Sporting Kansas City 1-2 Phildelphia Union
Sporting KC head coach Peter Vermes
On Sporting KC’s 2-1 loss to Philadelphia…
We deserved to lose. (Philadelphia was) the better team. They worked harder than we did and they were hungrier than we were. They beat us to all the balls. Very seldom do we get outworked playing against one of our opponents, but tonight we got outworked in our home stadium. That doesn’t sit well with me, that’s for sure.
On Sporting KC’s lack of energy during parts in the game…
Maybe they thought we were playing the same game on Saturday in Montreal. We just didn’t have the juice we normally have. I’ll have to go back and look at the training that we’ve done over the last couple days. We lacked the pop that we normally have. Again, we got outworked today and they deserved to win because they were the better team.
On Philadelphia outhustling Sporting KC throughout the match…
MLS is a very hard league to play in because the one thing you have to bring all the time (competitiveness) and hard work. You have to come with your work ethic, and if you don’t bring that, you’re not going to be competitive. (Tonight) is not a norm within our team. Is it a concern? Yeah, we just lost a game. But at the same time, it’s not something that’s going to be a trend, that’s for sure.
On Sporting KC’s approach to the match…
I’ll look at the last couple days of training and see if we overworked them. I don’t think that’s the case because we monitor that every day. More importantly, it’s just mentality. You can easily flip the switch in your head to (play hard). When we were down a goal, we sure were firing away at points, going after it and trying to score. All the sudden we scored, and the next thing you know we give up a goal. For us to give up a goal right after kickoff is very unlike us. That shows the mentality that we weren’t ready for the game today.
On Sporting KC’s missed goal scoring chances…
We should have scored two goals in the first half. Sal (Zizzo) could have had two goals himself in the first half. We had two great chances. There was a third chance that wasn’t as good as the other two because those came from inside the six-yard box. So at one point we could have been up 2-0. It still doesn’t matter-we got outworked on the field.
On the debut performance of 19-year-old defender Igor Juliao…
I said to the staff before (the game) that he was a bright spot. For a 19-year-old, I thought he played very well. I think he is very scrappy. You have to understand he just started with us. So in a short period of time, I thought he did a great job in the game. He’s a bright spot for the team.
On Philadelphia’s approach to the match…
They didn’t do anything that we didn’t know they were going to do. They dropped in and played a 4-2-3-1 and countered. We knew they guys they were going to leave up, so it was nothing we weren’t prepared for. The difference is that they brought a hunger and a level of work ethic that we didn’t match. When you look at the stats, they don’t always tell the story. But when you end the game and the other team out-fouls you 20-5, it’s because they’re more aggressive. Everyone always complains about us because it’s normally the other way around. When you play aggressive, it’s not because you’re dirty, it’s because you’re hungry. You want to win the ball back. Today they were more (hungry) than we were. That’s not something that’s going to become the norm for this group.
Philadelphia head coach John Hackworth
On Philadelphia’s 2-1 win over Sporting KC…
I can’t say enough about the guys in our locker room. That was an incredibly gutsy performance against probably the best team in the MLS. We came into a very tough place to play, and you’ve got to give Sporting Kansas City a lot of credit because they are an excellent team. For large parts of the game they put us in a difficult spot. But again, credit to our guys-they fought. We didn’t play our best soccer, but we got the goals when it mattered. The response after the Sporting Kansas City goal was fantastic, and we held on to the end.
On the challenges of playing against Sporting KC…
Sporting Kansas City (played) us back further than we wanted to be. The way we started the game, we tried to come out and press them. But they were very composed, split their center backs wide and were okay with spreading the field out. The more the game went on, they kept coming and we backed off. That was a mistake on our part because you can’t give these guys time and space to get the mobility to do well. They’re difficult to defend.
