Columbus Crew Manager Robert Warzycha
General thoughts on the match…
A little bit unlucky today. It was a really good battle on the field. I think it was an even game, to get a point I would have been happy. We gave up two bad goals, one on a penalty and one own goal. Very unlucky so we have to keep going, we have three games left and we’ll try to win them all.
On looking ahead to the rest of the schedule…
I liked our position six games ago when we had 41 points and everyone else had 30. But in the possible 18 points, we got only one. So obviously, I don’t. Obviously games like this, against Kansas City, you have to get the point and we didn’t.
On the own goal…
You’ve got to keep playing. We’ve got to be smarter. It happens…I think we marked a little bit wrong, we were on the wrong side of Kamara. We talked before the game about the long throw-ins that Besler has. He’s going to throw the ball all the way inside the six. If you mark, you have to stay in front of Kamara, not come in from the side. That’s probably what caused the confusion…He made the decision and thought he was going to get the ball and clear it from the box, but obviously he put it in our own net. So, disappointed.
Columbus Crew midfielder Robbie Rogers
On leaving the game early…
I tweaked my hamstring. I’ll probably get an MRI tomorrow or the next day, it feels like I can play this weekend right now, but we’ll see.
Thoughts on the game…
They play very direct and there’s a lot of energy in the stadium. I thought we did alright, I thought we did alright to limit their chances. Credit them, they are a good team. They came out really strong and with a lot of energy. I thought we did well enough to get a point.
On his assist to Emilio Renteria…
Andres Mendoza made a good run and the defenders kind of followed him, and Emilio (Renteria) was just wide open and that was a great finish by him.
General thoughts on the performance…
It was a huge game. We knew that we needed to get at least a point here. But it didn’t work out the way we wanted, it’s a bummer.
On his second time at LIVESTRONG Sporting Park…
I love the stadium, it’s a world-class stadium. The stadium is amazing and the fans are awesome.
Columbus Crew defender Julius James
On the last goal…
For some reason we couldn’t clear the ball higher up midfield. Our game plan was to clear the ball away from the 18-yard box because we knew (Matt) Besler could throw it. Unfortunately, this one came where they wanted it and I was fronting Kei (Kamara) and I went for it. I didn’t exactly get a good hit on it, but you’re taught as a defender that if you can see the ball that you should go for it because there’s someone absolutely behind you waiting to pounce on the ball. That’s what I did, I attacked the ball and it just went in the wrong direction.
I don’t feel unlucky. We got our chances, and we didn’t convert them to win the game.
On the current mood of the team…
We know what we have to do, we have our own game plan. We know we have to get points to go to the playoffs and that’s our mentality right now. We are working very hard and we know what we have to do. We have to keep working and keep plugging away.
On the season coming to a close…
It’s crunch time. It’s time to separate the teams that are going to the playoffs and the teams that aren’t going to the playoffs. I think we are one of the teams that are going to go to the playoffs. We just have to get points and get wins.
Sporting Kansas City Manager Peter Vermes…
On having success from long throw-in opportunities…
I put it on the pressure that we put on other teams. We try to limit the amount of set pieces we give up in a game so we don’t give them opportunities. They gave up quite a few against us. Obviously the pressure is what caused the goal. It’s too dangerous with the guys that we have on our team. There a lot of guys that can get in the goal and we are going to take those as much as we can.
General thoughts on the match…
I will start off by saying it was a very well-fought game by two teams that were vying to get into the playoffs. I thought Columbus played a lot like we thought they would. They were really adventurous after we scored the goal.
On his message at halftime…
We always talk about trying to get ahead or even at halftime, I noticed that the guys were extremely disappointed for giving up the goal. And since we did it was more than a matter of ‘We’re in this. You know we have done this time after time at home. We’ve just got to maintain the pressure on them.’
On the game-winning goal…
We deserved the goal simply because of the pressure we were putting on them. At that point it became a half court game and we continue to get better.
On the team gaining confidence from a difficult match…
I’ve said this before, we have a young team. And this victory will pay major dividends down the road. This isn’t a type of game that many of the guys on the field tonight have ever been in before and they did well to steal the moment. We haven’t achieved anything yet, we have San Jose in front of us we have to get prepared for.
Sporting Kansas City defender Matt Besler
General thoughts on the performance…
I thought it was a great team effort to battle back from the goal we gave up. First 20 minutes we came out with a great mentality, we did a great job of putting the pressure on them. The goal that we gave up I think that we gave the ball up and credit to them. He shot it right off of his touch. There wasn’t a lot of recovery time that they allowed us to have.
On ending the first half level at 1-1…
We came in at halftime disappointed but we also realized that we still had 45 minutes to come and steal the game. We knew it was our game to have. In the second half we pressured them like crazy and got the win.
On moving into first place in the East…
I didn’t really think about first place. I just knew it was a big game. There are going to be a lot of teams up there in the next few weeks.
Sporting KC Midfielder Davy Arnaud
On equaling the club record for career appearances…
It felt great. It was a huge honor to get to play at one place for so long and here at the stadium in front of all of the fans. Kerry [Zavagnin] is someone I looked up to my whole career, it's a huge honor.
On how to it felt to make his return to the starting lineup…
It is good to be back, good to be out there from the start and battling with the guys. It’s tough, it wasn't an easy game, I thought it was pretty good.
General thoughts on the match…
As a team we did what we needed to do to win, and it’s not always going to be pretty. It’s going to be scrappy and a battle especially this time of the year and we found a way to win.
On Sporting Kansas City sitting a top the Eastern Conference
Being in first feels good but at the end of the day we have got to turn around because we have another game on Saturday. It was really important that if we want to get where we want to be that tonight was three points and that’s the start of this last little push and now we've got to get back to work tomorrow.
Sporting KC Defender Chance Myers
On the team’s performance…
It was great atmosphere on a Wednesday night, we came out pretty strong the first half, we gave up a soft goal after we scored ours but I thought we did a good job in the second half to bring it back, get the goal and then close out the last minutes of the game.
On the team’s energy tonight…
I feel I did well, everybody as a whole had a lot of energy which comes from being home but the effort collectively we did a good job.
On the quick turnaround for the match against San Jose…
Short lived. We have a game Saturday, other teams have games and like, Houston has a game Saturday, so we need to go to San Jose and get another victory.
Sporting Kansas City Defender Lawrence Olum
On the team’s performance…
I played well, the team played well and we deserved the win that we got.
On making his debut after being signed on the roster freeze date…
I came in, the coach gave me a duty to do and I think I did it, just trying to keep them from scoring and I succeeded. It feels great.
On Sporting Kansas City sitting a top the Eastern Conference…
It’s great to be in that first place position. This is where the team should be and it shows we have what it takes to do good things from here.
