SPORTING KANSAS CITY MANAGER PETER VERMES
On the team’s road win:
“Well, look. It’s always good to get three points wherever you are. Home or away. I thought we’ve had a couple of games at home where we gave up a few points to where we should’ve gotten three, not one. Getting this game on the road makes up for a little bit of that. I thought we played very well in the game. I thought the fact that we scored early, they had a game-plan, they were sitting back and countering us, and the fact that we scored early, it made them rethink about what they wanted to do. We got the second one, and I knew at the second-half that they were going to come out and put everything on us, and they were going to step up high. It kind of changed for them, and I thought we handled it well, and at the end we were able to hang on and get the three.”
On the LA Galaxy’s strategy to defend instead of attack on a home game:
“It has happened to us now a couple of times. As of late, for some reason, teams are kind of sitting back on us. But I thought again, we were really prepared. For we thought that was going to happen. So, the good thing is, the guys were prepared and I thought they handled it well. They managed the game throughout. And then, knowing that the second half we were going to have to change, because now they were going to step up and really put a lot of numbers forward, again, I thought we managed that too well.”
On Ike Opara’s goal:
“Ike’s a really athletic guy. The fact that he was able to pull that off doesn’t surprise me, but it was a very heads up play, because there were a lot of things that he could have thought about. He didn’t know if the keeper was coming, or where he was, all those things. But, just a really heads up and athletic play by him.”
On Ike Opara’s possible injury from a hard tackle in the game:
“I just think we have him as a contusion, more of anything. I think he’s okay. I think he’ll be fine for Wednesday.”
On Benny Feilhaber’s injury:
“He definitely hurt his ankle. I don’t know to what extent. But I’m going to tell you it’s not good at the moment. It’s not like he’s going to be okay tomorrow. It was definitely a very dangerous tackle. I thought the game was a hard fought game, but I don’t think it was a dirty game. I think that tackle, though, was over the line. Just that one.”
SPORTING KANSAS CITY DEFENDER GRAHAM ZUSI
On the team’s performance this season:
“The performances have been there multiple times on the road for us. It’s just matter of sticking some balls in the back of the net. We’ve created chances in past games, but we’ve just been off here and there. Tonight I think it was another pretty complete performance on the road. especially in the first half I thought we were very very good building out of the back, our movement on the was good as well. We stuck a couple in. second half obviously they needed to push the game and they did so and we did what we had to to get the result.
On his thoughts about LA Galaxy’s strategy to counterattack:
“They’ve been a team this year who’s been very good on the counter, they’ve got some really quick guys up top who can break out quick and they’ve got some guys who can really provide the final pass as well. So not completely surprised about how they came out, but I thought we handled it pretty well.”
On Ike Opara’s goal:
“To be honest I didn’t see it very well. I was about to yell at [Matt Besler] for not playing the simple ball to benny [Feilhaber] but it ended up being a very good ball and Ike [Opara] I guess had an overhead kick. I’ll have to see it again though.
On being first place in the MLS Western Conference
“It’s a good week for us. I think the results around the league were favorable to us as well, and like I said before, we rewarded ourselves with a win on the road tonight rather than playing really well and just getting a draw or losing. So, we’re in a good spot and we need to keep playing the way we are to stay on top.”
On working towards being a part of the U.S national team in the Gold Cup
“Of course. That’s always the plan.”
SPORTING KANSAS CITY DEFENDER IKE OPARA
On his goal
“I guess at the moment, I’m only scoring good goals, or crazy goals. It was a decent ball from Bes (Matt Besler) to create some havoc, and I just wanted to time it. I didn’t think I was going to be able to get power from my head, so I just wanted to let it bounce at attempt and see what happens and obviously it went in.
On the difficulty of scoring his goal
“I guess that’s kind of what I’m known for. I’m pretty flexible and athletic. It’s not out of the norm for me. I’m able to do some weird things with my body, so I’ll take it.
On his feeling of scoring a bicycle kick
“I’m just more happy that we won. We have created chances on the road, we just haven’t scored any goals. I think today we were able to get two and we could’ve had a third, or maybe even a fourth. We had some good opportunities and so I’m glad we were able to kind of break the ice and get a couple.”
On the road win
“We just want to keep our heads down and keep working. It’s a long season and obviously we just started the second part of it. Or second half of it. And it’s a good start to it and we want to keep going and try to accumulate points and see if we can win something.
On where he ranks today's goal
“I don’t know. It’s up there, I’ll just say that. I don’t rank my goals. I guess I don’t score enough of them. I should be able to rank them. I don’t know . it was just fun. I mean I don’t know. I was just showing the guys how to do it on my team.
On his possible injury from a hard tackle in the game
“Yeah, I thought it initially was, but it was just a Charlie horse right above it. So just a couple of days. All good.”
SPORTING KANSAS CITY MIDFIELDER ROGER ESPINOZA
[Translated from Spanish]
Pensamientos sobre el partido:
“Fue un partido difícil, creo que teníamos años de no ganar [aquí]. Sabemos lo que significa esta cancha, este club. Y bueno creo que el primero tiempo nos favoreció más a nosotros. El segundo ellos jugaron un poco más, pero bien, pudimos quedar fuerte al final.”
Thoughts on the game:
“It was a hard-fought game, I think we hadn’t won here in years. We know what this field and club mean. I think we were better in the first half. They took possession of the second half and we were able to finish strong in the end.”
Sobre la química del equipo:
“Eso es bueno, se están dando las cosas bien. Hemos trabajado muchos años juntos. Se entiende uno en la cancha y eso es bueno. Ya nos conocemos muy bien, sabemos la identidad del equipo, el estilo que vamos a jugar y eso nos ha ayudado mucho a través de los años.”
On the team’s chemistry:
“It’s good, things have been working out for us. We’ve been together for a long time. We understand each other on the field and that’s good. We know each other very well, we know the team’s identity, the style of soccer we are going to play and that has helped us throughout the years.”
Sobre los objetivos del equipo esta temporada:
“Quedar campeones todos los años, son las expectativas de los dueños, del club, siempre quedar campeones.”
On the team’s objectives this season:
“We want to be champions, it’s the expectation from the owners, from the club, we want to be champions.”
