MINNESOTA UNITED HEAD COACH ADRIAN HEATH
On the addition to Minnesota of forward Kei Kamara…
“As Kei said, ‘Only eight years too late boss’ the day he arrived here so that gives you an idea. I’ve always liked his personality, I think he’s a real handful, as he’s proved, as his goal record in this league proves. And with the situation we’ve found ourselves in, we thought it was a no brainer really. We haven’t had to give an awful lot up, we’ve taken him till the end of the season and then we’ll reassess from there. Given the situation we were in with Luis [Amarilla], we’re no closer to working out his situation at this moment, the fact that Aaron [Schoenfeld] has been injured for a few weeks, and we’ve only had Mason. As I said, we felt it was a no-brainer, really, given the circumstances that we were in.”
On Kei’s competitive nature…
“You only have to speak to people who know Kei. At times he’s controversial, he says it as he sees it and one of the things I think that he will bring to us is a big personality. I think at times we’ve been lacking a little bit of that. He’s never shy at letting people know what their jobs are and as I’ve said all along, this isn’t a popularity show, we have to be competitive and I think he will hold people accountable as he’s always done. It’s perfect timing, perfect place for everybody. For him, he needed a little lift and a change of scenery and we certainly needed somebody of his magnitude to come in. Speaking to Ike [Opara] and a few of the guys who know him well, they’re really pleased that he’s in the building. I think he’s going to be huge for us, I really do between now and come the end of the season.”
On the service Kei will get from the three midfielders and the fullbacks…
“Typical of Kei, we played them here a year or so ago and as he came off he said, ‘I’d have scored five for you today,’ that gives you an idea of his confidence. I think it was one of the games we put so many crosses into the box and couldn’t get on the end of them. If we can give him the type of service that he thrives on, which is what we’re going to have to start working on, then we know he’ll score goals. His record shows that he’ll score goals. You look at the last two years of him playing in Vancouver and [Colorado], 30 goals in 59 games — that’s one in two — and that’s pretty much how his record has been so if he can bring that from now until the end of the season that’s going to be a bigger advantage for us.”
On what he can add to the game against Columbus Crew…
“We’re still waiting on the paperwork, to be honest. I’m hoping everything goes through. Obviously for Kei, it’s against his old club and we all know what people are like when they play against your old club and it was a club that he had a lot of success at. They will know there is a little bit of a difference coming from what they planned, having watched our last game in Houston. Certainly we have more of a threat in the box now.”
MINNESOTA UNITED FORWARD KEI KAMARA
On why he’s excited to come to Minnesota United…
“The style of play. The style of play on this team suits me kind of well. Everyone knows me in this league as being a box striker and I saw the potential of what it could be here. I’ve watched Adrian [Heath] coach for a little while now and some of the players that have played for him, strikers. One of them is Dom Dwyer who really excelled playing under him being over there in Orlando for so long. I’ve watched this team play over and over, played against them in the bubble and I can see the style of play. Even when I was playing against them, I was like wow, you need a big striker in the box for the kind of crosses that you’re getting. It was a no-brainer really and I’m happy to be here. Hopefully it pays off.”
On how Minnesota fits his style of play…
“Again, they want somebody in the box, that’s going to make the runs for them. Even though without players in the box, I can see guys as Robin [Lod] and [Kevin] Molino scoring goals, still running in the box and getting those goals but at the same time, try to able to reward the other guys, that’s [Romain] Metanire making really good crosses in the box and those guys. I want to be there and be able to help. No disrespect to the strikers, Aaron [Schoenfeld] and the rest of the guys that’s been on the team, I know they’ve been working really hard, injuries that are going on right now and hopefully I’m coming in to see how much I can help take the load off them so they don’t worry so much about it.”
On his excitement for playing with Emanuel Reynoso, a former Boca Juniors number 10…
“It’s huge, it’s huge. I’ve played with one of them in Guillermo Barros Schelotto so this is, actually I don’t think it’s a good thing for me to say because that makes me feel really old that I played with Guillermo but it’s great. When you have players at that caliber, you want to help them out so they can achieve bigger dreams that they want to. Hopefully he’s one of those guys that’s looking to make the rest of the guys around him better. It’s good to have a big guy that he can feel comfortable to feed balls to and we can work off of each other.”
