Sporting Kansas City Manager Peter Vermes
On what went wrong after a good start to the second half…
It really comes down to two set pieces at the end of the day. First set piece, goal. We get picked a little bit, but we’ve got to fight through it. Then on the second one, I haven't seen the replay, but I have a pretty good idea in my head, but I probably want to wait till I see the replay. It’s two set pieces. We go up 1-0 – we had made changes at halftime that we were planning on doing, which was good. The only one was Zo (Bassong), as precautionary. We made our changes, but I thought we brought a little life. I thought the guys, all of a sudden started to create some things in the game which was good. Then, unfortunately, a set piece, and then the penalty.
On the frustration of conceding on set pieces…
Anytime a goal is scored it’s frustration.
On the boost that the halftime substitutes brought to the team…
I thought that we were good, I thought we got some possession. We moved the ball pretty well. I thought that all of a sudden, we started to get to them, especially on the outside, especially down the left, which was good. Eventually get our goal which is a very good goal. The unfortunate thing is after that point, we lost a little bit of possession, but that's going to happen when you're playing away from home. It's a shame, especially on the first goal. The first goal was the goal that we for sure can't give up. The second one – I can't talk about what happened late, but early on, we just have to have a more professional management of the game. We're down in their right corner. We overcommit. We should just be in a more defensive posture once the ball turned over and we overcommitted, and now all of a sudden they got a chance to break out. They should have never had that chance to do that.
On Zorhan Bassong’s injury concern…
It's a tight hamstring.
Sporting Kansas City captain Johnny Russell
Thoughts on the match…
First half, we didn't do much in terms of going forward, keeping the ball. We defended solidly, but that was probably about it. We were very wasteful in possession, and we just sort of sat back and allowed the pressure. We make the changes, second half, we start so much better. Obviously get the goal early, but even after that, we’re playing well, controlling the game, give away a set piece, and then it's a free header, which is just unacceptable. You can't allow your man to be free, and it costs us. And then obviously, we have to be aware of everything – situation, time. We don't, we lose the ball and then we allow them to cut through us. There's nothing more Tim (Melia) can do. He tries to get out the way, the guy runs into him. Tim's kept us in the game ten minutes before that with an absolutely outrageous save. At that time in the game, you can't allow it. So easy for them to get in on goal and it costs us three points and that's points that we need. Spoke about it – we’re running out of time. When you go away from home and you take leads in games, you have to do better and see it out. Same old story – frustration, anger, another wasted opportunity.
On taking his goal first-time and not taking a touch…
It was a really good build-up goal. Something that we spoke about and worked on – those cutbacks. Obviously, Erik (Thommy) tries to shoot, just mistimes it a little bit and it just rolls to me and I probably can take a touch, I've got so much time, but I felt confident to just take it first time. It wasn't coming in at great speed, didn't really feel the need to take an extra touch and maybe lose the opportunity. It rolled sort of perfect to me, so just tried to put it back across goal and obviously it goes in and it gets us off to a great start in the second half. We had opportunities that we maybe could have built on that, probably could have done a little bit better on a couple, but ultimately means nothing. We've dropped points again, and that doesn't help us in our cause.
On set piece defending…
I mean, we work on it, so we can't blame the fact that we don't work on it. We work on set pieces. Everyone knows their job in set pieces. Everyone knows who their man is in set pieces. So there's no excuse for allowing free headers. Simple as that. We have to hold each other accountable for that because you can't allow – even when substitutions come in for us and for them – we should know who it is that we are picking up. And even if you're not picking up that man, if it's in an area that you can go, go and win it and we didn't and it cost us. It's a free header. I haven't seen it back again, but penalty spot, free header from that close, all you need is the slightest of touches and it's a goal. It's a lack of so many things, concentration being one. I don't know if it's a willingness to go and win the header, but it's not the first time it's happened. Just so disappointing, to be honest.
On what it means to score his 150th professional goal…
Not much right now, to be honest. Obviously, it's a nice milestone to reach. I wish it got us the three points because it put us in a winning position. On an individual standpoint, it's good to get there, but I've got so much more to worry about right now as a collective than me and milestones.
On the team’s fast start to the second half and why it wasn’t sustained…
Probably a bit of everything. Maybe getting into the mindset of not going for the second one to kill the game where we probably, in hindsight, should have. They started to get a little bit of a foothold back in the game and put us under a little bit of pressure. But I thought we were coping with it. We were dealing with it like we did in the first half. Then you allow, I keep saying it, a free header and it just gives them so much confidence and momentum to get back in the game. And we just didn't show enough in the key moments, whether that was offensively or defensively. We've cost ourselves because second half I feel like we played well enough and done well enough that we probably could have taken something from the game. Ideally it was the three points, but I think Colorado were probably the better team throughout the night. So I'm not going to sit here and say we deserve to take all three, but when you get into the lead and you get into those positions, we have to do so much better. We have to be so much better. We're scrapping for points, we need them desperately, we can't let them slip away that easily.
