Sporting Kansas City Manager and Sporting Director Peter Vermes spoke to local and national media on Wednesday, addressing the clubâs return to Compass Minerals National Performance Center for voluntary individual workouts and Major League Soccerâs return-to-play plans. His remarks are below.
On the start of voluntary individual workoutsâĤ
Itâs been great; itâs great to get on the field and the players have been very motivated and excited to be back out there. As much as you can in individual workouts, you can see the camaraderie. We bring in eight to 12 players (at a time) when weâre using all of our fields, so itâs been good. The guys have worked very hard and our fitness staff did a really good job while the guys were in quarantine and not allowed to do individual workouts with us. The individual protocol has worked very well, and the club that put it together did a pretty good job.
On playersâ fitness levelsâĤ
The guys have at least maintained some foundation of fitness. Whatâs hard is when you canât play against each other 4-v-4 or 5v-5 and all the way up to 11-v-11. Itâs very hard to look at game fitness, but the guys did a good job of keeping a solid foundation of fitness. That piece has happened pretty darn well, and again I commend our fitness staff for what they were doing on a regular basis with the guys.
On the prospect of all 26 MLS clubs traveling to Orlando for a closed-door competitionâĤ
Weâre not really brought up to speed too much on the idea of that plan. Iâve heard about it as well, but I donât know a ton. I know that there has been discussion with the players. From my point of view, all Iâm interested in is a game date. Then itâs easy for me to work backwards from there. Itâs really hard as weâre going forward at individual training to be preparing for something where we donât know yet what the date of our first game would be. Itâs really reverse engineering. Give me a date and I can work backwards from there. Regarding the players, theyâre working with the players union and the CBA and the league. That has nothing to do with me. I have stayed completely away from that piece if it. I will say, the tournament aspectâwhether itâs four cities or one cityâat the end of the day, I think all the teams want to get back to playing games as soon as possible for so many different reasons. I would say the players want to do that as well. We all want to make sure weâre doing it in a safe environment and in a meaningful way.
On the genesis of individual workoutsâĤ
The genesis of the individual workouts started with us because I called all of our players one day and asked them a question at the end of our conversation. I said, âIs there anything that we can do for you?â All of them said, âIt would just be great if we could get access to our training facility.â So I called the league and said, âHey, do you have a problem with us opening our doors for the players to practice on our fields?â They were like, âNo chance, no way.â So we went back and said there was no doubt we could do this in a very safe environmentâĤ So we put a video together that showed we could do it. Thatâs where this all started. A lot of coaches found out about the video and wanted to see it, and thatâs what really pushed the league along to start looking at a return-to-training protocol.
On what must happen in order for small group training to beginâĤ
First of all, our individual workouts are voluntary. Itâs not mandatory for our guys to come, and if they choose not to, we just provide workouts for them where theyâre at with what they have available to them and whatever they feel comfortable doing. And thereâs a lot of teams like that around the league. Weâre not getting to the next phases of this without testing. When we start training and weâre 7-v-7, weâll need to have testing incorporated into that phase. When we start playing games, itâs going to be the same thing. Everybody is very mindful of the safety aspect. Iâm also very respectful of peopleâs individual decisions. Some guys are maybe a little bit more concerned if their wives are pregnant and different things like that. Weâre very cognizant of it and open to that. Thereâs no pressure on the guys to do anything one way or the other.
On whether MLS and Sporting have begun individual workouts too soonâĤ
I donât think so because the alternatives werenât as safe. For us, it was trying to give our players a place to work out in the safest way possible. When they go around town, theyâre famous guys. If youâve got Alan Pulido going out to a soccer field, all of a sudden somebody sees him, and with social media suddenly 30 people want to take a picture with him. We canât put him in that position. The fact that weâre able to now provide a private environment is great. I can tell you that weâre taking all the steps and all the precautions to make sure that as we move through these next phases, that testing is going to be a part of that protocol.
On how Sporting plans to implement virus testingâĤ
We are working on two different tracks right now. All of our players and staff will be taking tests to see if they actually have the virus. We will also be taking the antibody test to see if we had it at some point and built up antibodies towards it. Weâre not sure if weâre going to do that Friday or Monday. The idea from that is that we also have an individual person who does nothing but work on Sporting Kansas Cityâs testing protocol going forward for small-group training, full team training and games. Each and every team has been requested to go out and search for partners within their (markets). We donât want to have to do a test and then send it back to New York. We need a much quicker turnaround, so weâve been working on that as well. We think we have a very good solution in both situationsâĤ We will have tests, whether itâs Friday or next Monday, and we will actually be administering them as well. Right now, we believe we will do them on-site at Compass Minerals National Performance Center. We arenât required to do tests at this time, but this will give us a trial run to see where everybody is and see how we would perform this going forward.
On whether Sporting would be willing to help other MLS clubs acquire virus testsâĤ
If we come across a company and they can administer tests to all of the other teams in the league, we would be extremely supportive of that. This isnât competition. Weâre trying to make this work and come up with ways in which we can help. It only makes sense for us to try and help each other. If one of us comes up with a really good way to do something and everyone can benefit from that, weâre going to try to help get everyone back on the field in the best way we can. Itâs about getting everyone to do it in a meaningful and safe way.
On Sportingâs safety protocols at Compass Minerals National Performance CenterâĤ
Every morning there is a protocol where we take temperatures and have questionnaires the guys have to fill out before they go to bed and in the morning before they come to training. They canât show up if they donât do it; same thing with the staff. On top of that, everyone gets their temperature taken. If someone is feeling great but we notice he has a high temperature, we immediately have a protocol that kicks in where he is immediately sent to our chief medical officer for our club. We would also know who else he has been around in some proximity, so then we could easily go and have those people tested and backtrack against all of those guys. The good thing is that the way weâre separated, itâs incredibly difficult for someone to infect another because of the way the guys are separated at training.
On Sportingâs dialogue with MLS about individual workoutsâĤ
They definitely ask how itâs going and if there are any pitfalls based on the initial protocol. There really hasnât been anything glaring. There are a few (small) things that could be tweaked here or there, but if you saw our video, one colleague from a different club called me and said, âThis is really over the top.â It was over the top because we wanted to make sure it was done correctly, but you also have to adapt and adjust it to your facilities and your resources. Not everybody has a Compass Minerals National Performance Center.
On how Sportingâs individual workout protocol has been widely shared elsewhereâĤ
There are a couple of baseball teams that asked to use our video, and thereâs a really big (soccer) league in the world that asked if they could use it as well because they were putting together a return-to-play protocol. They were asking if they could use it and then they would give us credit, but of course we shared it. It was no big deal.
On the intensity of individual workoutsâĤ
As much as they have worked very hard, obviously weâre doing things that they didnât have access to before. We have formalized it, so youâre basically doing a warmup, a technical/functional aspect of training which usually has a level of fitness required, and then we always finish off with fitness. By the time the fitness is done, theyâre ready to be done. From week to week, the guys have been sore and theyâve had to recover. Today weâre not even training with them. Today is a yoga day that theyâre doing on Zoom at home, because we have to be really smart with how weâre building them up. Theyâre still very motivated to come here every day. They really are.
On the resumption of the German Bundesliga this weekend and the challenge of playing in an empty stadiumâĤ
Unfortunately I did that quite a bit in my time. I can speak as an expert on that. The time that weâre in right now is a very difficult one. Everyone knows that weâre trying to get out of this, and every little bit helps. Itâs not going to be easy from a motivational point of view for those players. When those teams play in Germany, they play in full stadiums no matter which team is playing. Theyâre used to some really good environments. But I also think they realize the obligation they have right now in making sure itâs a safe environment. They also know theyâre trying to help the country get back to some normalcy. Iâve seen their protocol for these games and it is outstandingâin how theyâre bringing people to the stadium over the course of the day step by step with the production crew, talent for commentating the game, and how they keep people sequestered throughout the day so theyâre not connecting with each other. Itâs pretty impressive. Hopefully weâre going to be able to at least use that as an example, and hopefully we can then adapt it to some of the things weâre going to do as well.
On the amount of time Sporting needs to be ready for a competitive matchâĤ
If you gave me three to four weeks of full team training, we as a staff could get the team ready to play a game. But it just depends on what that time frame is. If youâre telling me weâre just doing individual trainings all the way up to our first game, thatâs going to be very difficult. Itâs all about determining what that first game date is and then working backwards. If Iâm told Iâm going to have two weeks of small group training and two weeks of full team training, I know what Iâm working with and we as a staff will try to put the best plan and progression together for the guys to be ready to play. You also have to take into consideration that weâre all in the same boat here.
I would like to think that there would be a buildup for each team. For example, if teams came to Kansas City, there would be a time period in market that they would use to get acclimated to whatever that new environment was.
On whether the first two matches of the 2020 MLS season should still countâĤ
If we lost our first two games, Iâd say no. Since we won both of them, Iâm going to say yes. All kidding aside, weâve all played two games. Weâre not starting the season. Weâre (resuming) the season. Should they count? Yes. If theyâre not, what am I going to do about it? Iâm sure the owners are going to be making that decision. They arenât going to be calling me and asking, âWhat do you think?
On what happens if the return to play keeps getting delayedâĤ
I donât work on the failures, I work on the achievements. The idea is that Iâm an optimist. Iâm thinking that everyone is going to try and work to get there. So I have to try and come up with a solution for our club. We have to try hard to figure that out. Itâs kind of the same idea behind individual workouts. There are some cities that are more restricted than we are, but there are also some that are probably afraid to come out and make the decision. What Iâve said is that if the league lets us come out and do this and we show success, that could help with some of the other cities to say, âHey, Sporting Kansas City is pulling this off. Theyâre able to do it. Do you feel a little more comfortable now that youâve seen someone have success?â Is that pie in the sky? Yeah, maybe. But Iâm going to keep working towards coming out of this. Iâm not going to just sit around waiting for someone to do something. Weâre trying to find solutions, and weâre going to keep doing that until we figure out what the case is. And if the season gets cancelled, I donât think what weâve done is for nothing. Weâve just got to keep moving toward the next (step).
