Sporting Kansas City Manager Peter Vermes
On the penalty in the 90th minute…
I'm not asking for any calls to be manufactured. It's a handball so the good thing is that it was called properly. I'm not asking for anything special. That was just a routine call. It was a penalty, pretty simple.
On the two goals conceded…
Goals get scored in games, so there's going to be mistakes. I think the recognition on the free kick was poor. There are people (who are) supposed to be at the back stick. They just never went out. It's way too easy for the player to have that much time. But on the second goal, it’s just a recognition where we lose the ball because we don't recognize that we don't have numbers on that side of the field. We had numbers on the other side of the field and we went away from there, which then when we lost the ball we were completely exposed. So as much as I can say that I'm happy with the fact that the team came back from being down 2-1, we were in control of the game. We shouldn't have given up either goal, but we did. It's good that we came back, but I would say, out of these last two games, getting one point isn't enough. I feel like we made some mistakes in the game against LAFC, but we also easily could have been up in that game -- a man up and 2-0 -- if certain things would have occurred in that game. There's different things that happened these last two games but getting one point, it doesn't feel good even though getting a point away from home is always a good thing.
On the play of Alan Pulido…
Obviously we've missed him. He is, game after game, getting more and more comfortable. I don't think he's necessarily hit his stride yet, but he's getting more and more comfortable. He continues to demonstrate the reason why we brought him here in the first place. That part is very good and hopefully that continues.
On managing three matches in a week…
I don't think anything ever changes with that. I think you play your game. You try to get the best result you can and then you take inventory of the guys usually two days after so it's more Friday than tomorrow. And then we'll put the group out there that we have to and we'll make whatever changes we have to, whether it's from the start of the game or in the second half.
Sporting Kansas City forward Alan Pulido
On his two goals…
I'm happy, but I feel the sensation that if we pushed a little more then maybe we win this match. But it's okay. It's soccer. Sometimes we have different situations and they score. We don't need to lose our minds. We need to keep in form and continue with the next match, because the next match is important for us. It’s at home with Chicago.
On the team’s performance…
I think we played good in the first half. I feel the same sensations about the last match. We played very good in the first half. We had a lot of chances to score more goals and we missed. This happens in soccer. When you miss, the other team will have more opportunities also and they score. This is soccer. We need to work about the attention and we need to work about the discipline because we lose points. We lost points the last match at home and now I think if we scored goals in the first half, maybe the game is different. But it's okay. We need to be focused. We need to be crazy. That’s it. We’ll work this week for the next match.
On his run of form…
It's good. I feel a very good sensation. Today is good. It's important because we tied and we didn’t lose. One point is better than to lose, but we don't feel very happy because I think we know we could have won this match. But it's okay. For me, it's good. It’s motivation. But it's better when the team wins.
On the quick turnaround to Saturday…
We’ve covered a lot of matches in the last month, but I think we have a very good staff and very good personal training for the team. We push all the things about our recovery. We need to be focused. This match is passed, so we need to be focusing forward for the next match against Chicago at home. It's very important for us to win this match because we need to take three points for the season, for us and for the people because we're playing at home this much.
