Sporting KC 1-1 New York Red Bulls
Sporting KC Manager Peter Vermes after the game:
Thoughts on the game…
You´re playing your first game of the season. Very rarely is everybody 90 minutes fit, let alone able to play 10 men for 90-plus minutes. It showed a lot of determination and courage from the guys to be able to fight the way they did. What they did really well was they were actually smart. They were really disciplined defensively but they picked and chose some really good moments. We could have stolen the game at the end a couple of times. There were great opportunities. Dom had two of them, but in the end, I think a tie is probably a fair result.
On rookie Amadou Dia making his debut with a start at right back…
He did very well. I give the kid a lot of credit. He has got some cojones. He can step out there and he can play at this level for sure. He is playing out of position. He is really a left back, not a right back, so I give him a really high mark in regards to the way he played today. Never got out of shape, made some very good individual plays, recovered really well. He was very good tonight.
On the team’s current form…
I think first games are always tough. There are quite a few guys that on Friday we came in here and trained in the stadium, and there were quite a few new guys that came into the stadium and looked around and were like, “holy cow.” They were wide eyed. Obviously that was with nobody in the stadium. I can imagine what it must have been like for some of them today when they walked in and saw the full environment that our crowds present. I think for all of our players at the end, it was a good first performance. Do you want it to bo better? Sure, you always want certain things. There are pieces of what we did today which I think eventually will put a full game together.
On Sporting KC’s overall performance…
I think at times we were really good. We broke a couple of times. We were very good going forward, but we were more like a one hit wonder. We didn’t maybe possess the ball enough at times in the other team´s half. The other thing is I think at times we gave up too many second balls in the middle of the midfield. I think as the game went on, we got a little better with it. We felt more comfortable.
New York Red Bulls Manager Jesse Marsch
Thoughts on the match…
For us, it wasn’t a perfect game by any means but I thought overall to come into a tough place to play on opening night and come away with a draw, was all-in-all a pretty good result and a pretty good performance for us.
On the difficulties players had with footing…
Maybe a little of both [pitch condition and player’s boots]. Early in the year, the fields aren’t going to be perfect, that’s for sure. There’s going to be elements; we’ve been training in snow. I didn’t think it impacted the game too much.
On Bradley Wright-Phillips’ performance…
We would like to get Bradley more involved, that’s for sure. He did have a couple advantages that didn’t come his way or the way that we would want them to. Not sure about some of the offside calls, I’ll have to take another look at that again but I continue to feel strongly that Bradley will find his chances and we have a good midfield behind him.
