t normally start, but came in today. They had a fantastic performance from every single player on the field. We managed the game well. Ten men for almost the entire game, and to win 2-0 pretty comfortably as well. We defended smartly, and I should’ve had a couple more goals as well. Great finish from Soony (Saad) on the first goal, and obviously the penalty kick put it away.
On guys constantly getting injured
The good news is if we lose them all now we’ll have them ready for the playoffs fit and ready. That’s football sometimes, we’ve just been unlucky. We’re grinding out results, and that’s why we have a deep roster.
Sporting Kansas City forward Soony Saad
On getting a win going into the World Cup break
It’s huge for us. Now we can go into the break with three points, and some confidence to pick up where we left off to get three points.
On scoring the goal before halftime
It was very difficult, I mean even 11 on 11 against Houston is a difficult match. Smaller field, weather condition, and the game being physical, but even being down a man I felt like we were focused. We picked our moments to go. On the one where I scored I felt that was us stepping up as a team to capitalize on a mistake. It was perfect right before half to get some momentum.
On the atmosphere in the locker room with injuries
It feels like there’s a witch doctor that is doing some magic on our team. Injuries a part of the game, and I think we’re a deep enough team to fix it. We have a break coming up so hopefully that will give us some time to rest up some of the guys, and come in ready to go.
Houston Dynamo head coach Dominic Kinnear
Thoughts on the match
I’m the guy who picks the team, I’m the guy who makes the subs. This game is my fault today, I take 100 percent of the blame.
On the decision to start Tyler Deric
Just to give Tally [Hall] a break. Tyler has been playing pretty good at practice, wanted to give him a chance. I think we have been giving up a lot of goals and Tally has been getting beat up, that was the thinking behind it.
Houston Dynamo goalkeeper Tyler Deric
On Eric Brunner’s goal line save
Brunner made a great play. He shouldn’t have been put in that situation in the first place, but it was good focus by him. I think when he came into the game he sent a really sent a message with his first header. He was really tuned into the whole game its just unfortunate he couldn’t go the whole 90.
Disappointing not to turn things around before the World Cup break?
It’s disappointing. Especially at home you want to get results when you can, and today just wasn’t our day.
Houston Dynamo forward Giles Barnes
What will the team work on with the break?
I think we need to look at everything from back to front. I’m sure that’s exactly what we will be doing a lot of hours out on the training field. There will be some guys coming back, some people can get some extra fitness work in so after the break we come back ready and raring to go.
Anything you can put your finger on for this stretch?
No not really. Today they got a dubious penalty—AJ [Cochran]’s got his hands by the side of him. It’s just the way its going for us at the moment.
