Sporting Kansas City Manager Peter Vermes
Thoughts on the match:
"Haven't seen the first goal. I don't know if it was offsides or not. I've heard different stories. I thought we responded well. We get back in the game. Probably could have stuck a second one in when Salloi gets a breakaway on Robles. You know, come half time, even us getting the second goal is good, but we have so many guys out at the moment that we just don't have enough on the field to sustain it. Unfortunately it's kind of been the story of the last, you know, three or four games. It's been the same thing. But you know, it's part of the league. It's part of the season. That's the way it goes. It will be nice when we get all of our guys back, which is still going to be a little while."
On how to rebound in the next match:
"Well, I just think that we have to be much more difficult to play against. I think we gave them too much time and space on the field. They were able to break through us on the lines, and they caused us a lot of problems with movement only because I think that we were reactionary, not anticipating. I just think we've got to be a little different in that regard, and the other is that I also think we created some good chances. We just weren't deadly enough, and they were."
On the Red Bulls backline:
"Listen, I think again, we made it -- we got it in behind them quite a bit and we created some good chances. I just think that we weren't deadly enough. Daniel could score; had another chance on Robles, but we hit it right to him, little chances like that, and then we made some bad decisions in and around the box. I think we could have been, again, a little bit more killer instinct, if you will. But I think the difference was, is they were, with the other two goals. They were a little more killer instinct and a little more aggressiveness to get in the game. Sometimes happens when you're away from home, too, though."
Sporting Kansas City midfielder Roger Espinoza
On the result:
"Tough game. We knew coming here that it was going to be a tough game. You know, I thought we did really well for the first 76 minutes. I think after that we fell under pressure and we didn’t know how to defend them. They ended up scoring the last two goals and that’s what cost us the game."
On the mentality for next game:
"You know, that’s the luxury of this game. You have a game right away and you have, if you say revenge to make it all right. We have this game and now we have to think about this game. Now this one is over and we have to think about next match."
On how Red Bulls changed the game in the second half:
"No, you know I thought we let our guard down after we scored the second goal. Props to them for putting the pressure on us, and when they got the few opportunities they got they were able to put it away and hey I think those two goals were a special thing they did."
Sporting Kansas City forward Daniel Salloi
Overall thoughts on the match:
"It was a difficult game, obviously. We went up and, after that, our performance dropped which I’m not happy about. We have to work on it. We are in a bigger gap than I thought. We have to work to get out of it because we are losing points and teams are getting ahead of us. So, we have to step it up and change our mentality and game style because, obviously, we have unlucky moments but at the same time, we haven’t won in a while. So, we have to get back on the right track."
On his mentality going into their next match against Houston Dynamo:
"Well, now we have a cup game, so we have to be really focused on that one because we obviously want to advance but in the league, even if you go up you have to pay attention for the full ninety minutes because in the past two games we went up and teams came back. We tied one and we lost one game in the past two games and it’s just something we can’t let happen. We are a better team than that. We have better quality. So, I think we’ve got to work on that and change that. It’s just something we have to push through if we are winning."
On what he attributes to the team’s second half performance:
"It happens a lot of times when teams go up and then they feel like it’s easy from now on. That happened to us and we can’t have our heads like that again because when New York plays at home, they’re going to come. So, we were in shock after the second goal. They just came and we couldn’t react. So, we have to change that for the next games. I think the first 60 minutes was fine and after that we just dropped our performance so we have to work on that."
New York Red Bulls head coach Chris Armas
On replacing Kaku with Marc Rzatkowski:
"Marc, he had a great week of training. In every session, he brought energy and he always has quality, but he showed a lot of life this week. Going into the game, we thought that he would be a guy we'd rely on in some capacity."
On how the first half played out after the goals:
"Yeah, I think even if you took the goals out of the first half, we got stretched a bit and we were late to some plays. Obviously they are a good passing team, best in the league. Best at switching fields and if we are late to plays, it costs us a lot of running on a really hot and humid day. We had to address that at half time. But yeah, we had a lot of dirty running the first half."
On what makes Bradley Wright-Phillips a special player:
"I think what makes Bradley Wright-Phillips a special player is that he's a special person. You know, he's an outlier in terms of -- I just don't think you see attackers and goal scorers with the same work rate and commitment to the team, and he puts the team first. You know, No. 9s and humble, does it go together? With him, he's so for the team. And he's a winner. He's just a winner. So you can see, he can will himself to goals. He can will the team to victory. He drives this team."
On the use of substitutions and the play of Sean Davis:
"Yeah, I think Sean Davis continues to grow; as a soccer player, understanding how to play the six and what the game needs, and he grows as a leader. You can see that he's the guy, when you scour video after the games, he's the guy pointing, organizing and controlling things out there. Over the course of these years, he continues to grow in all ways and be a big piece, big player here. In terms of the substitutions, listen, tonight's demands were different from last time and the next game will be different from this one. As a staff, we'll always look at. “what does the game need?” We'll do our best to try to figure out what it needs and who it needs and when it is needed. So if we're just talking about this game, on a hot night -- and that's only part of it. But I think that we knew there was guys that had great weeks of training and we knew come into it, would help the game tonight. It was what the game needed, and it needed it earlier than later."
On facing Peter Vermes as a new head coach:
"Yeah, look, I'm not new to the league, and I'm not new to the sport and I'm not new to, you know, understanding how teams -- other teams play. With Peter, specifically, I've said it in the build-up this week: He's got a good team; it has a clear identity. They understand their roles with the ball, against the ball, in transition. We could see in preparation, it was difficult, because there's a lot to his team. We knew it would test us. Very conflicting styles where they space the field where we compress things, and I thought, yeah, in the first half, they imposed themselves on us, and in the second half, we pushed in a good way."
On replacing Kaku in the 60th minute:
"We thought the game needed a different look in the middle of the field. It was someone, when you start to think about who to bring in and take out, you don't have a lot of options. There's one spot there. Again, you look at the game. You feel the game. We said we would be aggressive with our substitutions. We knew it would be a hot night. Yeah, Marc has had plenty of great games for this club. So you hit the first goal like that, and all of a sudden you can see that almost every possession, every play, it just was a lot of confidence, and we know that players grow in those moments."
On Tyler Adams' role:
"We see Tyler in the midfield. We see him as one of the sixes but he's a two-way player. Any time he's up the field, he's up for it. He likes to be around the goal. Look, he can make final plays and he can make final passes, but he also covers ground and he gets around that part of the field, which we knew would be a big piece of them. So look, when Marc came in, Tyler pushed up and Marc slid underneath, you know, so that was the move. And yeah, Tyler is fearless up the field. When you look for a spark, he can do that. Lots of sometimes it's something against the ball or a turnover, and not just winning the ball, he can force turnovers."
On if there's been any feedback on Adams' role:
"Like I said earlier, our video, we look hard at ourselves. We look at the good things and we try to challenge ourselves to be better. With him what makes him so special is I think we all know his personality and his courage, but he's always willing to learn. He comes to work to learn. He's a student of the game and he stays after. So yeah, he's always looking for feedback and we're always looking to see how we can help him grow."
New York Red Bulls midfielder Marc Rzatkowski
On if he had something to prove:
"Yeah, for sure. There were a lot of ups and downs in this season for me. I think I played good games but also had things when I was injured and was not coming into my game. So, yeah. I wanted to show what I can. But, I know what I can do, so I’m really happy to show it today."
On his first goal:
"Yeah, I just saw the ball from Tyler and just tried my luck. I was thinking: okay, I want to improve. I want to show I can score from there. And I was lucky that it was going in."
On taking his chance when subbed in:
"I just wanted to help the team, wanted to improve the whole game from us. And, it was not only me. I think also Derrick and Amir when they came in; we tried to give more spirit to the game and we are all happy that it was all going this way."
On how he feels within the team:
"No, I am here one hundred percent, and I’m really happy with all my teammates. Like I said, there were a lot of ups and downs for me because of my injuries. Yeah, but I’m really happy to be here in this club and I want to give my best and show what I can."
New York Red Bulls forward Bradley Wright-Phillips
On the team battling back:
"Yeah, first half wasn’t great, I think we started okay. Almost after their goal, which was kind of a bad goal to give away, so then they scored, then after we couldn’t our way. You know, we didn’t play well, we wasn’t recovering well, the forwards included. It just didn’t look good. Second half we came out and looked very… [gets cut off by reporter]"
On the physicality of the game:
"I don’t know, you expect that. That’s a team that they’re not going to be up there if you don’t battle and play good football, so you expect that from them. Sometimes yeah, I don’t mind if you like go physical but then you can’t do something that’s not, you know something soft, I don’t get that, be consistent. But yeah, a touch game and we expect that. You know we’re a team that can compete against anyone, so we welcome physical games."
On Kansas City’s early goal:
"It was just tough, I think the humidity played a part in that it was really tough to get our game going. And yeah guys took it too easy, second half you saw it was different and we tried to not give them too much room and it worked out. Also, they’re two great goals. I think we can’t rely on stuff like that every week. Credit to Marc [Rzatkowski]. He came in and won us the game, but that’s not going to happen every week so we need to find ways to win these games more convincingly."
New York Red Bulls midfielder Tyler Adams
On the team’s comeback:
"I guess you could say great teamwork in the end. We pulled through, obviously going down a goal after a pretty good start, it stinks because we always feel like we’re battling with the heat, kind of against all odds but we know at home we’re a strong team. I think the biggest difference today was our subs, they came in and they made a huge difference for us."
On the head coach's first three points:
"Yeah it’s nice because last week we kind of left him hanging a little bit but this week, it was a bit nerve racking in the beginning, after they scored a couple goals. We knew if we could rally together then we would come through for him and it’s good to get him going and the whole team going now."
On the play that led to a goal:
"I looked near post and I saw a lot of defenders. They know we like to play that low early ball. A lot of the defenders we’re running first post so I tried to pick my head up and I saw Marc trailing at the top of the box he was about five yards behind the top of the box so I just knew if I could get out in front of him he’s going to have a hit. He does that in training all the time so there was no surprise to us and it’s nice to get him going."
