Sporting Kansas City Interim Head Coach Kerry Zavagnin
On Sporting’s performance in the 2-1 loss…
I just got done finishing a conversation with (the team). I believe that was our best game of the year. You can never control the result. Although we think we can, it's tough to control the result. It took a goal of the year to beat us today. We came in and we knew it was going to be a very difficult place to come. They're a good team, a really good team. The environment is intimidating if you walk in with any sort of fear. And they're exceptional in transitions. They have an MVP type player who’s on pace for that kind of year in Evander. I told the guys it was our best performance organizationally from the defensive perspective. It was one moment, the goal that they scored. It was one moment. But we're getting better and better in how we're looking at defending the game, so I'm really proud of the guys top to bottom. It doesn't feel good. It doesn't feel good when you want to be a championship-caliber team. It doesn't feel good, but the progress we’ve made is noticeable.
On his reaction to Cincinnati’s game-winning overhead kick goal…
You have got to be kidding me. I thought we defended the wide area well. Of course you can always deter the cross, but it was a cross from so deep, and we had numbers in the box. I think Jansen (Miller), who I thought had a great game, kind of pulled his head back. In another moment it could have been a dangerous play, but I don't blame the referee for taking a goal like that back. It's what people have come to see in the game. They want to see entertainment, and I don't like the result, but that was entertaining.
Sporting Kansas City midfielder Zorhan Bassong
On scoring the first goal of his professional career…
It’s always a great feeling to score a goal, especially now because it's my first one. I'm really proud of this and have been working a lot for that. I was trying to stay patient, and of course I would dedicate that goal to the team and to the staff. No matter what, I feel like they always have my back—and all my teammates, too. They’re helping to push me past my limits in every training session every week. So of course I feel really proud. It's a frustrating result at the same time, because we felt like we could have got more. Coach (Zavagnin) was really happy about the game, too. We didn't get the result, but it was one of the best—probably the best—game of our of our season. There are a lot of good things that we can actually build on. But in the end, I think we can still take a lot of positive things about that game and we just go on to the next. We're going to stay sharp and we're going to stay ready.
On limiting the danger of Cincinnati midfielder Evander…
Everybody was really engaged from the very beginning of the game. Everybody was committed, everybody was ready to fight for that game. Everybody wanted that win. We’re on a good streak right now. We were on two wins in our last three, so everybody wants to keep building up on that. We're a real family. We're real brothers. We want to fight for each other. So I think that makes a big difference in the team, even with that result right now. Everybody's still really positive. Everybody's still really involved. That (second Cincinnati) goal is probably going to be the goal of the year. I don't even know how we can defend that. But that was a crazy goal. We were down 2-0, but we were still able to react. We scored one. We could have maybe scored a second one. We have still got to work and push through to the next game.
On Sporting creating more scoring chances in recent games…
We have nothing to lose in some ways, you know. We were going to do something eventually. If we want to get a win, we have got to be more offensive. You can really see that we're trying to be a team that attacks more. Last week, we conceded three goals, but we're still able to score five. So that's why we're able to get the win. We can see that we're way more involved offensively. We're trying to create from the right side, from the left side. Even our defender are (higher) on the field, so that creates a lot of numbers, and it helps us be more dangerous offensively. I think you can see it in the highlights. You're going to see that we're creating a lot of different opportunities to score. So I think this makes a big, big difference into the way we're playing.
