Sporting KC Manager Peter Vermes
Thoughts on how the team played:
“I thought that we gave the ball away too much in the game which led to a lot of counters for them. I would sum it up by saying that that’s the number one thing – I just really think that we gave the ball away way, way too much tonight. That would be my biggest thing.”
On dealing with Independiente’s counter-attacking quality:
“We did not move well off the ball. It was between the guy who had the ball and one other player and the rest of the guys weren’t moving to the ball. So what happened is we weren’t fast enough with the ball, we were too slow, and all those things caused us to lose the ball in really bad places – we were opened up – we just kept losing the ball.”
On knowing that a good result at home in the Second Leg would see the side advance:
“It was good to get the away goal and keep the scoreline the way we did, so now we have to obviously do the business at home and that’s Champions League. That’s just the way it is. Based on the fact that I don’t that we played all that well, it leaves us in a better position than not having scored here.”
On any miscommunication around the goals conceded:
“It’s not a communication thing, it’s a simple concept. If a guy kicks off the back line, you step on the player. It’s what you do, you don’t have to win the ball but you also don’t give him the space to turn and run at you, and we did that.”
Sporting KC defender Matt Besler
Thoughts on the game:
“It was everything we thought it would be going into the game, playing against a good team with talented individual players. Difficult environment, humidity, pitch conditions, the whole lot. At times we needed to be better, but we put ourselves into a situation where the series can go either way, and now we have to go back home and we have to get a result.”
On the importance of Ilie Sanchez’s away goal:
“Really important. This group should have enough experience in a home-and-away series where we know how important road goals are, so we walk away here disappointed that we weren’t able to get more out of the game, and at times about the way that we played, but at the same time getting that goal was huge and we have to move on. We have games ahead of us and we’re really looking forward to going home and playing in front of our fans the next two games, they’re really big games.”
Sporting KC midfielder Ilie Sanchez
On not getting the result they wanted:
“We lost tonight, we played against a great team. They played compact, they have really good players, so it’s definitely not the result that we wanted but we still have the second leg in Kansas City.”
On the importance of his away goal:
“We would have liked to have scored another one to tie the game at least, but at the end, scoring here, in a very tough place, with these fantastic fans, it’s important for us. But we lost the game, we’re not happy and we hope to come back next week.”
