Sporting kansas 4-0 Montreal Impact
Sporting KC Manager Peter Vermes
Thoughts on the match…
I thought from the opening whistle we were very good, even with the way we went off the kick off and got down in their end. I just think from the start to finish we were very good. I know that we gave up a couple opportunities early on in regards to the counter attack and with that we sort of figured it out a little. In the second half we were tremendous. They were just sitting back trying to defend and catch us on the counter. And like I said, in the second half I think we did a tremendous job of that. On top of that, I think that the ball possession during the course of the game I think really wore them out and our relentlessness around the box worked tremendously well. The one thing that was great tonight is we finished off a lot of runs and I think that’s a big reason why we scored. The first goal, to put the pressure on them and make them have another throw-in deep when they know that we are very good on set pieces was very good by the group. All around, an excellent game from start to finish; scoring four goals is always nice, especially here at home.
On the convincing victory…
Honestly, I feel like we could have been a lot better in the first half. Although, I thought the second half was the best half we’ve played this year on both sides of the ball. We deserved four goals based on the fact that we’ve been in and around the box in games, we just haven’t been clinical. We haven’t finished off our runs and tonight we did that and it proves when you do that, you score goals.
On the performance of Dom Dwyer…
He was a pain in the ass for their defenders. He really was. They were having a hard time with him the whole time. Unfortunately, he should have gotten I don’t know how many more fouls called for him. It sometimes happens that way, that a guy that is strong and can fight people off, the referee starts to allow those guys to take liberties and unfortunately tonight, I thought there was too many times when he was being pulled or pushed around. He could have easily gotten five, six, seven more fouls. All in all, I think he was a real pain for those guys. He made a lot of difficulties back there which opened up more people.
On the play of Lawrence Olum…
I thought he was very good and at the end, we pushed him back to central defender and that’s the great thing about him he’s very versatile. The second half he had a very great game because he was a lot more disciplined. Sometimes when your team has the ball a lot you can get excited and get out of position and he did that a bit in the first half. That was causing us a little problem in the counter attack, but when he got disciplined in the second half he was very good.
On the clean sheet…
It’s something that we’ve prided ourselves on for the last so many years. It’s an important aspect of being successful throughout the season. When you don’t give up many goals and you have the kind of players we have in our attack, you can defend and keep clean sheets and get a lot of points over the course of the season. They were very good but I always say that it starts from the front and goes to the back. Our pressure was very good tonight, it was very difficult for them to find time and space on the ball. I think that’s the biggest reason we got a clean sheet. (Eric) Kronberg has had some big shoes to fill this year, but I see improvement in him game after game. He’s getting a routine and he’s made good decisions. He was solid tonight.
On dealing with Montreal’s counter…
It wasn’t that we were too high up the field, it was Felipe who was finding space and every time they won the ball they were releasing it to him. That was the change we made at half time, the fact that we closed that down, their attack was almost null and void.
On Collin leaving as a precaution…
He felt a little twinge in his hamstring and normally guys will try and go a little bit longer, but he made the right decision coming out and not making it worse. Hopefully it’ll just be a bit of a strain and he’ll take a few days and recover.
On the role of Sal Zizzo…
I thought until about five minutes before he came out he was very good. On the attack side he was tremendous. I thought he put them under pressure getting in behind their defense. He was a little unlucky on the two chances he had in the first half after getting in behind the defense but he was good.
Montreal Impact head coach Frank Klopas
Thoughts on the match…
It was a tale of two halves. We will get back to work and be ready for our game next week.
Montreal Impact midfielder Justin Mapp
Thoughts on the loss…
We had a game plan. I thought we started pretty well in the first half. They had a lot of the ball but we had the better of the chances. Then kind of a weird throw-in play, I’m not even sure who it flicked in off of, but kind of an unfortunate goal and a break against us. We were still in a decent spot at halftime. The second half, against a team like that, you have to be tuned in for 90 minutes and you have to match them.
