Sporting Kansas City Manager Peter Vermes
On the positives from his team’s performance…
From the opening whistle until the very end, the commitment of the group with the ball and without the ball, the desire to get into the box if we were getting ready to serve it, the desire to win the ball back when we lost it -- it was fantastic. When you play like that and you play with that kind of intensity, you always give yourself a really good chance to get a great result. Today, we got a great result. That’s a really good team.
On 16-year-old Gianluca Busio scoring…
I was very happy for him. Our last game here at home, we played against Philadelphia and he was really close. He’s got great qualities and good instincts. He read that situation well. For him to be as composed as he is at 16 years old, it says a lot about that kid.
On the play of Gerso…
I think Gerso has the best movement, right now, off the ball in the league. He was a big reason why we were successful today. I can’t take away from the rest of the guys. Their desire to move off the ball was definitely above what we’ve been doing. Hopefully we can keep building off of this.
On the team’s strong performances at home…
The idea is for us to be good at home. At the same time, we have to just keep getting better as a team. Today, when you look at the different phases of the game, we were really good. Hopefully we can use this as a building block.
Sporting Kansas City forward Johnny Russell
On the team’s performance…
That’s probably our best of the year. I think both legs against Toluca we were brilliant. I thought throughout today, everyone I thought was outstanding. It’s a really flattering scoreline but it could have been more, as well. It just shows how much quality we played with today.
On his goals…
The ball broke and (Krisztian Nemeth) did great to leave it. I managed to use the bodies in front of me to keep the goalkeeper unsighted. On the second one, we do what we do best. It’s a great breakaway. I managed to cut inside and tuck it away. I’m delighted to obviously add some goals and to play a part in such an emphatic scoreline as well.
On his fellow forwards…
That’s the way we wanted to play. We knew that we had to play with high tempo and get in behind them to cause them to panic a little bit. I thought (Krisztian Nemeth) and Gerso were outstanding.
On the team’s mid-week match with Monterrey in the Concacaf Champions League…
There’s no better way to prepare than a result like this. We’ll be going to Monterrey with confidence.
Sporting Kansas City midfielder Gianluca Busio
On his first goal at Children’s Mercy Park…
It’s a great feeling. Just scoring goals is always a great feeling and especially doing it front of your home fans. It’s a really big thing for me. I’m just so happy I could put it in.
On the team’s second half performance…
We went out there and we got four more goals. We definitely didn’t take our foot off the gas. That was really good for us. There were a couple moments where we could have been a little bit better, but in the end, it came out as a good result for us.
On his takeaway from today’s result…
I think we came out with a different mentality – a mentality that we were going to win no matter what, we’re going to score goals and we’re going to protect our goal. I think we did that very well. It worked out for us.
On preparing for the Concacaf Champions League semifinal…
We’re really excited for it but we also know we need to be prepared. We need to take the good and the bad away from this game and move on to the next one. We know that they’re a good team and that it’s going to be a tough atmosphere. We’re going to all be 100% ready for that game.
Montreal Impact head coach Rémi Garde
Thoughts on the match…
I think the result showed the difference between the two teams today, maybe a little bit more than the reality, but today the reality is very clear. I think that we played a better team than us today. We gave them many easy opportunities to punish us. It’s a huge disappointment but we are going to learn the lesson from those mistakes we made. We’ll go into the next game with a different attitude.
Montreal Impact captain Samuel Piettte
Thoughts on the match…
Obviously, it was a tough one. From the first minute to the last one, I don’t think we came in the game with the right mentality. I think we were a bit naïve, as well. We didn’t have a good approach tactically for us players on the pitch. It was kids against men today.
On bouncing back for the next match…
You have to learn from this game. You have to take some points and not repeat it in the future. But you have to get over this game as quick as possible. We have another game in seven days. We have to learn from it.
Montreal Impact goalkeeper Evan Bush
On giving up seven goals…
Usually, you would think that the locker room would be bad after a game like that, and certainly we weren’t happy, but I think that it was such a bad beating that we are kind of in shock right now. We had basically 40 minutes to digest a defeat that bad and that’s disgusting to be a part of. Nothing we did today was good. Technically, tactically, decision making, mentality, effort - nothing was good.
On what went wrong…
I think that in the first half, if you get out of there 1-0 then you can kind of regroup but then the two goals right at the end there come from just being undisciplined and not being on the same page. Probably trying to score the goal that we felt we needed right away. We need to be much smarter than that. We’re not a team that can come in here and press all over the field, especially when you’re changing guys in and out of the lineup against a team that’s in such good form as they are.
On getting over this loss…
It’s embarrassing. Seven is very embarrassing. I think that it would have been much better for us if we were able to compete for 90 minutes. I don’t think that guys weren’t trying, I just don’t think that our level of confidence and our competitive level was at the level it needed to be. Because of that, we were overwhelmed all over the field and that’s one through eleven on the field. That’s not pointing fingers because it starts with a bad goal from a bad decision from me on the first goal and then every guy on the field after that is responsible and accountable for their efforts too. Every guy has to look in the mirror today and the rest of the week and kind of dust this one off. I guess the silver lining is that it’s a non-conference road game so if you’re going to lose points these are the points to lose but we certainly don’t want to lose them in this fashion.
