Sporting Kansas City Manager Peter Vermes
On Sporting’s 2-0 loss to Seattle…
I actually think we started off the game really well. We had maybe three or four corners in a row, we were keeping them in their end, and we really didn’t give them anything in our end. They got their goal off us being in a position to play forward but we play backwards. (Robert) Voloder gets kind of stuck, plays a ball out for a throw-in and off the throw-in they get the corner. Off the corner, Tim (Melia) makes a great save and we’re not there to protect and defend the goal. I think they were the better team today overall. In the first 25 or 30 minutes, I thought we were actually really good. We were for sure the better team at the time, but when they scored, I don’t know if it put us back on our heels a little bit or what. But I don’t think that we played with the same confidence in possession that we did prior to that. Especially in the first half, I thought we had some great opportunities going to goal. We just didn’t have the final knockout blow on a really good chance at goal. We got into great positions and decided not to serve it when we should have. Then we’d knock it around again and we would think about serving it, but then they would get all their guys behind the ball. Our recognition was slow today.
On Cristian Roldan’s goal line clearance when Sporting nearly scored early…
We could have gotten rewarded for what we were doing in that period of time. We needed to get rewarded, and the fact that we didn’t sometimes changes a game in soccer. That’s just the way it is. I don’t think we played bad. I just don’t think that we took advantage of the stuff we had going early in the game. Then there were just a couple of situations where we didn’t protect the goal well enough. Tim Melia played very well.
On Sporting’s substitutions in the second half…
We do have a lot of games coming up, so that for sure was part of it. The other part was to bring those guys in to bring something else to the game—to try and bring a spark. The whole thing was that if we could just get one goal, we’d get a little momentum and get going. But we just couldn’t do it.
On Sporting’s reaction after falling behind…
We lost a little bit of our confidence and our rhythm after they scored, but we were still in the game. We just didn’t have the final punch in the final third. We could have taken more space but we shot too early, or we held onto the ball one touch too many before we shot and they were able to block it. We just weren’t crisp enough in that final phase on goal. Everything else was actually very good for a while. We were dominating early and we were in their end, but we never rewarded ourselves for it.
On Tim Melia’s penalty kick save…
He’s great at (saving penalties). It should have been a great confidence builder for the team at that moment. It should have been huge. I had a feeling he was going to save it and he did. It was good for us, but we just didn’t take advantage of it.
Sporting Kansas City goalkeeper Tim Melia
On Sporting’s reaction after falling behind…
It’s really difficult giving up goals off set pieces. It’s something we’ve done a lot this season. We just put our head down a little bit rather than saying, “We got scored on, who cares?” It was always going to be a difficult game in a difficult environment. Instead of coming together in that moment, we kind of dipped a little bit and started to let them have the ball a little bit more. Then they took advantage of it.
On Seattle’s second goal before halftime…
We were just sitting back too far and giving up that tight space between the six and the 18. When the guy is chipping a ball into the six, at that time we have to step up as a group and leave all of those players there. That eliminates them (in an offside position). We got that jab and we didn’t really recover, and after that we were chasing shadows for a few minutes.
On what goes into saving a penalty kick…
A lot of things go into it. It’s a lot of studying before the game. it’s understanding the player, It’s understanding the score in the game. There are so many variables that go into it—his approach, where they are looking, which way their plant foot is going, which way their hips are going. There are just a lot of things that all come together to give the goalkeeper a potential edge to go the right direction.
