Sporting Kansas City Manager Peter Vermes
On playing a new formation…
We played a 4-1-3-2. We just felt, based on the size of the field, that it was going to be imperative that we had numbers in the middle, especially how they like to play through the middle. We tried to clog that up on them. The other piece was we wanted to bring Johnny (Russell), Daniel (Salloi) and Khiry (Shelton) inside a little bit more because of the size of the field. We thought we'd be able to get some chances and opportunities in behind them with those guys running off the ball and into spaces. It was good and the guys did a good job.
On the play of Cam Duke…
He played a good game. He's played midfield and also wide right like he's doing right now. This is a position, for sure, that he can play as we always knew. So could he do in the future? Yeah, he's doing it now.
On the importance of the road result…
It was a big point, massive point for the guys. For our growth, it's important as we continue to move and play game after game and keep trying to get back to who we are. So yeah, (it was) really good. Big point.
Sporting Kansas City defender Kortne Ford
On keeping the clean sheet…
Peter has been preaching it all week. It's the mentality just to show up and come here every game. If we can make sure that we're bringing our mentality, the rest will take care of itself. So as a defense, it's great to come here and get a shutout. It’s not an easy place -- small pitch, conditions were tough -- but I'm just proud of the group that we came here and put in a performance.
On gaining confidence from the result…
We don't necessarily look at the opponent, but when you look at the results over the last couple of games, (we’ve) been able to get points. We had a rough start to the season, but it's momentum in the right direction. We're not happy with the start to the season. Our fans aren't happy with the start to the season, but we are looking to build off of these games, keep getting results, taking points where we can get them and keep building on it. At the end of the day, we're going to have enough momentum going into the end of the season where we're going to get in playoffs and compete.
Sporting Kansas City goalkeeper Tim Melia
On gaining confidence from the result…
It should give us a lot of confidence because we came in here with a little bit different of a shape than we normally play, a little bit different of a game plan. We executed it I thought very well. We had that extra midfielder. We tried to clog up the midfield because they're so good at connecting passes through their midfield and then getting their very good attackers through. All in all, the guys sacrificed their bodies all over the field. To get out of here with a point is something we should be very happy about.
On the team’s three straight results…
I think, at this point and based on some of our results, we need to make small steps forward. I know that our job is to win every game, but right now we've got to kind of zoom out a little bit and understand we are missing a lot of guys and we have a lot of pieces missing and we're playing a lot of new players and a lot of new positions. We need to make little incremental improvements every game. I think we have been doing that since the LAFC game, even though we've had results go against us. We need to make a little bit of improvement. We need to come together as a group and tonight is the game where we came together, we fought, we competed for everything. We have to have confidence that we're capable of playing like this. As we start to drip in new guys and guys get more comfortable -- and we know we already have the guys up top who can score a ton of goals for us -- that will work towards that, but right now we just need to continue to move in a positive direction, which we did tonight.
On the backline finding chemistry…
It takes time. I think Logan (Ndenbe) has been a beast for me. He has so much speed and so much athleticism. He reads the game well. There were so many times tonight he was isolated 2v1 and he just kind of shuffled over there, stopped the play. Kortne (Ford) has been a monster. The amount of balls he blocked and the aerial presence that he's won. It's been great. Robbie (Voloder) has been sliding in really nice. Robbie made a phenomenal tackle tonight in the second half. The guy was right in the middle. He's right in the middle of the goal. That's a goal if he doesn't hit me. But the effort from Robbie and then to have (Cam) Duke come in and play out of position against a very lethal attacking team as such a young player, those are things that are going to help him grow immensely. If he's going to be this player that's that versatile that you can slide him into the back, slide him into the midfield or slide him up top, that's only going to make him more valuable. He's going to continue to grow and make great contributions to this club.
