Sporting Kansas City head coach Raphael Wicky
Thoughts on the match…
I evaluate the performance. The performance was good. That's what I just told the players. I want to win. The players want to win. But I always tell the players to leave an effort on the field and if we have good performances, our chances to win games are bigger than to lose games. That's what I told them. I cannot ask for wins. Everyone wants to win so I always say if we perform well our chances will be better to have winning games. And I think if we keep performing like we did these last games then we will win in the future more games than we lose. Now, of course, it hurts. No one wants to hear this right now. The players are already sad in there. It hurts myself as well. But that's how I have to also analyze that the performance was good today. We conceded these two goals in the worst moments of the game. Every game has a little bit of the story. After three minutes, you concede. We react well. I think we created good chances. We played well. We dominated and then you concede just before halftime. That is obviously then hard to swallow, but I feel like the team reacted really well. We came out with energy. We came out and created more. We said step one is not to concede the third one and score one. We did. We had chances. We were there. We pushed. Unfortunately, it didn't go our way tonight, but again the performance was good tonight. I'm happy about the performance, not happy about the result.
On Manu Garcia’s impact off the bench…
Manu was really good when he came in today. He has been really good coming in these last games. He has been impactful. He has scored. He gave assists. He had the big impact in the game. This is very positive. Now, I think for me as a coach, it's also good to see that Taylor (Calheira) played well these last games and that we have other options. It gives me more options for the future. But Manu came in really well. And he will do good for us. If he's fit and if he's healthy and he plays like that, he will be important to this team, of course. But I made a technical decision. I think he reacted well, coming in from the bench. That's what you want from players, right? And he did that.
On the team’s push for an equalizer…
I think it's difficult to manage that in the moment of the game. You score, you push, you create, you want to come back. Of course, the team wants to score as quick as possible and sometimes then you may lose a little bit of the game plan. You may lose a little bit of the moment or you try to play maybe too direct. I don't think I have to put that against their favor tonight. At the end of the day, I have to say that Red Bulls were very smart in breaking the rhythm of the game. When there were goal kicks, throw-ins, fouls, they broke that rhythm. I think our team then wanted to play and wanted to score as quick as possible. I think overall the effort was fine. I think we had enough chances to at least draw this game.
On the team’s response after going down…
The team responded well. I think the team responded really well in the last three games. Even before that, Portland was obviously a tough one, but even before, the team responded well. I think I have to look at the last four or five games and I see very positive signs. I think that's something we can really build on. I believe that if we keep playing like this and we keep competing like this, we will get there. I believe that.
On the play of Calvin Harris and Capita Capemba…
For Capita, it's going to be really important to have a preseason with us. He didn't have a preseason. He came in in a difficult moment to the team. That's always not easy for players coming in. But I think he shows in every game what he's capable of with his speed and with his 1v1. But I think it's important for him to have a full preseason with the team. Calvin has shown since the beginning, not only these last games where he scored and gave assists, but he has shown from the beginning that he's a player who can always hurt teams with his speed and with his verticality. He created chances also before he scored the first goal I think 10 days ago. He's a dangerous player. I want him to keep doing this and pushing.
On the upcoming World Cup break…
Now it's time for the players to go and relax and be with their families and enjoy that. But then we come back and we have time to work and we will work hard. I think those last games gave us very good information on what to do and how we can do things. I have to say, it gave us competition in the team. I think having guys back from injuries and having Taylor playing up there, it brings competition. When you have competition in a team, I believe that everyone maybe needs to give a little bit more. I think this is what we want to build and I believe that this will be positive in the future. When everyone comes back healthy, hopefully they're all back and we will add some players and then there will be lots of competition in this team.
On Zorhan Bassong’s contributions to the club…
He has done really well for us. He's an important player for us and I'm really happy with the way he came back after his injury. Obviously, it was very unfortunate that he missed almost all season. Now the rest is not in my control, right? I don't know what the roster looks like for Canada. I've played in the World Cup. It's the biggest thing you can play as an athlete and as a soccer player. When you can play a World Cup for your country, I think there's a lot of pride in there so I cross fingers for him that he can be in the roster and that he can enjoy that. All I want is that he comes back healthy and that he can keep helping us to get better.
On the team’s defense…
The defense is not just the back four or back five or whoever plays there. I think defending, for me, is always as a team and I think we showed in these last games the way we want to defend. We want to defend together. Dejan (Joveljic) and Taylor, Dejan and whoever plays next to him, are our first defenders. If they work hard, it helps the team to defend better. The first goal I have to watch again. It was a 50/50 ball or a duel or something, but the second goal has nothing to do with our defending. The second goal is a mistake in playing out. The wrong decision in this moment and then we got punished there in a really bad moment of the game. But I think we have to keep working like we did in the last three or four weeks, keep working on defending as a team and as a group in the shape we've had and then we will get better.
Sporting Kansas City forward Calvin Harris
On the game…
I think it was a positive performance. I think we played well. We imposed ourselves. I think they come out of the game saying they were a tough team to play against. That's the main thing that we have to do to give ourselves a chance to win games. Today it was just one of those games of football where you have chances. You feel like you're imposing yourself and you're the better team, but it just doesn't show in the result at the end of the day. I think from the game we can take a lot of positive things, but at the end of the day, we want three points.
On his goal...
I see Manu and, when he gets the ball, I just run forward and try and get in behind and he plays that ball perfectly over the top into a gap that I didn't even think was possible, to be honest. It bounces just before me. The only way I could finish it was to just push it over the keeper. I'm just happy (Manu) was performing the way he was because he's a great player.
On the timing of the goal…
I think both teams were knackered by the end of it, to be honest. I think both teams gave everything, kind of fully emptied the tank, and I mean, that's the bare minimum. That's the way the game goes sometimes.
On returning after the break…
I think that's the feeling we all want to have when we come back and the feeling we want to have each week. Going forward, that's going to be our standard now.
