Real Salt Lake Manager Jeff Cassar
On Real Salt Lake’s third straight shutout…
We’ve played at three difficult places and came away with three shutouts. Sporting Kansas City did a great job tonight making the game difficult for us and putting us under pressure with the long ball service, set plays and throw-ins, but I thought the guys managed those very well. Also looking back, I think Nick [Rimando] only had to make one save, but I thought we did a very good job defensively.
On the physicality of the match…
I didn’t think it was overly physical. I think both teams really handled themselves in a competitive manner, and it got heated out there but it was a hard fought game by both teams.
On Real Salt Lake’s next game against Vancouver…
They’re a dangerous team on the counter attack. They’ve given up possession in every single game but they’re 4-1 now I believe, so they’re extremely dangerous on the counter attack. We’re going to have to be mindful of that at home. I expect a good night from us. It’s been a couple weeks now since we’ve been at home and I think the guys will be excited to play in front of our crowd.
On Dom Dwyer’s offside goal…
I think Sporting KC has several ways that they can apply pressure to you. They make the field big, they play extremely direct at times and you have to deal with a lot of set plays and long throw-ins. Credit to my players because we [handled] that. This is not an easy place to come to. Look at their last result where they scored two set play goals in extra time. But we talked about being mentally tough for 90-plus minutes and we were that tonight.
On RSL’s few offensive chances…
When the ball was in the air a lot, it can be hard to gain control. They put a lot of pressure on you. It forces your team back and after that you have to really take care of the ball. In the first half I thought we gave the ball away cheaply and too early but we had a couple of really nice sequences where we could have really gone at them maybe with a better final ball or maybe a better run on the break. That’s something we’re going to work on this week and hopeful be better with against Vancouver.
On getting a point in Sporting Park…
We look at this as a series with [Sporting KC]. We play them one time away and twice at home. So if we take care of business at home, we’ll win the series. Easier said than done but they play extremely direct and [Dom] Dwyer works his tail off up top and that puts a lot of pressure on your center backs. And they have great servers of the ball. So you have to try and get pressure to them, and if you don’t, you’ll be dealing with a lot of second balls, and we did that for most of the night.
On RSL’s defense against Sporting KC attack…
You want to make teams predictable so that you only have to deal with one or two things. We talked all week about dealing with service and as soon as they get into the attacking half, they’re thinking about getting the ball into the box in a hurry. I thought our backline and Nick were sharp and I thought Luke [Mulholland] and Kyle [Beckerman] were great in front of them as well picking up balls. Sporting KC had so much pressure getting numbers forward, so it’s dealing with that and also connecting your first few passes to alleviate that pressure. That’s an area that could have been better tonight.
On defending long throw-ins…
We talked about all week knowing what they were going to do and not getting frustrated. I get frustrated watching it, but you have to deal with it. It’s a dangerous ball at the top of the 6-yard-box at times and a lot of times it’s the second ball that causes the big commotion. It just causes havoc. And on top of that we have to bring our whole team back to deal with it. If we kept three people forward, we’d probably catch them on the counter, but we’d also leave ourselves exposed.
Real Salt Lake goalkeeper Nick Rimando
On the team's defensive effort...
The backline was great. It's pretty straightforward the way [Sporting KC] plays. They get [the ball] to their backs and hit it long to [Dom] Dwyer. And we have to defend long throw-ins. I thought everything in front of us, our midfield dealt with and all the long balls from their center backs, everybody covered well.
On Elias Vasquez’s performance…
He was great. I thought him and [Jamison] Olave talked well together. He covered our outside backs really well. Again, it was organized which made it look simple for the guys.
On Real Salt Lake’s three straight road shutouts…
I think it's just the mindset of the guys working together and achieving that shutout goal. We go in there with a defensive mindset and know we will get our offense from how we play defensively. I don't think we had too many shots today, but coming out of here with a zero is good.
On earning a point at Sporting Park…
We meet them two more times. It's early in the season. They are going to improve during the season and we will improve and we will meet again. For an away team to go anywhere, not just here, and get a shutout, it's an accomplishment.
Real Salt Lake midfielder Kyle Beckerman
On struggling to score goals at Sporting Park…
I think it's a really tough place to play. They have been one of the top teams in the league for years now and have played together a while. I think it's a testament to their coach. [Peter Vermes] has coached the team in his style and the way he likes. He has produced a fine team here.
On Real Salt Lake's inability to create chances...
That's not our job. It's Kansas City's house. Hopefully, we were going to nick a goal. But for all their possession, only one shot on goal is pretty good for us. But of course we will look at what we did bad and what we did good and see if we can work on it this week.
On Real Salt Lake’s three straight road shutouts…
Whenever you go on the road, you are looking for a win but will take a tie. That was the case tonight. We will go home and look at the video and see if we can improve.
On [Jamison] Olave's performance….
He is a rock. We are glad to have him here. He just continues to get better and I really like him behind me.
Sporting KC Manager Peter Vermes
Overall thoughts on the match…
I never go into a game thinking that it will wind up 0-0, I go thinking that we will score. We dominated the game and we definitely deserved more than we got. The positive is we played really, really well I thought. We dominated the game.
On the frustration of being held to a 0-0 draw…
There is frustration with not getting the goal for sure, but it is not frustration for not playing well. I think we dominated the game. I think we didn´t give anything up to them at all. I thought we defended very well as a team. I thought we anticipated a lot of stuff and I thought we were really good. We were in and around them quite a bit. We were very good in the channels. I thought we were creating stuff up the middle. Those are the type of games we can build off of, and at the same, time they are the type of games that give your team confidence. It was not just a game that was just counters. It was purposeful and it was possession. There were some times that we went really quickly. I thought Dom was really good up front and I thought Nemeth was very dangerous the way he came inside and connected to the game quite a few times. I think if we had found him more one or more two times in the first half I think he may well have walked in free on goal.
On preventing counter-attack goals…
I think our guys understand that we need be smarter and know these situations. Thus far in this season we have been very good with that. Last week everybody complained about how we played but we came out and scored two goals in injury time. We play tonight and it is 0-0. Normally we make one mistake and they capitalize on that mistake. We are a much more mature team than we were in the past from that point of view. It is very encouraging the way we played tonight.
On Sporting KC’s performance in the match…
I thought from start to finish our guys were fantastic: our movement off the ball, our aggressiveness to get into attacking positions and we won a lot of second balls tonight. We were excellent there. In duels I think we were 60-45, which is huge. I look at Real Salt Lake as a good team, but also a very competitive team. Their guys compete for everything on the field. For us to have domination in certain areas is very good for us.
On being patient in attack…
I thought in the game against Portland we were very good. I think tonight we were even better. I don´t think we were as good in our last game with that piece of it. We have put time and effort in training with that piece of it and improve on that piece of it and I thought it was very good tonight. I think the ball movement was good and we were patient as well. I think everybody in the stadium was hoping that we would go forward but it wasn´t the right moment. The patience actually created more chances that were more dangerous than if we would have had gone forward when everyone thought we should have. The guys were smart in that regard. We kept the ball and were very good in the central part of midfield today. I thought that is where we were a struggling a bit in the last game, and tonight I thought we were excellent. I thought Benny [Feilhaber], Roger [Espinoza] and [Servando] Carrasco were very good together.
On the chances Sporting KC created…
We created a lot of chances around their goal. I don´t know if there were necessarily many clear-cut chances. You have to give them credit for that as well. They sat back. It is not like they came out flying. They sat back to come in here and to do what they did, which was to try and get a point. Sometimes that can go against you and sometimes it could work for you but I think a lot of it has to do with the fact that we drove the game. We didn´t wait for them to do what they were doing. We were going and making that part of the game. At the same time, when we lost the ball we didn´t wait for them to make decisions and play against us. We went and actually pushed the game there as well. I think that is why we won a lot. The big thing is that on both sides of the ball we really pushed the game. That is only going to make us better for the future. The only thing is that maybe we could have been a bit better with the clear-cut finishes on goal. Sometimes it is just a couple of inches, you know?
On splitting the points…
We are not happy about it. We feel we should have got three. You also got to assess your performance along side that. It is kind of like last week. You´re happy that you got three points. But you are also realizing that you have a lot to work on, so you make better choices. You may leave and say we got three points, but we didn´t play that well so we have to get back to playing well. That really rules the day. As the season moves, if you haven´t really developed your model of play, then in games when you need to play and get points, you haven´t got a hope and prayer if you haven´t developed the model of play. If you have a model of play, you have a purpose of how you are going to do that. I think that is what rules the day in the long run.
Sporting KC midfielder Benny Feilhaber
Overall thoughts on the match and Sporting KC’s start to the season…
We’re frustrated because we played well enough for the win, but we’ll take the point and be okay with it. We’ll take having nine points after six games and improving as much as we have from the beginning of the season. Nine points puts us right there in the mix. That’s all anybody can really ask for in MLS at this point in the season. It’s a very closely contested league and if you’re in the mix, that’s all you can ask for. As long as we keep improving, our goal is to be at our best toward the back end of summer closer to playoff time. I wouldn’t say games matter more [toward the end of the season] because they’re all three points, but they definitely matter in the sense where if you aren’t playing up to your standard at that point in time, whether you get to the playoffs or not is (irrelevant) because you’re not going to do well in the playoffs. That’s kind of what happened to us last year—we got to the playoffs but we weren’t playing our best soccer.
On Sporting KC preventing counter attack opportunities…
We got punished at the end of last season [on the counter attack]. So one of the things we want to focus on this season is our shape. When we are going forward and we have that possession, we need to make sure we’re still balanced in the sense that we not only prevent counter attacks, but we’re also in good positions to win the ball on those second balls out and keep it in there end. That’s definitely something we’ve been training on and something we’ve gotten better at from the end of last season.
Sporting KC midfielder Benny Feilhaber
On Sporting KC’s 0-0 draw against Real Salt Lake…
It was a game we controlled and we’re obviously disappointed not to get three points out of it, but it was a good performance and we’re pleased with that. We moved the ball a bit quicker and our passing was better. We kept the ball well and were more intelligent with it. We controlled the game and played in their half. We just couldn’t put the ball in the net today—or we could, but we were offsides. There are many positives to take from this. We had a clean sheet and now we just have to put the goals away.
On trying to break through Real Salt Lake’s compact defense…
I thought we did a pretty good job. We were just a bit unlucky. Our final ball wasn’t quite there or our finishing was so-so. There were many positives to take from the game—we controlled it from start to finish.
On Sporting KC’s week-by-week improvement…
I think you can see us getting better each week. We’re enjoying ourselves, working hard and starting to get results here and there. I think we’re going to keep getting better each week, and come towards the end of the season we’re going to be a very strong team.
On getting a goal called back for offsides for the second straight game…
It was very (frustrating) today, especially because I wanted three points. Last week’s [offside call] wasn’t as frustrating because we got three points. This one’s still very (tough), but we’ll take it and move on.
On his attacking partnership with Krisztian Nemeth…
I love playing with Krisztian. He’s an intelligent footballer and we’re learning how to move off each other and understand each other more. I think we’re going to have a strong partnership this year.
