Swope Park Rangers head coach Paulo Nagamura
On earning a win in the home opener…
It’s about the team. I think the guys had a very solid performance tonight and I think we scored some pretty nice goals out there. Credit to the group -- they did what we asked them to do and they executed very well.
On changes that need to be made defensively…
If we win every game 5-4, 4-3, we want to play our style of play. Of course, we are going to have to correct more when it comes to conceding goals - some mistakes were there. It was a solid performance from the guys and I felt that they did great work tonight.
On carrying the momentum from the win to Las Vegas…
Las Vegas is a new team and it’s going to be another difficult game. I started watching them and they have some good players, so we are going to scout them and see what we need to do leading up to the match next weekend.
On getting playing time for younger players…
It’s very important to get younger players playing time. I think that’s one of the biggest things about Swope Park Rangers, we’re here to develop players to to be future Sporting KC players, so it was nice to see Camilo Benitez out there having his first professional start. Will Little, Sebastian Cruz, Felipe Hernandez and Wan Kuzain all had time today, which is important in developing players.
Swope Park Rangers forward Kharlton Belmar
On what he credits his success up top to…
I think it’s just everyone willing to work for each other. Between me, Hadji (Barry), Diego (Rubio) from the last game, and Camilo (Benitez) today, everyone’s willing to work for each other, pass each other the ball and when that happens goals are going to come.
On his connection with Hadji Barry…
Honestly, I think it’s just clicking. It’s just working. It’s nothing we’ve practiced or anything like that. It’s just coming out and playing and having fun and enjoying our soccer. It’s just working out for us right now, so we got to keep that going.
On what changes need to be made defensively…
It’s just a new group of guys. It will take a couple games to get it down and get the press right. But we’re going to continue to work on it and take it one game at a time.
On taking the momentum from the first two games into next weekend…
It’s all about continuing to work hard in training, continuing to push and keep implementing the things that we’ve been working on.
Seattle Sounders FC 2 head coach John Hutchinson
On the challenges SPR presented with the attack…
I think on the wings, (Kharlton) Belmar and (Hadji) Barry, are probably two of the better players we’re going to come up against this season. We highlighted them during the week. We tried to stop them from playing, and sometimes some people are just unplayable. Belmar tonight was almost unplayable. We tried to stop him second half, we came in, we spoke about it. We at least fell back a little earlier to get out to him, but when a guy gets in front of the goal, and popping it into the top corner, there’s not much we can do. So we’re disappointed with the result but sometimes you just got to put your hand up and say some players at the end of the day are just too good.
On being shorthanded…
We have got a game on Wednesday, so we’ve kind of got one eye on that game. We have to rest some. We’ve just started the season, so we have to be careful of their workloads. They’re not 90 minutes fit yet and to have two games in five days, we probably couldn’t do that so we had to rest a few players tonight. But the ones we brought in did a good job. Gabe Threadgold, a young academy kid, I give him a big thumbs up. He ran forward and defended well, so he’s done a good job. David Estrada got his first start and two goals. It was nice for him to come in, captain the team on the night, get a couple goals. He’s a good guy. He’s fantastic, so I’m really happy for him.
On corrections Seattle will make moving into next week…
We’ve just got to stop giving away soft goals. It sounds so simple, but especially the fourth goal, we gave away a free kick and turned our back on the ball and Belmar’s run forward. It’s not the most ideal situation, so we just have to try to make sure that we get rid of these little mistakes we make.
