Sporting KC Manager Peter Vermes
On the missed PK call...
"You can't miss that. No way. You can't miss that penalty. It's 100 percent a penalty, how can you miss it? How do you miss that? It's 100 percent a penalty. There is no way a referee should miss that. I actually think he did a really good job in the game. But I don't know how he missed that, it's the easiest thing to see."
On Sporting KC's defensive efforts...
"I thought it was fantastic. I thought the way the team played from the start to the finish was fantastic. I really do. I thought the guys were great. We easily deserved a point and I could see it from where I was sitting and I was on the opposite side. When a player takes on another player that way and the other player takes him out like he did, it is a penalty kick easily. Unfortunate for our guys, we didn't get it, but you know what, we really haven't gotten any of those, but we have gotten a lot of those against us this season and we have figured out a way to survive and now we have another game."
On having a home game now to clinch a playoff spot...
"Look, a game is a game. It doesn't matter if we are playing home or away. As you saw today, we didn't come here to just hang out. We came here to play. We went after the game from the very opening whistle. So for us, this was a very big game but at the same time, so is next Sunday. But to be at home or to be away, it doesn't matter any more, for any team. You have to come and take care of business."
On Jacob Peterson and Diego Rubio...
"Jake, I think will be ready to go. I think by the end of the week, he'll be ready to go. That was the plan. We didn't want to risk him, that's why we left him out. Diego, we're still waiting to get more information and we'll let you guys know more probably tomorrow or Tuesday."
On Espinoza playing out on the wing...
"Part of it was definitely because of Jake's injury. I thought Roger [Espinoza] did a fantastic job playing out wide. He played that way in college. I thought all around, the guys were very very good."
On getting the point...
"We deserved the point. We actually deserved three. Unfortunately, we didn't get the call that we were deserving of, but like I said, the guys found a way and they held on. At the end, we got the point, but we deserved three tonight."
On Tim Melia’s performance...
“It was a very good one. I thought both keepers kept both teams in the game and we had a number of chances, they had a number of chances. I think the only difference in the gamer was the no call in the penalty. That was really the difference. I thought both teams, I thought it was a very good game for fans to watch it. The back and forth, I thought both teams played hard, there wasn’t anything cheap or anything, it was a good game. It was a fun game to watch and both teams played at a high level. So I think for MLS it was more than expected and it’s the kind of product you want to put at this time of the year.”
On the overall performance...
“I’ll start with Tim, he was fantastic. Sinovic has had more than enough injuries this year, and so many different things. For him to come in today, he hasn’t played a game in quite a long time, let alone 90 minutes in altitude. He was fantastic. I thought Matt Besler had one of his better performances in a long time, he was fantastic in the game, I thought Kevin Ellis as well. I told Kevin on the header he had late, I thought he could have chested it down and probably dribbled into the goal if he wanted to he was so opened. But, Abdul-Salaam was the same way. I can keep going, every guy was solid, the couple little changes we made in the game with Roger Espinoza wide, and Nagamura inside I thought was a big difference in the game as well. I thought Roger had a fantastic game on the left side. Dom's work ethic out front was tremendous.”
Sporting KC Defender Matt Besler
On what he told his team to keep composure...
“Just grind away. We expected that and it was definitely what we expected. We knew Salt Lake really needed the win; it was their last home game today. They applied a lot of pressure and fortunately we stuck together. Tim [Melia] made some unbelievable saves and kept us in it. The way the game ends we had a couple chances there at the end to steal three points.”
On the entire season coming down to the last game...
“It’s hard to think back [to the beginning of the season] but that’s the reality. We have one game if we win it’s at home. We take care of business so everything is in our control that’s really all you can ask for this time in the season.”
Who the difference maker was...
“Tim behind us made a couple of key saves and kept a shutout. Every time you do that you always give yourself a chance to get a result and we had those two chances there at the end to grab three points.”
Goalkeeper Tim Melia
On what will be needed moving forward...
“I think we got to do what we did tonight. I think this is a result that we can really build off of. The tenacity, the commitment, our shape, our balance in game I thought was just excellent. If we can keep like this, I think first get into the playoffs and then if we’re competing like this every game, I think we can make a shot and take a run in there.”
On standing on his head...
“These guys have such a good job protecting me all year. We’ve done I think defensively, we’ve done pretty good taking a couple hot wires out there, but usually only giving away a few shots a game, and that’s because we have such a deep defensive team and such good midfielders and it’s more of when we commit together as a group you can see our talent. We just got to make sure we do that at this point of the season.”
On being held back offensively...
“We had opportunities. I thought Rimando played really well. He always makes big saves for them. We had 4 or 5 good opportunities, and I think there was a penalty, there’s a penalty shot in there and that’s a game changer. We created 3 or 4 good looks and on a different day one of those goes in.”
On having first clean sheet in a couple months...
“I think it’s just important building this point in the season, most importantly we got to keep zero’s. Going into our last game, and it’s a must win game at home against San Jose, and first and foremost we got to keep zero. I know the guys up top are a really good attacking group and they will get the job done.”
