Sporting Kansas City Manager Peter Vermes
Thoughts on the match…
Great fight by the guys from the first half to the second half. We’re down so many men. We’ve had to play a lot of young guys. I don’t mean that disrespectfully to them at all because they’re by far pulling their weight and doing more. I commend the guys. They’ve worked very hard. They’ve dealt with a lot of adversity. We probably could have gotten three points. At the end of the day for us to get a point and fight back the way we did was excellent.
On the team’s depth…
I think everybody did what they had to do. They all took responsibility and worked hard. That was a big part of the result. I’m happy from that perspective. Hopefully we’ll get some guys back here fit and we’ll be ready to go.
Sporting Kansas City forward Johnny Russell
On the significance of his 100thcareer goal…
It personally means a lot. It’s always nice to get to any milestone in your career. Unfortunately it couldn’t lead to a win tonight. From the personal point of view, it’s a nice feeling for me to get there and my family is here, as well. They flew over from Scotland. Having them here to witness it as well is a great touch.
On the goal itself…
A great turn from Diego (Rubio). We had him sucking in the defender and it left a lot of space in behind. We’ve been trying to do that a lot and get in behind but we haven’t been doing that in recent games. I felt it was a lot better tonight. It was a great ball from Diego. I had a glance at the keeper and seen him edging towards his right so I went back across him. Thankfully, it went in.
On the team’s performance…
Even in the first half, I don’t feel we deserved to be down going in at the break. We keep finding ourselves in these sort of situations recently. The last couple games we haven’t managed to get ourselves back in but we did today. It’s not nice not being able to hold on. We expect, once we get ourselves in front, we’ve got the quality throughout our team to expect to see it out. It wasn’t to be. It was a good finish to be fair. It’s a difficult one to take. We have to bounce back. We wanted the three points and we haven’t done that so it’s disappointing.
Sporting Kansas City midfielder Ilie
On the result…
We have to value every single point. Obviously, it’s not what we expect – the result that we got tonight. I think that we are doing things really well. Other things not good at all. We are working hard. We are working in a good way. Sometimes we are disappointed about the result but tonight I think that we did a good job.
On the road ahead…
We have to be satisfied but knowing that we have to keep working. Next game is in New York – a really tough place to play – and then the quarterfinal in the Open Cup tournament. We need to get the results again on the road.
On the play of Johnny Russell and Diego Rubio…
Johnny, we know what he can bring to the team. Every player and every team has ups and downs during a season. I think he’s doing a good job. It’s time to be supporting everybody. Diego did a fantastic job tonight. He’s a quality player. He’s a top player, I think. As much as we can be together and count on these kinds of players, we will be stronger.
On the team’s depth…
We are a big squad, not just a team. I’m happy for everybody who’s getting minutes. Hopefully, we can take back players from injuries and suspensions and we will be stronger.
Toronto FC manager Greg Vanney
On the team’s first half…
Obviously, we were closer together as a group. We were able to make some plays, cover for each other, help each other out more times than not tonight. So, from that standpoint, that was better. In terms of dealing with the numbers that they were pushing forward and still managing to get pressure to the ball, it was probably not as comfortable as we would have liked it to be and that’s a situation that we’ll deal with. But, all the guys gutted it out. Third game in six days; Kansas City is a difficult place to come and get points. I think if we execute on the break a couple times where we had good numbers out on the break and we don’t execute, maybe we come away with something. But for sure some things to work on. But again, our third game in six days and two games on the road, we’ve got to take it for what it is.
On scoring the first goal of the game…
It helped out. It’s good to get the first goal and feel a little bit of confidence that you can build into the game. But again, it became a game of managing the numbers that were hanging out behind us and still managing to get pressure to the ball. And because we didn’t do a great job of that at times, and we were a little bit deep in our half sometimes, and dealing with some things in front of our goal, that’s ultimately where their second goal came from. So, we have to deal with those sorts of situations better if were pressing the ball, then we have to make sure we deal with that situation, because as soon as they got out of that, then the numbers that they had high were a lot for our four guys to deal with.
On balancing another game on Saturday and the Canadian Championship on Wednesday…
We do what we’ve got to do. We’ll get some guys recovered and rested after this road trip, and start our preparation for that. We will put teams on the field that we feel will get the results in the games that we have coming up.
On if this was a good point on the road…
Again, I think you have to take it for what it is. We would have liked to get three points. But like I said, in the situation that were in, we’ve dropped two games, we needed to stop that. We needed to build some momentum. We worked hard in the things that we’ve talked about. We did a little bit better tonight. And we’ve got to start to build some momentum out of that. A Western Conference point, well take it. It’s a tough place to come and get anything, so we’ll take it. But we know, with the games coming up, we need to continue to get healthy and hopefully we can take three points along the way as well.
On Jordan Hamilton’s goal and his performance in the USL…
He has done well with his starts this week. That’s why he’s been getting more starts. And I thought he worked hard and had a good goal, obviously. So, he’s done some good things over this stretch and its good for him. It’s good experience and we’ve seen his growth through the course of this time period. And for Jordan, it’s about consistency. Like all young players, every time you come out, do the job that you have to do, make a difference when you can and to continue to compete all the time. He did a nice job.
Toronto FC midfielder Michael Bradley
On the result…
Third game in six days. Sporting is a good team in their stadium. We’ll take our point and move on. We’ll continue to build on this. We talked a lot today about the idea that this was the first game of the second half of the season. It’s pretty clear what we have to do from here on in. We’ve got to win our fair share of games. But there’s going to be days where we can’t win and we’ve got to find ways to pick up points. From that standpoint, a lot of positives tonight.
On scoring first…
It was good to get the first goal, for sure. It was nice to play from the lead for a little while. And then we have five minutes of madness in the second half where the game gets turned on its head for no reason. That part is frustrating and disappointing. The response was excellent. We’ll use this and continue to keep going.
On the takeaways…
This was the first game of the second half of the year. You don’t need to be great with numbers to look at the table and realize we’ve got to take a lot of points here in the second half of the season. The best way to take points is to win. You’re not going to be able to win every game. On the days when you can’t win, you have to be able to tie games because obviously single points add up over the course of games, as well. The mentality was good. Third game in six days against a good team. Now we’ll re-group during the week and get ready to go again.
On closing the gaps…
I thought in terms of being a little more solid and a little bit harder to play through, that was better.
Toronto FC forward Jordan Hamilton
On his run of form…
It started in the USL with the younger guys. I got a couple games and got two goals down there. I used that as a bouncing step to get up here with the first team and be ready to go. I feel good and confident scoring goals, which makes me happy.
On prepping for the Canadian Championship…
Canadian Championship is something I can take great pride in personally because I’m Canadian born and raised. I’d love to be a champion of Canada. Hopefully we can retain our title and get back into Champions League.
On getting a road result…
If we’re at any different point in the season, with a couple more points, you’re happy coming to Kansas and getting a point. Unfortunately, the way the season is going, we would have wanted a win. We’ll use it as a building block and get to Orlando and hopefully get a win.
On his goal…
We pressed off of my turnover. I was just chasing the ball back to try and get it. Nico made a good play, using his body and he played the ball to me. I had a lot of space and I just tried to place it as far into the corner as I could out of his reach because it was through a little bit of a crowd. I hit it pretty sweet and it went in so that was good.
