Sporting KC Manager Peter Vermes
On how things shaped up tonight with the second goal…
“Well the first thing I’ll tell you is that New York’s a good team. We knew this was going to be a very, very difficult match in that they were going to come and throw everything forward. One of the things that people talked about was that they got some young guys on their team. I mean, so do we, but one of the things about young guys is that sometimes you have no fear. And so they were coming quite a bit in the game. Where I thought we were really good in the first half is exactly what we wanted to do, figuring that they would come as much as they did and send as many numbers forward that we were going to get counters on them. And we did. We had a couple different breakaways, I mean Gerso could have scored a hat trick in the first half. It’s a shame that we didn’t put more away and give ourselves a cushion. To get the goal, great goal, beautiful cross, excellent run by Latif [Blessing]. I feel bad for him and Gerso coming off because of injuries, even [Diego] Rubio. But, look, all those guys punched the clock tonight. Everybody put everything in they had. And then for us to come out in the second half and understand that we’re going to have to defend at times and be courageous in those moments… we were, and finally Daniel [Salloi] getting a second goal by making a great run. Another good ball inside. Again, we talked about being able to get behind them because of the way that they are a little bit overzealous going forward. And a great little touch… really happy for him because he’s done really well in this tournament. I think it was a matter of time that he was going to get in the game, it was just a matter of when, but scores a great goal and obviously history. You know, third win in my time period, fourth one for the club, it’s big time.”
On Tim Melia’s legacy with the club…
“Let’s talk about it when he’s done. He’s playing really well, that’s what I would say. He’s playing really well. He’s taken such a big step, especially this year. It’s so obvious. And no disrespect to the rest of the goalkeepers in the league, but he has been lights out. Hopefully that continues because as much as we won tonight, and this will be a good night to celebrate, we’ve got a big game Sunday to get ready for.”
On whether or not he expected Tim Melia to be this good…
“From a shot-stopping and…those types of things, yes. Where he’s become really good is with his feet and in our model of play, the way that we want to play. He was excellent, he was very good.”
On how the younger players on the team responded to the environment…
“Yeah, I mean, you guys need to take note. Obviously not only did Jimmy Medranda come in, you had [Daniel] Salloi, Ilie, Kevin [Oliveira] who we just signed last week. So, when you look at those things, it’s a real credit to the structure that we put in place here and being able to bring those guys along. Our B Team, the Swope Park Rangers, the coaching staff has done a great job in preparing those guys for the first team. So, to see those guys come on to the field and help us secure a championship is an incredible confidence builder for those guys. Because the other piece is that our older players are doing the mentoring that they need to do to bring those guys along for them to understand that this club truly is about winning. It’s not just talk. So now that they’ve had this experience, that’s a big thing to look forward to for the future.”
On the experienced players on the roster helping the younger players…
"I said this early in the week, we have a lot of guys on the team that have experience, but experience only helps you if you know how to use it and you use it at the right time. I had a long talk with one of the veteran players about this and credit to those guys, they responded well. They stepped up in the important moments. It’s important for those guys to be able to pass on that experience. Not just in practice or in the locker room, but even during a game to a young guy. I thought our leadership was good. The only thing I want to say, I really congratulate New York. And the only reason I say that is because they’re a very good team. They’re going to be a difficult team to deal with in the playoffs for the east, for sure. So I congratulate them for getting this far, and I know for them it’s extremely disappointing, but they’re a good team and they’ll find themselves in some more big games like this.”
On winning the cup with the Lamar Hunt name on it…
“Obviously Lamar was the first owner here in Kansas City. I had the pleasure of playing for him. Great man and an incredible supporter of the game and this league, one of the founders. So the fact that we bring that home has a special place in our club, based on having his name on there, no doubt. You also have to understand, too, that as an organization, this is a very, very valued championship to us because of the nature that all the different levels can play in this tournament. It’s pretty unique in sports. If I remember correctly, ninety-nine teams started out in this tournament. So for us to hoist a trophy at the end of the knockout stage, it’s pretty impressive by this group. And to have done it for a third time now, in our new ownership’s tenor, it’s pretty special.”
On taking the US Open Cup as seriously as the MLS…
“Unless you’re in Champions League, and let’s leave that off to the side, which we are in 2019, but because of this win… every year, we start off the year and we talk about the three opportunities that we have to win. There’s Supporters Shield, MLS Cup, and the US Open Cup. Those are three opportunities for us to win. I would never even think any other way other than “we’re going to try to win all three”. We’re going to take them seriously and we’re going to put a team together that can manage those tournaments in a way in which they can do it physically and psychologically, and finally tactically on the field. Credit to our coaching staff, back office staff, Brian Bliss, Mike Jacobs. Those guys have done a tremendous job in helping us build our team. And then if you look at our Swope Park Rangers coaching staff there and what they’ve done… and then you take the academy and their staff, you know everyone is locked in and focused. I think it’s easy for you to understand that I’m not lying when I say that we truly believe that everything is centered around us winning.”
On the consistent success of the club over the past few years…
“I think’s it’s a couple things. I mentioned one already and it’s that I think the staff across the board does an incredible job. I’m very fortunate that I get to work with incredible people every day and they are committed to what we do. I also think they help immensely with the culture of this club. I think the other side of it is that we have incredible ownership. The resources that they provide us to do our job are amazing. They understand that the environment that we have at this club is important in everything we do, and that helps and leads to success. The final piece is that you have to have players that not only can play, but they also understand the core values of your club and your culture. We have four, I talk about them all the time: team first, high work ethic, intelligence, and having a winning mentality. The winning mentality is not just winning games but pursuing excellence every day. When you do that… I remember when Robb [Heineman] and I were talking about this many, many years ago, I had finally decided that I was coming in to coach the team. We need to be competitive every year, and we need to always be, at least, in the position to compete for a championship. We know that we’re not going to win one every year, though we’d like to and we strive to. But, we have to consistently be competitive. I think we’ve done that. That’s something that is very, very important to us and we are going to continue to try to be that. As I said, tonight’s a night we are going to celebrate. But, we have big game on Sunday so we are going to have to get ready for that because we have a lot of work to do for the rest of the season. It’s not going to be an easy run. There’s a lot more teams in this league, clubs that spend a lot of money, a lot of good players and we’ve got to get ready.”
Sporting KC defender Matt Besler
On how Sporting KC found a way to win tonight…
“Every final is different. It plays out different and we knew that going into the game. It’s impossible to predict what a game is gonna be like. It played out the way I thought it would with two very aggressive teams. The [New York] Red Bulls came to play tonight. They had a lot of energy. At the end of the day, we were able to create a lot of chances in behind which is something we talked about going into the game. And then at the end, we were able to make enough plays to get the job done.”
On the role of the younger players tonight…
“Latif [Blessing], Gerso, Diego [Rubio] and Daniel [Salloi], all the guys up top were threats all game long in behind and out wide. They played a big role for us. Before the game, we talked about being tough to play against, being good defensively and when the times present themselves someone stepping up and making a play. It just so happened those were young guys for us. Credit to them and they deserve a lot of accolades that they are going to get for this game.”
On Tim Melia’s performance…
“He’s been a rock all year long. We have had to lean on him for so many games. Tonight was another game we had to lean on him. He is a confident presence back there for us. I’m just very happy for him because he deserves all the credit he is going to get and I just hope he can continue winning championships for us. I hope I can continue playing with him behind me.”
On where this championships stacks up against the rest…
“I think it’s impossible to rank them. They are all just as sweet in their own way. I want to try and win as many of these things as I can before I’m done playing.”
On the importance of winning titles in his hometown…
“I signed a five-year contract back in 2014 and the main reason I signed that contract was to win championships. I didn’t just say that, I meant it. I didn’t just sign it because this is my hometown and I have family here. My wife is from here. Those are all separate reasons, but the main reason was to win championships. That is something I believed in at the time. This is a club that consistently competes for championships and I’ll play here for as long as we’re continuing to do that and they want me here. Whether that validates me staying or not, who knows, but that is one of the main reasons I stayed. I said it at the time and I still mean it today.”
On the team’s defensive performance today…
“I know Peter [Vermes] uses the term bend but don’t break. Once we went up 2-0, we knew we were going to have to absorb pressure. We probably absorbed too much pressure, if I’m evaluating the game. Again at the end of the day, we did enough to get the job done and that’s all that matters."
Sporting KC goalkeeper Tim Melia
On getting that second cup…
“I think it’s just super important for the club at this point. This was my first opportunity getting to play a final at home and it was an exhilarating feeling. I still can’t explain it. It’s a little surreal at the moment. The support from when we walk out in warmups and all the way through was just something I’ve never experienced before and I’m proud to be part of this group and I’m proud to be part of this club and everything it stands for.”
On the success this team has had since he’s come here and if he envisioned it like this…
“No, I owe everything to these guys and this club. I said this 100 times, but without these players and these coaches, these guys put me on the map. I’m forever appreciative of that.”
On why he doesn’t let himself think about his place in club history…
“I still consider myself young enough in the goalkeeper world and I hope I’m here for a very long time. I have a lot of years to play still and I’ll think about that when I’m starting to get ready to stop playing.”
On if he expected it to be as fast and as physical as it was…
“I think we knew exactly how they were going to come out. Red Bulls, hats off to them, they’re a very good team. Not many teams have pinned us back the way they did at our place. They had a lot of possession, more that probably a lot of teams had coming here. They’re a talented team. They’re front four or five put us under pressure from minute one and we knew it was going to be an extremely difficult game. They generated a few opportunities, a few half chances, things like that. Hats off to them, they are a good organization, a good team and they came in here and played a really good final.”
On if it felt weird to celebrate after regulation…
“I never want to go into overtime. I think it’s really important especially with the game Sunday as big as it is and it’s an earlier game on Sunday and everything kind of switches from Open Cup. We got that in the back of our pocket. We have to use that as confidence going into the latter part of the season and we have to start moving our way up the Western Conference standings.”
On how this sets the team up for the rest of the season…
“Even before we started the season we all had a really bitter taste in our mouth about how we were eliminated the last two years, maybe even before that they had some rough outings as well. It was a goal of ours not to have to play in that play in game. Most importantly right now, we’re just trying to get in to playoffs. It’s so tight in the West right now, as you guys know. We’d love to be in one of the top two places to eliminate that even if it’s a one off game at home. We don’t want to have to play in a one off game. We’d love to get an opportunity to play a home and away series and I think that over the course of two games our talent will rise to the top and we’ll be good with those scenarios.”
Sporting Kansas City midfielder Benny Feilhaber
On his assist on Daniel Salloi’s game-winner…
“Well I had a quick one-two with Seth (Sinovic) and he set me up to just be able to pick up my head and their line was very high, it was probably like forty yards from their goal. I kind of picked my head up hoping somebody would make the run and Daniel read it instantly to make that run and I just thought ‘okay, I’m going to put the ball in that area in between their defense and their goalie and hopefully Daniel can make that run.’ Turned out to be kind of that perfect ball where the goalie has a difficulty in either coming out – not knowing if he should come out or not. He obviously came out and Daniel was just able to kind of toe poke it around him and obviously once he’s able to do that, I knew it was going to trickle in. Daniel did a perfect job in making the run and obviously getting that foot up in front of the goalie.”
On if that goal took the air out of the Red Bulls…
“You would’ve thought so, but they still managed to get that goal in the dying minutes of the game and pressured us in the last five minutes. So we would’ve loved to finish it at 2-0, to not have that kind of anxiety there at the end but they’re a team that don’t quit and they played really for 90 minutes straight, trying to press us here at our house. They deserve a lot of credit, obviously that doesn’t feel like much to them I’m sure now, but they played a really good final and I think the whole final was good between what we did and what they did, it was an exciting final and it’s exciting to play in a game like that because not a lot of teams will be able to do that at our place.”
New York Red Bulls head coach Jesse Marsch
Thoughts on the match…
“I’d like to congratulate Sporting Kansas City on their title. There are no consolation prizes in finals, but I feel like our team played great. I feel like our team went after the game, dictated the pace of the game in many ways, controlled many parts of it and were unlucky not to come away with more. We’ve got a young group of guys that are really building and coming together in a really good way. I thought a lot of them played really well today. I thought a lot of our best players were some of our young guys, so it’s really good to see. As heartbreaking as this is, we will use this. We’ll use this to build confidence because this is a tough place to play, this is a really good team, and we came here and we played it really, really well.”
On the Daniel Salloi goal…
“Obviously going down 2-0 is different than being down 1-0, but we were unlucky just to not take advantage of more situations tonight, because we created many opportunities. If you can get a goal at the beginning of the half, then everything starts to change. At 1-1, then everything would start to move in our favor. But even at 2-0, our guys weren’t phased. They still continued to go after the game. Even if we can manage to get that goal a little bit earlier to give us a little more time, but still we created some big chances after that. So our team pushed. They gave everything they had to each other, to the game and I’m gutted for them. I’m gutted for the organization and the fans because it’s another heartbreaking moment. It’s clear to see that there is something special happening at this club, something happening with this group, so we’re not going to let this deter us. This will actually strengthen us and we’ll get better.
On pace of play…
“It was exactly what I thought. I thought we were the aggressor for almost the entire 90 minutes. I thought we went after the game in a big way. I thought we caused a little bit of trouble for ourselves in the first half by giving away some transition moments and not being alert enough to pick up some of their quick guys in transition. They’ve had a great year with a lot of guys playing well, but again, I thought that we were the aggressor. We put the game on our terms for much of it and were unlucky not to come away with more.”
On individual play…
“I thought Tyler Adams (played well) I think Sean Davis played his best game of the year, I think [Michael] Murillo and Fidel Escobar, I think Aaron Long had one of his best games ever, you can go down the list of some of our young guys and talk about how great they played and how much they went after the game, how fearless they were. And for them to play in their first big final of a really big match and to go after the game in such a big way, I think it bodes really well for the future. We have to wait a little bit longer, but it’s coming. It’s coming. There’s something special happening here and it’s painful to have to wait a little bit longer, but we’re going to find a way to get there and we have the right group of guys to do it.”
On focus moving forward in regular season…
“The outcome is obviously heartbreaking, but the performance is what I think we’ll carry with us. In the moment, there’s no consolation prize. But the confidence that this group has, they way that they played and the way that they played for each other, this will continue to make us good.”
On the future of the U.S. Open Cup…
“Well I think that this tournament continues to grow in recognition, which is good. Every league in the world has their cup, and this one has taken a little bit of time, but even the fact that so many games were on national television this time around, that so many of the second-division teams are starting to emerge with big fan bases and important clubs, it starts to feel like it’s a real tournament. So that’s what hurts the most, is not able to take how important and how big this is for all of us and the club and come up a little bit short. But like I said, we’ll use it as a positive.”
On having two players guarding Bradley Wright-Phillips…
“We found him in certain moments. When he does get his chance to be a little sharper and take it. If they’re going to mark him with two, then we’re going to have favorable matchups in other places. So if we’re looking for long, that can be advantageous, but also that means things will open up underneath. As the game went on, they were done. We were just pushing the game. We knew that was going to happen, it’s just unfortunate that we gave up the second goal.
On success of Sporting KC in U.S. Open Cup…
“It’s impressive. I remember back in the Chicago Fire days, when we won a bunch. I think when you get momentum in this tournament and take it seriously, then the dominos start to fall. That’s the thing with our club, once we get the first one then a lot of the other ones will start to come. It eluded us this time but it won’t deter us. We’ll find a way.”
On Latif Blessing goal…
“We put Kemar Lawrence out there to make sure that [Graham] Zusi wouldn’t have freedom to be moving into the attack and putting balls into the box. We were late to rotate out there and somehow it winds up just going over Aaron Long’s head and right to Blessing. So it was a good finish, but it shouldn’t have gotten to that. We should have done better.
New York Red Bulls midfielder Sacha Kljestan
Initial thoughts on match…
“Obviously we’re disappointed to not come away with the trophy. I thought the effort that everybody put forward was 110 percent there. I asked the guys before the game to look across at each other during the game and to know that every other player had each other’s back and to give everything they had. I’ve never felt more like my teammates have had my back more than tonight and I feel like they gave everything they had. Sporting Kansas City deserved to win this one. They’re a good team and they’re tough to play at home and unfortunately we couldn’t get a second goal to tie it up.”
On progression of young players
“Playing in a cup final at a young age is going to do wonders for these guys’ careers. To get this experience is going to help us in the short term and in the long term both as a club and in these guys’ careers. I thought they were all pretty good tonight, pretty brave, they were unphased by a tough environment so I’m very proud of my teammates.”
On weight of expectations…
“I think that expectation will always be there. We know about the suffering of the fans, and never having a cup of our own. We know that pressure is always going to be there, whether you play for a club that has won a bunch of titles or not, then the expectations may start to grow even more. But when you play for a club that hasn’t won, the expectations are pretty heavy. I thought we handled the pressure pretty well. Like I said, I thought a bunch of the guys were pretty brave to play and they played a pretty good game. Can’t fault anybody, I feel like we played a pretty good game.”
On Sporting KC’s execution and concentration…
“I think Blessing sneaks in on that first goal and puts a really good header on, and the second one I feel like we could have prevented if we were just a little more prepared in the moment. You could tell they’ve been here before. As soon as they scored the first one, they slowed the game down a lot more. Before, when it was 0-0, they tried to speed the game up like we like to do, but they did a pretty good job of handling the lead when they got it. Obviously they have championship experience more than us.”
New York Red Bulls striker Bradley Wright-Phillips
Initial thoughts on match…
“Obviously the result is not what we wanted, but the message from [head coach] Jesse [Marsch] is positive. He’s proud of us, we played like we planned to. I can’t lie, the two goals that we gave up, it’s got to be a little more difficult to score against us. But he was proud.”
On late rally…
“Too little too late. This competition has been a bunch of late goals for us. I’m not going to lie, I thought we were going to get another one, but it just wasn’t to be, I guess.”
On playing with the pressure to win cup…
“You obviously know the history of the club, and we got so close, but you’ve got to feel bad for the fans. They all came up, and I was sure we were going to win this game. There was no doubt in my mind. You’ve got to feel for them. We’re here and we’re trying and we’re plugging away for them, so hopefully we can bring them something. We’ve got the rest of the season to go and we’ve got some important games coming up to get to the MLS Cup Final.”
New York Red Bulls goalkeeper Ryan Meara
On Latif Blessing’s goal…
“[Graham] Zusi put a real good ball in and it just kind of got over Aaron (Long) and he just had a powerful header on goal. That’s a play that you just have to credit them, they made a nice play, as simple as that.”
Thoughts on match…
“I’m kind of at a loss for words, we’re devastated. There’s no other way to put it, we wanted to win this for our fans. We have such unbelievable supporters, you saw how many of them came to Kansas City and we just wanted to repay their support. Unfortunately we came up a little short. Hopefully this will just spare us on to move on to the MLS Cup.”
On moving in MLS regular season…
“Yeah that’s the thing, (our upcoming games) will make us move on from this. We’ve got a big game in Columbus, we know the teams around us have been winning, Montreal won tonight and Atlanta won tonight, so I guess feel sorry for ourselves tonight, get up and dust ourselves off tomorrow and start looking forward to Saturday and Wednesday with D.C. United at home. The games are coming thick and fast and we’ve got to be ready for it.”
