Sporting Kansas 2-1 Columbus Crew
SPORTING KANSAS CITY MANAGER PETER VERMES
On the impact the red cards had:
Well, they always change games, especially ones that are not deserved. They change games all the time. That’s why when you pull the card out you have to be sure that it is a red card.
On if the Crew was in position to score before the red card was issued:
They weren’t. I thought we did a great job in the first half to shut everything down. They were having a difficult time playing out of the back, which I think we frustrated them and caused a lot of turnovers, especially in their half of the field. In the second half, we started the same way. The red card changed things. I thought we were doing a good job of still staying organized and not giving too much away. They got their goal, which I could say if you go look at it, it could be a foul on Higuain for pushing a guy from behind but he doesn’t call it. The game changes then obviously we are pretty aggressive, in that moment when we win the ball and there was a second yellow to their guy and he’s out. We stepped the aggressiveness back up again to go after them to try to get the goal. It was a really heads up play and the way we scored the goal with all of the guys running up to the box and the ball being dropped to the top of the box.
On stoppage time:
Stoppage time is a very difficult discussion. I think it would be very easy to just attribute 30 seconds to certain things that occur in a game. Then when the number comes out the fans will have an idea as to why they came up with that number. I would be a huge proponent of that moving that way. It’s arbitrary. On the field you are wondering how they came up with that number. For me, I don’t like the way it is calculated currently.
On Dom Dwyer’s performance:
Sometimes he can make stuff on his own and other times he needs some help. I think he’s still a difficult player to play against. He puts the other team under a lot of pressure defensively. He’s not always going to get goal scoring opportunities. He did a really good job. He was very good defensively and forced the game some ways, which helped us defensively.
COLUMBUS CREW SPORTING DIRECTOR AND HEAD COACH GREGG BERHALTER
On the tough result:
We’re not victims in this whole thing. The way we perform we didn’t deserve to win that game and it wasn’t a pretty soccer game all around. The whole thing wasn’t pretty. Our job is to come out here and entertain the fans and play attractive soccer and we didn’t do that we didn’t live up to our end of the bargain tonight. It was hesitancy, it was guys not moving and it’s too bad because especially when they got the red card we could have gotten more out of that and we didn’t.
On how to address the players:
It’s still mixed. We’re not saying we need to win the championship. We expect a certain level of performance. When we have that level of performance we get a result and a night like tonight as the tide turned and they get the red card we should get a result. We’re disappointed but like I said, we’re not the victims here. We didn’t play well enough to win that game and that’s a shame because it’s a home game, it’s against an Eastern Conference rival and we want to put ourselves in position to win that game.
On the starting line-up:
What we wanted to do was use our wide guys a little bit higher and draw Pipa [Higuain] more in the middle and created an advantage in the middle. Through the lack of movement we weren’t successful in doing that. When you’re standing you aren’t successful in creating space. I didn’t think that was successful and we needed to change things up so we brought Adam [Bedell] in. I think he had a good effect in the game. There was a lot more urgency in the second half and I was much more pleased with the performance in the second half than in the first.
On backline’s performance:
I thought they did a good job on Dwyer. He is a handful and I thought they did a good job. Most of their chances came from dead ball situations. They took their time and set it up. I’m not sure how much effective playing time was in this game but it wasn’t pretty. That’s a tactic; they won the game so I’m not going to complain about it. It wasn’t an overall attractive game. To answer your question I think the backline did well. They hadn’t been playing together in two months. I think a little bit of rust in their communications and build-up but that’s fine. I think they did a good job.
On timing of goals:
It got hectic towards the end of the game with Wil being sent off. That play, not clearing the ball, getting beat on the side there’s a lot of things to look at I’m not sure it’s lack of focus in this case.
On quick turnaround:
I don’t know if it is a good or bad thing. I think we need to get our confidence back as a group. You could see in the first half that guys weren’t confident and that’s what needs to improve. When they are playing their best they can be a very competitive team. I think we just need to get the guys confident and that’s part of our job. We need to build them up and get them to where they need to be for Saturday.
