Sporting KC Manager Peter Vermes
On how he thinks his side has performed in extra time during this year’s 2017 U.S. Open Cup run...
“Obviously really well cause we’re going to the final. Great determination, showed a lot of the fitness that we worked on in the offseason, and then into preseason and the rest of the year. It’s also a strong mentality and as much as this past weekend – we had a lapse in concentration – tonight was a special performance by the team to be able to play the way we did, to not get rattled after they scored first, come back into the game, finish it out like we did and have the kind of confidence that we did was different level.”
On short turnaround ahead of Saturday’s game in Seattle...
“We have to come in tomorrow, unfortunately, and have a regen - we’ll just have a late start. We’ve got to get the team prepared to play on the weekend which is going to be a tough one only because we expended a lot of energy, but we’ll do our best.”
On if Tim Melia’s past success in penalty shootouts gave him confidence...
“I would say that Tim’s been really good on all parts of the game. Whether it’s just PKs – it’s not just PKs – I’m confident in our team, all the way around. Tim, the rest of the players, I’m confident. I believe that the right thing happened tonight. All due respect, San Jose played a hard fought match but we were the better team and we deserved the victory. It was well deserved, we had to fight for it – that builds some, character’s not the right word, we made some deposits tonight about certain things that we’re going to be able to use later down the road but it was a special performance tonight.”
On the amount of success Sporting KC has had in the U.S. Open Cup...
“The way I would phrase it is that when I took over as coach, when the rebrand game, some of the big things we talked about and one of the highlights was that we can’t talk about championships, we’ve got to go after them. We’ve got to go after winning things and at the start of every year, it’s the same three things that are always out there. There’s the Supporters’ Shield, U.S. Open Cup, MLS Cup. I think every team in the league takes it serious, whichever competition we’re talking about, they all take it seriously. The difference is, do they win? I think there’s something to be said about – we use different players, we change things up and everybody contributes. That’s a really, really special aspect, and I’ll quote Benny (Feilhaber). After the game, he’s walking by me, and I can see that he’s a little frustrated that he didn’t score his penalty. I said, ‘hey, don’t worry about it, we won.’ He goes, ‘That’s what a team is, that’s why a team can win things and not just individual players.’ Our guys believe that. It’s one of our core values, team first. The club understands that we want to win, but the players understand more importantly that that’s why we’re here, that’s what we’re searching for and that’s what we’re working for every day and they get the job done."
On if he thought Sporting KC was a bit off until the equalizer…
“Actually, no. I thought we were playing really well. I thought they caught us on the counter. I think the guy cuts inside, gets around Ike [Opara], hits a very good shot. It’s a really good shot. I’m not going to say that we were sleeping or whatever, sometimes you have to credit somebody for doing something that is really good. I thought that Hoesen made a really good play and had a great finish. But I go back to the key to me is how we responded and the maturity that we showed in the game to not lose ourselves and to basically chip away, chip away, chip away. The goal we scored was tremendous, we had 18 passes leading up to the goal. It was almost like a passing pattern that we do in training. It was just a fantastic finish, shoot we could have scored I don’t know how many more goals. Great character by the group.”
On if the team practices penalties…
“We do especially when we have a game coming up like this. We spend time on it. We have an order, but you also have to remember sometimes, we had to take Zus out of the game, he was cramping up and we didn’t want to push him any further. Sometimes it gets changed or redirected a little bit based on the personnel around the field, but I would tell you a majority of the guys they all feel very comfortable hitting them. We practice them more than enough and we will continue to do so.”
On Daniel Salloi…
“Look that kid, it’s very strange. I remember watching him in the academy in a couple games and I really really really remember looking at that kid and thinking, man he has something. It’s just a little different, but the one thing that he has that every goalscorer has is he has this hunger, he has this desire. He wants to score all the time and he wants that penalty kick. It’s because he’s a goalscorer and I think that confidence is displayed on a regular basis when he steps on the field because it doesn’t phase him to be thrown in the game or to be in a position like that. He’s just a confident kid. He’s not cocky, he’s just confident in himself and he actually comes through, so credit to him. That was not an easy moment for a young kid.”
On San Jose…
“Yeah, they moved to a new formation. We knew what they were trying to do. I thought we actually executed our gameplan better than I thought we would to be honest with you. There is no doubt in my mind that we were better with the ball than I thought we would be. We had more of the ball and the number of chances we created was fantastic. So I don’t know what else I can say other than a job well done to the guys, but you know all the credit goes to them because they played very very well.”
On Latif Blessing…
“He’s like the little energizer bunny. He’s actually getting better and better in our system all the time and that’s probably the most important thing. He’s got a great mentality.”
Sporting KC Goalkeeper Tim Melia
On if past success impacted his mentality heading into the penalty shootout...
“No, I have all the confidence in the world that our players are going to make their PKs and I just have to do my job and make a save or two and they’re going to do the rest.”
On the amount of success Sporting KC has had in the U.S. Open Cup...
“I think it’s a combination of everything from ownership all the way down to staff, coaches, players to all the guys who do a lot behind the scenes – everyone’s working towards the same goal: we’re here to win championships. That’s our goal at the start of the preseason, we do everything possible to make that a reality. I think this game especially the character that we showed and response that we showed from last week was phenomenal. For me, that was some of our best attacking soccer all year, and not for the other goalkeeper having a hell of a game, that’s a 5-1 game. I just think we have to use this as momentum going into the weekend against a tough conference opponent and just build off this performance."
On getting the save so quickly after Benny’s blocked attempt…
“I just think it helped our confidence a little bit going into the next rounds of shooting. Benny is the guy that I would bet the most on making a penalty, he’s allowed to miss one and fortunately we were able to win. So I think it was just the little confidence boost that we needed to get us through the rest of the shootout.”
On Andrew Tarbell…
“I told him right before the penalties that I thought he had an excellent game and he kept his team in it and he got his team to that point and it was my job to take it away from him."
Sporting KC defender Matt Besler
On the team’s history of going to penalty kicks…
"Each team is different. There are certainly a lot of guys on this team that have experience in this tournament, but there are some players on the field that it’s new to them. There is always a balance. The thing I think experience gives you is confidence. In the pressure moments, when the game goes to extra time, we had a calm feeling about us, a mature approach to overtime and more times than not we are able to pull things out."
On whether or not he slipped taking his penalty kick…
“It was after. I didn’t slip as I was taking it. I was able to make solid contact like i wanted to. I think I slipped more after I hit it.”
On why the team is so successful in penalty kick shootouts…
“That’s the million dollar question. I don’t know, but we believe in them. If we have to go to penalties, we are confident with our goalkeepers in our shootouts. It’s something we prep for and train for. I’m just happy we were able to come out on top today.”
On the double-edge sword of winning but having to play 120 minutes in a three-game week…
“It’s not like at the end of regulation or with 10 minutes in the game we were like ‘let’s go to extra time.’ And then when we are in extra time we say ‘let’s see this things out and go to penalty kicks.’ We want to try and score the goals so we don’t have to go to extra time or go to penalties. I don’t know what it is about the last couple years. It just seem like destiny that whatever happens, whether we score a goal or give one up or we are not able to score, we go to penalties. I’m hoping we got those out of the way and hopefully we can win the final.”
On the performance of Andrew Tarbell…
“He played a really good game. He had a big presence. Even in the penalty kicks when you step up and look at your target, it shrinks because of his big frame. But we just wanted to keep plugging away. We knew we were going to be the stronger team because we were going to keep the ball and were playing at home. He kept making saves but we weren’t worried about it. We just wanted to keep going and we were confident that we were going to get one.”
On the impact of the crowd and taking penalty kicks in front of the Cauldron…
“It was huge. I’m glad we won the toss.”
On trying to contain Danny Hoesen…
“It was a great goal by him — just a strong run and unbelievable finish. I think for the first 15 minutes it was an open game. San Jose really came out and were tough to break down. They also had the energy to break and some of their counterattacks were really dangerous. I think what we did well was we stuck to our gameplan. Even after the goal, we stayed calm and wore them down and we were able to get the goal which was huge in the first half for us.”
