Sporting Kansas City Manager Peter Vermes
On if your club was tired late in the match
âAfter five or ten minutes being down a man you could tell we were getting big time. Weâve had five games in 15 days and this was the last one. We traveled over 16,000 miles, but we went down two men we had some pretty good fight in the end. We almost scored one which is pretty good. It was a good fight by us in the end. The game was changed by the calls.â
On goalkeeper Alec Kannâs performance tonight and what you say to keep his confidence up
âThese guys, theyâre pros. Obviously I have my words with them, I think at the right times he knows thereâs nothing you can do. The first goal was a great goal. The second one, weâre pushing everyone forward and weâre down two men. It is what it is, I donât think itâs going to affect his confidence, heâs done a good job.â
On how you manage the two red cards moving forward
âWell Iâm going to appeal the first one. Iâll tell you right now weâll win it. If we donât win it then somethingâs wrong. Because itâs straight red, thereâs no chance. No chance, the guy gets an arm to his chest. I mean you want me to show you, I donât know what game this is, but itâs a manâs game and thereâs going to be contact. Thatâs ridiculous. I actually think the referee had a little bit of a grudge because I donât know how you give that call.â
Sporting Kansas City midfielder Benny Feilhaber
On the match and how the red cards affect morale
âI donât think it was our best game. We didnât have as much high energy as we normally have in games. I donât know, I think we weathered the storm for considerable amount of the first half and put ourselves in a position the second half, but obviously the red card makes a big big difference. We have to basically put 10 guys behind the ball at that point. They scored quickly after that with a nice shot and it put us in a tough position with the second red even though I donât think it makes any difference on the score. I think itâs a soft call by the referee, Roger (Espinoza) looks like heâs trying to protect the ball and put his body in the way and obviously shield him with his arm. I donât think thereâs any assort of malice or over exertion of power. I think itâs a silly card to give at that point in the game, having said that they outplayed us and probably deserved the three points.â
Sporting Kansas City defender Ike Opara
On how the red cards affect your morale on the field
âThe effort was still there, the guys were giving it all they could. I canât fault what everyone put on the field and played this game today. Obviously it wasnât easy circumstances.â
