KANSAS CITY WIZARDS MANAGER PETER VERMES
On the team’s first goals allowed at home this season:
“We gave up two soft goals. I can tell you right now that will not become a theme. That is something that we will rectify very, very quickly. We have to be able to keep the ball out of the back of the net.”
On earning a point after falling behind 2-0:
“One of the things we wanted to see with this team was how we would react when we went down by a couple of goals. Obviously, the resiliency of the group to get back in the game was excellent.”
On Kei Kamara’s game-tying goal, which was very similar to the miss Kamara had earlier this season against the Los Angeles Galaxy:
“He was definitely concentrated—he did not want to miss that one. I hope this gets as much attention as the other goal he missed, and people will say that ‘look, the guy came back and made it in the same situation.’”
KANSAS CITY WIZARDS MIDFIELDER DAVY ARNAUD
On his goal that was not allowed right before halftime:
“It was definitely frustrating, and it would have come at a good time for us—right before halftime to even it up. The referee made the decision that he felt it was a head injury and he needed to stop the play. I wish he would have stopped it at the very beginning of the play or at the very end, not right in the middle of it, because the ball was still at the top of the box in a dangerous spot.”
KANSAS CITY WIZARDS STRIKER KEI KAMARA
On his game-tying goal:
“It’s kind of a blessing to have kind of a do-over less than a month apart (from my miss). This is a game that I love to play, and when something happens (like my miss), I just let it go. I’m not somebody that is going to kill myself about it. It was great work by Teal. The ball came across, I just took a deep breath, and it was the same weather and everything, but I was wearing different shoes this time. This time I was wearing blue shoes.”
On his team-leading five goals:
“I feel good right now. The people around me are doing a great job, I just need to put myself in the right position. I’m happy the way we’re playing right now offensively. The five goals I have is good, but we need to start getting wins.”
CHICAGO FIRE HEAD COACH CARLOS DE LOS COBOS
On the game:
“We started very well, and we finished bad. We defended very close to our box, in the last few minutes of the first half we played with a lot of risk, and they pushed us. In the second half, the substitutions performed well and changed the face of the team. But it was a difficult game because they are a very good team with good players. I am happy with our players, they worked hard, but the end result was not good for us.”
On the substitutions:
“I didn’t like the performance of the players; even though (Julio) Martinez scored, it was not enough. He needed to work harder to help the team. They need to work harder if they want to play.”
CHICAGO FIRE MIDFIELDER LOGAN PAUSE
On the game:
“Giving up that goal right after we scored the second one really hurt us. It is pretty disheartening, to go up two to zero and work extremely hard, but with the amount of pressure the Wizards put on and the numbers they throw we really needed another goal to put it away, but unfortunately we dropped points tonight. The way this locker room feels right now this game was like a loss. We did enough to win this game, but we did drop two points and we aren’t happy about it, regardless if it was on the road.”
On the first goal:
“I had it, and I knew that Marco (Pappa) was making a run up top to the corner so I touched it to the corner and he made a great cross in for Julio (Martinez) on the outside.”
CHICAGO FIRE FORWARD BRIAN MCBRIDE
On the second goal:
“Patrick (Nyarko) got in behind, he caused problems all day for them. He saw me early so he played the ball early and it took a little deflection so it sat nicely, and I was able to take it early so the goalkeeper couldn’t close the angle.”
On Kansas City’s play:
“Kansas City wanted to be playing up front from the very beginning, and they were. We caught them on counterattacks, but we just needed to be more patient. There was a period in the first fifteen minutes of the second half where we tried to feed players through, but they would step up and catch us offside. Toward the end, they threw a lot of bodies forward, causing a lot of emotion in the box, and they were able to sneak one through.”
