Sporting Kansas City Manager Peter Vermes
On conceding twice after taking the lead…
We actually played really well tonight, so I wouldn't say it derailed it. I mean, obviously, you don't want to give up the goals, but we played very well tonight from beginning to end. We were good on the ball. We created a lot of stuff. There was two chances. There wasn't a lot of chances on goal by them by any means. For sure, individually and collectively it can at times be a little bit of a learning lesson there. But this is one of our better performances of the season. I'm proud of the way the guys played.
On the result…
We're all disappointed. But the good thing is like tonight, we keep searching. We keep working towards it. The guys are determined and I think tonight showed it. I think we played in that regard. I haven't had a chance to look at the stats on the number of shots from one side to the other. We're away from home and we're leading in that category. But I think we were good in a lot of moments in the game and a lot of periods. So from that point of view, and then the energy and the desire, and the other thing is we didn't put our head down after we gave up the two. We played and we continued to try to search for the tying goal.
On Jake Davis moving to the midfield with Khiry Shelton at right back…
I don't have any complaints about the players. I know that we could have done some different things on the situations. But those guys all played well. I thought Khiry was very, very steady. For him to go 90 minutes like he did as well was very good. I thought Jake was good. He was good in the press. He was lively. He made very good penetrating runs. I thought Jacob Bartlett played well. I thought the group was good
On finding a first win…
I think it comes down to goals, like the two goals that we gave up. There is so much more that we could have done in those situations on both of them. That's it. If we can do that, it change things.
Sporting Kansas City forward Daniel Salloi
Thoughts on the match…
It's unlucky. I think we played better but we shut down for a couple of minutes and conceded two goals. Unfortunately, that's not good enough. We came out very well in the second half, I thought. Yes, we had chances, but we need to be more clinical there with the last passes and a little bit better combination trying to create chances to score because these are the games and we have to get points. So yes, (tonight was) better, but not good enough.
On creating better chances…
Every game is different. I thought we actually had a lot of space this game and we could find each other. We had some good combinations on my side with Manu (Garcia) and Logan (Ndenbe), but we couldn't find (Dejan Joveljic) very well. Those last passes just didn't click. So we just have got to gel more and do better next time. Hopefully against St. Louis it's going to be better
On captaining the team…
It's a big honor. I've been here many years and Peter has spoken to me many times. He trusts me with that role. I take privilege in that and I'm very pissed about the result obviously, especially wearing the captain's armband and leading the team. But every game I get to wear it, it's a big honor. I had great captains in front of me who I could learn from, so I think I've always gotten the right example. I try to do my part and lead well and hopefully I can be a good captain one day and lead the team to victories. Today wasn't one of those, but, as I said, it's a big honor always.
On needing time to form chemistry with Dejan Joveljic…
Yes and no. Obviously it is. But missed passes are not going to the right places at the end. You can have an off day as well. I just feel like when you're losing games, the confidence goes down. It's very difficult to turn that momentum. It takes a lot more work than usually it does. So we just have to keep grinding and keep working hard. We understand the frustration. Trust me, we are the most frustrated out of everybody. We'll be back tomorrow and start working hard again to get a result against Saint Louis. It's going to turn at one point. We just have to keep gelling and keep getting better
On his goal…
Shapi (Suleymanov) played a great ball. I tried to separate myself from the defender and just take a quick touch and finish it. It came off perfectly. So I'm very happy. This is my second goal this year. I want to keep chipping away. Hopefully, one of these days it's going to mean a win.
