Sporting Kansas City Manager Peter Vermes
Thoughts on the match…
It’s an opening match at somebody else's place. I thought they obviously had more of the ball. We could have scored one in the first half and they could have scored one in the second half. It was a similar play. Willy (Agada) had his and they had one. The game was one in which they had more of the ball for the most part. We suffered a little bit defensively just because we kept defending and defending, which is what you have got to do sometimes in situations like that. I thought that, in a lot of situations, we were very good for the majority of them. Unfortunately, we give away a set piece with a corner. We probably could have done something else in that situation. You always have got to limit as many set pieces as you can against you, whether it be corners, wide free kicks, free kicks in and around your box. You're trying to limit the amount that you give and unfortunately we did on that situation and we lose the game based on a set piece. We have a long way to go and we have got a lot to build off of.
On the play from the newcomers…
It's going to take some time. We have to get all those guys together. They have to get 90 minutes fit. The reason why all those guys didn't play is because they're not there yet. And right now we have got to try to keep increasing their minutes each game. And it's a little bit of a strategy and sometimes you're kind of forced into what you're doing with those guys in regards to when they play and how much they play. Do you start them in the second half? Do you start them in the first half? What do you do? You can see at times there are really good things there, but we need time and unfortunately we just started the season and now we have got to find that time as we go into each game.
On the halftime substitutions…
We're trying to move some guys around and get them time. We're also trying to keep, as best we can, some continuity because we're just starting the season off. And when you're changing, changing, changing and you're not sticking with a group of guys to start to get sort of a rhythm with each other, it's also difficult. We're trying to move some guys around and we're trying to get guys fit now by playing games because they missed some of the preseason or some of them missed all of the preseason.
On the team’s defensive performance…
Obviously, it's been a big point of emphasis for us. I think there's a good attitude within the group to do that. You see it all around the world. Defending takes discipline. It takes a lot of work and it takes a lot of focus and concentration. And I think for the most part, in a lot of situations, we were good. I still think that we can get out a little bit more and put a little more pressure up the field on teams, but that's going to be, again, a little bit of timing and a little bit of work for guys to understand some of the triggers when you want to put teams under pressure. They're all parts of the game that we want to get better in and we need to. So defensively, I think we were good but we have got to get better with the ball.
On the schedule congestion…
We start the season off where it's a little bit much for the guys, but we'll take inventory after this game. The good thing on Tuesday is after that game then we have an extra day because we play on Tuesday instead of Wednesday, which is good. It would have helped this past week if we didn't have to push one more day. We lost another day of training, but we'll just keep taking inventory of the guys. We’ll try to get through this the best way we can and making sure that we're increasing minutes and we really don't come out with any injuries from overuse on any of the guys.
Sporting Kansas City defender Joaquin Fernandez
Thoughts on the match…
The performance obviously is not like what we expected because we came here to win the game but it's the first game in the season. I'm sure that we will improve in the season. Of course it's not the step that I expected but we have time now to improve the team and the things that need to be better.
On conceding from a set piece…
Obviously it hurts that the rival scored on a corner because corners are always about concentration and to be in the space. We need to improve. We were (defending) too much from the corners, the fouls and the free kicks. We cannot permit this goal. It's not the start that I expected but we have like 30 more games. We need to improve to win the games for us, for the club and for the fans.
