Sporting Kansas City head coach Raphael Wicky
On the first goal changing the team’s game plan…
That's a good question. I don't think it changed the game plan. The question is how much that early goal took the confidence away of the players? I cannot give you the answer to that, but it looked after that that a lot of players were with a lack of confidence and didn't really want the ball or were struggling a lot with the ball and being very nervous when they had the ball. Throughout the first half, we gave so many balls away; easy balls in our own half which leads to big chances. I cannot tell you if that was the early goal, but it is impossible to win a football game if we continue doing as many mistakes as we did in the first half. We got a little bit better in the second half. But overall, that's just the reality and today, by far, was not good enough to win an MLS game.
On the balance between defense and offense…
When you're then losing, you try to chase and you open up a little bit. That's the fine balance to find. The game was definitely better in the second half, where we played better. We then had to make some subs. We knew that Justin (Reynolds) and Ian (James) will be subbed out at minute 60, so we also knew that we'd probably then go in a different shape. I think the different shape was fine. But then you chase, because you're losing, and obviously that's the risk that then you open up. We knew that the opposition team has very fast, athletic players as well. So that's a fine balance to find. How long do you stick with maybe being a little bit less on the front foot and not opening up and trying to come back to 1-1 like that and how much do you open up?
On what needs to change…
If we just take the performance from today, from the first half, this was not good enough. We gave away way too many balls in our own half out of no pressure, out of no reason. We have to start with that. I think that is something we talk with the players. We're not only going to talk today about that, because we struggled with that in the past as well. We're giving away too many easy chances, bringing momentum to the other team, and I think that is something we really have to change and we'll work on that.
On Diego Borges’ debut…
I think that's a positive from today. I think Diego came in well. It's not easy to come in. He didn't train a long time with us. He doesn't know the league. But I think Diego had an interesting performance and an interesting game in the second half so that is for sure something we take out as a positive of this game.
Sporting Kansas City defender Justin Reynolds
On the early goal conceded…
It was like we just weren't up until they scored. It is bad. We need to get hit in the face before we start playing and this is something that we just can't have. It destroyed our morale. You could see that from the next couple minutes, that we just were kind of scared to play, and that's something that we just can't have during the game.
On recovering from his injury…
We have a great training staff. They helped me progress back smoothly. I was happy working with them and I'm grateful to them for all that and grateful for God for giving me strength to just play. It felt nice to be back. It's disappointing that was the result and the way it went, but it's always going to be nice coming back in and finally playing again. So I'm happy to play, of course, but it's disappointing.
On the team’s performance in the second half…
It felt like we just came out with more pride, to be honest. We didn't look as scared as the first half. Something switched and we decided that we wanted to win. That's nice to have, but you have got to have that from the first half. We came out in the second half better -- not good enough still -- but better for sure. You have got to start every game, though.
On what the defense do differently…
I guess just winning the ball more. We have to be more aggressive. We have got to be on them. It feels like we're not sticking it on them at all. We don't feel like they're scared of us to play. We let them do these fancy things and we're just not making it hard for them. We have to be more aggressive and win the ball, of course, like I said, but also be on them and let them know we're there.
On his first MLS assist…
It's a nice personal achievement. I'm going to be proud to get my first assist, but I'm not happy. I think the team result comes first. We made a good connection with Jake (Davis) and Manu (Garcia) and of course you trust Dejan (Joveljic) in those situations to put it away. It's nice. It’s something that I'll remember, but the result and the team comes first before that.
