Sporting Kansas City Manager Peter Vermes
On the physicality of the match…
We deserved a couple of things in the game. It’s for sure not a second yellow card on Jake Davis. So the fact that he now has to sit out the next game is utterly ridiculous. It’s not a second yellow card. There’s no way. The (opponent) is 70 yards from goal and the two guys are fighting. If you pay attention to the spirit of the game, it has physicality. That's what the game is. And this game was good. It was a good, physical game. No cheap shots by anybody, not at all. It was just physical. Jake competes for the ball, and he actually gets the inside edge on the player. If you're going to call a foul, okay—you call a foul. A player is 70 yards away from goal and our whole entire back four and one of our other midfielders is behind the ball. How is that breaking a promising play, if that's what they called it?
Second, the (foul) in the 80th minute on Khiry Shelton is a penalty kick. Meara, their goalkeeper, comes out and leaves his feet. He runs into our player, knocks him down, then grabs the ball. Anywhere on the field, if any player does anything like that, it's a foul 100%. It's a penalty kick. The fact that they don't review it—again, just sad commentary. We deserved more in the game, for sure, being able to come here and play the way we did. I’m very proud of our guys. They did a great job.
On Sporting’s performance in the 1-1 draw…
I don't think they had any chances. Like I said, I think it was a good, spirited game. If anybody has to drive the game, they should. They're at home. I thought that we played well. We were very organized, very disciplined. They weren't breaking us down. They had one chance in the first half. Outside of that, I thought that we were excellent. We didn't give up any shots, really. We didn't give up anything. In the second half, the game opened up a little bit. As I said, we get into a good position, we score, and we're in a good position. We played a great game. Pulido’s goal was his first league goal in a little while, and it looked like it was a direct result of some persistence and determination around the box with a loose ball. It’s a good scoop from Jake (Davis).
On Alan Pulido’s goal and other chances throughout the match…
We had some really good counters in the first half where we kind of missed the final pass. In the second half, we started to get behind them. Our whole idea was to try to win the ball a little bit more in the middle third of the field and then go to goal quickly because they put so many numbers forward. I thought that we created some great chances. On Erik Thommy’s chance, he’s just a hair offside, but it was a great action when he scored. On our goal, it was a heads-up play by Jake—a great ball over the top. For Alan to be able to settle the ball with his head and finish off the volley was excellent. If you put him anywhere around the box, he's going to score. It's a good finish. The spirit of the whole play for us to keep the ball alive in their half of the field was really good.
On conceding a late equalizer…
I think it’s a bad clearance on our part. We clear the ball right into the other player. If we clear the ball up the field, obviously that situation doesn't happen. It wasn't like they made some great play. We had the first strike at the ball. We don't clear it. We hit it off the player, the player gets a second chance on the ball and then we don't go and block the shot and we're late on that part of it. You have got to finish out a game.
On limiting New York’s scoring opportunities…
They love to play that direct ball to the back and play second balls. I thought we handled that part really well. We either won the ball or we picked up the second ball in our area. Normally if we didn't, I thought our two central midfielders—they were dogs today. They were excellent at getting out and putting pressure and pushing them backwards so they didn't get sustained possession within our half. (Jake Davis and Zorhan Bassong) did a yeoman's job in the middle of midfield.
Sporting Kansas City midfielder Zorhan Bassong
On his comfort level playing in midfield…
I feel better every day that I play in the midfield. I've been used lately to play over there in training a lot. I feel like me and Jake (Davis) are building a strong connection together, we know who's got to make the run to actually cover the back, for example. I think we're able to have a good balance in the team. I'm happy about the way it goes, not happy about the result. We concede, I think it's a stupid goal, at the end but I'm really happy about the connection I'm building with Jake Davis.
On the game and what the team needs to do to close out games…
I think we've been better defensively. There's been a lot of games we conceded a lot of goals, and I think lately there's been two games in a row we, we had some clean sheets. Today, we conceded one goal, unfortunately, but I think we’ve got to build up on that. I think we're getting better at this because when you look at the game today, they were not really, really dangerous the whole game. Maybe they had little opportunities, but most of them it’s because we make some little mistakes, so I think we're going in a good way and we’ve got to keep building up on that and, again, I think we're in a good direction.
On the key to limiting New York’s chances on the night…
I think we were really aggressive from the very beginning. We knew New York is a team that press a lot, they have a lot of energy and they're a strong team. Sometimes I think they like to bully people, you know? I think we were standing on business, in a kind of way, you know? You could see in the very beginning they came really hard on us. Robi (Voloder), Dany Rosero, even me, but I think we reacted really well, and I think we were really strong mentally today and we could see it on the field.
On picking up a point in a stadium where the Red Bulls have been dominant this season…
It's an important point. I think it's a really important one because at the end of the season those points are really important for the rankings. We're still trying to make our way to the playoffs. Of course we want to get the three points, but a point is still a good result, especially against a team like this and against this big atmosphere in this stadium. I think we're mostly satisfied. Again, we want the three points, but I think it's a good point to take and go back home with it.
