Sporting KC remains unbeaten in CCL with 1-1 draw
Sporting Kansas City Manager Peter Vermes
Thoughts on the game…
I thought that we had one clear chance and that was the corner. We talked about set pieces being an important part of this game especially from the view that when you don’t play a team like this week in and week out you don’t know what their tendencies are so the individual duals need to plays need to be won and obviously on that we didn’t. I thought we controlled the game with possession and chances. We had plenty of chances, should have scored more than on. We had enough chances to put the game away and we didn’t. Credit to the goalkeeper. He made a lot of great saves and sometimes that’s how it goes but we had more than enough chances to win.
On the play of Josh Gardner…
I think that at times he was solid. I think he gave the ball away a little too much in the first half, but I think in the second half he was much connected with the rest of the group. I think he found himself behind them quite a few times and had some pretty decent service as well. Defensively, I thought he was very good. He didn’t really give anything p on the side.
On why Sporting wasn’t able to convert their chances…
Just execution. I think execution is the biggest thing. I got to tell you, the goalkeeper had some great saves. He was in it from the opening whistle. I thought Claudio had a great chance to take another touch, put it a little lower. I think it would have been a little more difficult for him to get to, but the keeper came up with a great save because he really tattooed the ball. Soony hit a good ball to the near post and it was almost reminiscent of a goal he scored here not too long ago. It was really just final execution and maybe, you know, if the goalkeeper would have been off a little bit.
On the team’s goal…
We were screaming off the bench because they had everybody on the back post and Jake’s standing there all by himself so it was really improvisation and credit to Graham for seeing it and it was a great finish by Jake for sure.
On Jacob Peterson’s performance…
Jake has a high energy. His work rate is fantastic and one of the things that he’s been lacking lately is a little more execution in the final third. From the goal line to the start of the final third, he’s excellent. Defensively on both sides of the ball he’s good, but just his execution in the final third is what has let him down. He was definitely concentrated on the goal when he scored; he just missed the other one. I actually thought he picked the right place, I think he just missed his target by a little bit, but he was definitely a good spark for us off the bench for sure.
Real Esteli FC Head Coach Otoniel Olivas
Thoughts on the match…
Thank you for the opportunity to have us here. It’s been a good opportunity for Real Esteli to play here. The tie in the game was great because Sporting KC is a great team and we have tried to have a structured game tonight.
On the atmosphere…
Everybody here has treated us very well. It’s not the first time for us that we’ve played in a bigger stadium with a big crowd so it’s a great opportunity to play in a bigger stadium with a big crowd because it helps us to grow as a team and as players.
