Sporting Kansas City Manager Peter Vermes
What did Minnesota show you today?
They were the more aggressive and the more intense team. They deserved the three points. I think it was very evident to see that they were very aggressive, and very intense. I think in the end they displayed early on that they wanted it more. And from that point on we were trying to play catch-up.
There was a lot of rotation in your defense from the game the previous weekend. What was the thinking going on in those decisions and what were you hoping to see from your backline?
We had a couple of guys that had some nagging injuries, we just wanted to try to give them a rest if we could. Especially when you’re playing three games. The fact that we actually played on Wednesday we had to take that in to consideration especially also that it’s early in the season.
What about the decision to start Igor Juliao out at right back over Graham Zusi?
The fact that he had some nagging injures.
There have been some speculations about Abdul-Salaam as far as the trade window? Comments on that?
If there was, I wouldn’t comment on it anyways. So nothing.
Thoughts on the scuffle between Dwyer and Calvo? Does that add to the relationship of these two teams to possibly become a rivalry?
No. Not at all. It was a joke of an action; it was a drop ball. I don’t know what you’re supposed to do. You have two men sitting there and it’s kind of like two bulls getting ready to tee off against each other. I don’t even know why that action was even called anything. I still don’t understand it.
Can United follow in Sporting Kansas City’s footsteps?
It’s hard for me to say, I’m not here and I don’t know what’s going on behind the scenes. I know Manny [Lagos] really well; I know Adrian [Heath] really well. They’re good guys and they’re good with what they do. And I’m sure that they’re trying to strive not to be supporting Kansas City, but actually to be better than us. That’s one of the great things about our league right now with the individual ownership. As many teams as we have, what’s happening is the competition between all the teams – and its not just on the weekends, its everything else everybody’s doing is raising the bar for each organization to try to be better. I’m sure they’re going to push towards trying to be the best they can be.
How do you feel about how the first ten games have gone, and what do you hope to see in the 11th?
I think we have done a lot of good things. I’d say more good than bad. But there are always lessons to learn. The whole thing is that in this business you have to week-to-week, game-to-game, look at it as how you’re evolving. I think the evolution up to this point has been good, but there are still a lot of things not only do we have to work on, but get better at. As long as we maintain our focus in trying to do that, hopefully towards the end of the season we’ll be competing like everyone wants to be for the playoffs and those types of things.
Sporting Kansas City Defender Seth Sinovic
Third game in eight days is this the result of this congested schedule?
I don’t think so. We just let our guard down a couple times in the game and they took advantage of it. This team can take advantage of you if you give them opportunities and we gave them too many. You can’t afford to do that especially on the road so we have to regroup for the game next week and we will be ready to go.
This is your first time playing here against Minnesota here in MLS play, what did you think of the atmosphere today?
It was a good atmosphere. I think they were off to a slow start at the beginning this year but they made a few moves and they’ve really been strong the last month or so. It’s a tough team to play and it’s a tough place to play.
On the changes to the starting lineup...
There are no excuses. We have to be better as a whole. For guys who haven’t been playing a lot of minutes, it’s on us to pick guys up. It’s a team effort. As a whole we have got to be better and like I said we expected better results.
Sporting Kansas City Midfielder Soony Saad
Thoughts on the match...
I thought we created chances and we came close to scoring. In the first half, we just had a lack of concentration and were unable to come back from it.
On the team's offensive effort...
Yeah. We ended up having a lot of shots and created chances but it didn’t fall our way.
What did you think of the atmosphere here?
I thought the atmosphere was crazy at first, seeing the stadium empty and then seeing it fill up. The bottom half was cool and I look forward to seeing Minnesota when they get their stadium.
