Head Coach Adrian Heath
On overall thoughts of the match…
“I thought we were very sloppy in the first half. We started too slow. I don’t think we put enough pressure on the ball. Didn’t think we moved the ball well enough. Too many cheap turnovers and we allowed a really young side to come in and have belief in what they were doing. I thought the second half we got about them a little bit more. Certainly got a little bit closer to people and created some golden opportunities to maybe have won the game. But overall, [Kansas City] would have been disappointed if they hadn’t taken something from the game. We’ve got 10 points from the last four games. Would we have settled for that four games ago? You bet we would. A lot of tired bodies in there. We haven’t got an awful lot we can change around at this moment in time. We’ll have to see where we are for the weekend.”
On feeling like a one point game versus three points dropped…
“Well, you always feel at home when you don’t win the game and you dock points. In light of the way the game went and the way the game started, I’ve just said to the boys in the dressing room, the way we played in the first half, invariably, you don’t win games. [Kansas City will] be disappointed with the two or three great chances that they had, that they didn’t polish it for our first half performance. The second half I thought was better.”
On the lacking performance despite being on the upswing recently…
“A little bit of tightness. It’s virtually the same team again. You look at their group tonight, they probably made four or five changes from the weekend. Young kids from the academy with energy. We didn’t have that today.”
On the goaltending on both sides…
“Well, Dayne [St. Clair] came up big again when we needed him. A couple of big saves, a couple saves I expected him to make but there were a couple of real, really really good saves. Their keeper, late on, made a couple of great saves as well. They probably think they deserve something from the game, and they are probably right. But when you have them chances as late on as you do, that’s one you can pinch.”
On the disappointment of the team…
“Yeah, they’re disappointed. When you get on a run like we’ve got and you come home, you want to take that excitement and that enthusiasm into the game and we started too slow today. We still had created a few really good opportunities but so did they. As I said, four games ago, we’d have said, ‘do you want to take 10 points?’ We’d have snapped somebody’s hand off at the run we were in prior to that. The run carries on. It’s four games without defeat and we’ve got a home game to come at the weekend. We’ll have to play better than we did tonight against the team that’s coming in with a new coach. Obviously, they’ll be full of it, trying to impress the new guy and then we’ll go from there.”
On Wil Trapp’s possible injury…
“I think he was cramping at one state so we didn’t want to take a gamble with that because he’d obviously had the yellow card as well and [Kansas City] were quite sharp in the middle of the park.”
On a possible player joining the club…
“When it’s time, we’ll let you know. At the end of the day, it’s easy for me to say ‘yeah, it’s all done,’ it’s not. We still have got a bit of work to do on that one but we’re hopeful.”
On if there are players moving into the transfer window…
“I don’t think so. Obviously I think, we’re hoping that [Alan] Benítez will get his stuff through, we’re hoping, sooner rather than later and then obviously if we manage to bring another forward in, another attacking piece, they we’ll be pleased with that because I think we need a couple of extra bodies.”
On repeating the starting lineup to later make changes…
“I’ve always said that certain team shapes affects the way the game was. I didn’t think the way we set up in the first half, we could get enough pressure on their defense. Second half, we were a lot better. We had an extra body higher on the pitch. We took their number six out of the game a little bit, [Oriol] Rosell, because we man-marked him and then we made their central defenders make more decisions. The first half was as poor as we’ve been for the last four or five weeks I think.”
On the possibility of second team players getting chances of being pulled up…
“I would think not at this moment of time. I would think not. It’s a couple of guys we’ve been putting down all season and in loan, so we couldn’t bring them back. I just think that if we can get an attacking piece and we’ve already got [Alan] Benítez in, I think that will help. That will give one or two people a rest and then we can maybe move it around a little bit more.”
On how Alan Benitez will contribute to the club…
“We’ll see. Like you said, he can play all down the right. He’s got really good energy and is really good at combining with people. I just think it’ll be another addition for us if we wanted to keep Robin [Lod] at the top or a central midfielder. We could move him maybe on one from DJ [Taylor] or put him where DJ is at this minute, give him a rest because one or two do need a rest.”
On the return of Kervin Arriaga and Romain Metanire…
“He [Kervin Arriaga] is a little bit better this week so I think maybe this weekend will be too early hopefully the week after. [Romain Metanire] No.”
On the corner kicks in the match…
“Rey’s [Emanuel Reynoso] quality tonight was excellent again. We put it in the right area and we need to do a better job of getting on the end of it. When you’re putting the ball in with that much pace, along the six yard line, and you’ve got five or six players that were the runners trying to get on the end of it, I think we expect more out of them.”
Midfielder Robin Lod
On the feeling following today’s result…
“Thinking before the game, I think it definitely was two points missing for us. But the way we played today we didn't deserve anymore.”
On what the team was missing in the first half…
“I think we just need to be so clean with everything. We had a lot of easy mistakes and were a little bit sloppy on our play. It was difficult for us and we knew that before the game it was gonna be a tough game and the hardest game mentally to prepare and we didn’t do well today.”
On the condensed schedule playing a factor on team fatigue…
“Probably every team is feeling it now. We have so many games in such a short period of time. Players have played a lot of games. So of course it's gonna hit at some point.”
On the chances created in today’s game…
“Have to give credit for him [John Pulskamp] for making those crucial saves, but I still feel like we didn’t create enough chances today and we didn’t deserve to win.”
On the team's recent success…
“I believe in this team always and I trust this team to win and compete in every game. But if you put it like that a lot of teams, ten points in four games, especially a few games away, it's definitely not a bad run and we need to refocus on the next one. We have a great chance to bounce back.”
On the halftime switch heading into the second half…
“They created a little bit of issues playing with three in the middle and we just wanted more guys in the middle. It's one of those games where you need to change something when you're not playing well.”
On the last chance corner at the end of the game…
“I feel it’s just waiting. We're gonna score. As you said, we’ve been so close and needed a little bit of luck there and also some better things to do."
On how goal scoring can be inconsistent…
“We have been doing really well, scoring a lot of goals and of course we expect to do them here on the home games and today we didn’t.”
On the disappointment following tonight's draw…
“I think this team was eager to win all the games, especially at home. I feel it’s a disappointment.”
On getting past the tired legs…
“You just need to do everything to recover. You need to try to eat well and sleep as much as you can and try to mentally prepare for the next one.”
Defender Michael Boxall
On his thoughts of the performance against Sporting Kansas City…
“Particularly how we started off, just lacking a little bit of sharpness. I think we were just sloppy on a few passes. From the whole game… I think we were dangerous the whole game. I thought we were, at any given time, we could have created chances. Kansas City did a good job of kind of swamping the box and defending in numbers and that’s always going to be difficult to break down. I think we just need that little bounce of the ball to go our way and then we put one more away and we finish the game off, but it wasn’t to be tonight. Just lacked a little bit of sharpness, especially that first half.”
On coming close to converting on corner kicks…
“We’ve come up with different looks to get different players a chance on the goal. Obviously with Rey’s [Emanuel Reynoso’s] delivery we expect us to get on the end of it. I think on that last one three or four guys had a toe or just a little grove of skin on the ball, but just wasn’t quite enough to get it over the line. Their [Kansas City’s] goalkeeper did well tonight, kept us at bay. Just need to keep working.”
On Johnny Russell on being a pest…
“He’s done that for years. We’ve seen that exact shot and finish with his left foot so many times. I think when he comes off the bench… every other time except for that one gets just a bit lucky with a little half tackle and breaks out of that challenge. I think everything else we kind of handled him okay, but any time you overdue the job, nie times out of ten as a defender, you get stung up one time then you haven’t done your job and it’s a tough one to take.”
On the feeling of one point gained or two points lost…
“Probably two points lost. I think any time at home we’re trying to… we expect us to pick up three points. I think that hasn’t happened more often than we’d like to this season. I think tonight is another one of those occasions where, I think not necessarily because of the performance. I think a bounce of luck and just a little bit of sharpness in the final third.”
On the performance of the group over the past four matches…
“With the squad we have and how I’ve seen us when we’re at our best or close to it, I think every single game I’ve gone into, I expect us to win. We’ve got it in us to win, it’s just about showing up and every player putting that performance in for 90 minutes. Obviously we haven’t done that enough this year. All of July, things have kind of gone our way. Our front four have been having a lot of joy in front of goal. Rey [Emanuel Reynoso] has been playing out of his mind. He’s been class with what he creates and what he does for us. Looking at the bigger picture this month I think we’ve put ourselves back into a spot where we expect us to be after dropping off in May and June.”
On how much fatigue played a factor in tonight’s performance…
“I think that plays a factor for every team. I think we’ve got six, seven games this month. It’s not going to get much easier. Two days rest, but at least we’re home again. We’ve got our crowd to fire us up and we’ve just got to go again. I think we’ve got a D.C. team that’s coming in wounded and looking to bounce back, so we’re going to have to match them again and be sharper than we were tonight.”
On integrating the new additions to the team…
“There’s not going to be too many sessions on the training realm that we’re going to be able to get familiar with each other. It’s always difficult when you don’t exactly speak the same language. You rely on the Rey’s [Emanuel Reynoso], the Fraga’s [Franco Fragapane], Luis [Amarilla] to welcome in. I think he [Alan Benitz] fits into the group pretty well and we really haven’t seen him in a full training session, so it’s hard to give you an insight into that. The more fresh bodies we have the better.”
On the group's balance after the past four matches…
“When you look at the bigger picture, we’re disappointed after tonight. Should’ve, could’ve been three points, but bigger picture I think, as I said before, we’ve kind of fought the last three, four games to put ourselves in a position that we expect us to be. We need to keep climbing that table because we want a home playoff game this year. Reward our fans with an extra home game this year, so we need to come out fighting with an extra bit of sharpness on Saturday.”
