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SPORTING KANSAS CITY MEDIA CONFERENCE

April 9, 2016

Peter Vermes

Harrison, New Jersey

NY Red Bulls - 0, Sporting KC - 2

Q. (Indiscernible)?
PETER VERMES: Yeah, Tim was big time tonight. If you just look at and take the penalty kick aside, since he's come in last year he's had quite a few games like this. Tonight I think was one of the games where he put the whole entire package together. If you really look at Tim, you look at his background, he's 31 but he hasn't had a lot of years of playing as a number one.

So I think coming into this year after the season he had last year he was a much more experienced guy, although it's not a lot. It just gives him an ability to come in this year and be the number one. From the beginning of the year, he's been very good. He really has. Tonight was, I think everything kind of came together for him. I'm happy for him because he's a hard worker, he really is.

The other guy too, Ike Opara, him coming on to the field, most people don't realize he's been out two years. So this was big for him. I told him that probably over the next two weeks he's probably going to get an introduction into one of the games. He's got to be ready. He's got to be confident and feel good, all that stuff.

He went in and I thought he was a huge help for us once they started banging balls in the air, it was over. I think he's the best in the league in the air.

Q. (Indiscernible) what surprises you about him coming in?
PETER VERMES: Well, I guess I'm really surprised about how durable he is. He hasn't missed one training session since we started preseason. He's played every minute of every game we've put him in, and he's been great. Obviously, I'm not trying to jinx him, but he's been very durable, very calm, reads the game extremely well. He's excellent on the ball, incredible entry ball out of the back. He calms the team down.

So, yeah, he's been a very good addition. What it's done for us is it's given us four guys in the back there with Besler having the concussion now, Kevin goes out with a little bit of a groin situation. He's still around. Then we have a fourth guy, and that was important. We didn't have that last year. So it's good to know we have a guy that is in there that can play at the level that he is.

Q. Do you have a particular target (Indiscernible)?
PETER VERMES: Well, we have a lot of respect for their -- they love to go forward with numbers. In the first half probably the second 25 minutes they put six guys up on the line and we didn't deal with it very well. I thought in the second half we did a much better job.

Look, when any team is up 1 or 2-nil like we were, we're going to start taking a lot of pressure, especially when you're away from home. It's just normal. What I thought was good was on the second half the lines were very compact. It was very difficult for them to play through us in the second half, which made them have to go over us. I just think it's very difficult for forwards, especially in and around the box like they were.

Once in a while a ball would fall down maybe, but I thought we were good in most situations. Then the final piece is that when you put numbers forward like that, if you're smart, we should have scored two more goals on the counter. Don't get me wrong, they probably should have scored a goal in the first half. But we should have scored two goals in the second half on the counter because we were really getting out at them.

It was a great game for us in a lot of ways because you've got to be able to play games like that. And we needed to get into a game where the opportunity was to defend and then counter someone. A lot of teams that we play, they wind up sitting back on us all the time when we're trying to -- it's sort of like a puzzle wrapped up in a conundrum and we're trying to figure out how to break it, and tonight it was good for us because it was a different type of game. I thought we at times did really well especially in the second half.

Q. Did you have any worries that the game would spiral out of control?
PETER VERMES: I don't know. I never really thought that the game was really all that physical. We've had other battles in the past that were very physical. What I actually thought that there were some calls in the game I was kind of surprised. If two men are going up for a ball, usually somebody's going to fall down, and that's just the way it goes. But it seems like anymore, two guys go up for a ball, one falls down, and it's a foul against the other guy.

I tend to look at the game a little different, a little maybe more old school. Then the stoppages sometimes are too much. They're just too much. They don't let the guys play enough. But I didn't really see anything dirty from either team.

Q. (Indiscernible)?
PETER VERMES: Yeah, that part for sure. But I always had that problem. Just like at the end of the game I felt the referee tonight, when we were up 2-nil, now he's trying to rush the game. Well, if the tempo of the game is the same, because it wasn't like we were doing anything. We're playing. I don't think our goalkeeper, I don't think our throw-ins, anything, the tempo of the game is the tempo of the game. The referee doesn't now have to change the tempo of the game because one team is winning and the other team's losing. We tend to do that way too much in our league, and that's not normal. They don't do that anywhere else in the world.

So whether it's the fouls, any of those things, the game was getting a little out of hand from that perspective, yeah, I would agree with you.

Q. (Indiscernible) how did you see him handle this go around? Because he's been through this a couple of times, how did you see his approach, fighting through this last one?
PETER VERMES: It hasn't been easy for him. I've got to give him a lot of credit, because imagine two years ago he played a few games and then he got the injury against Colorado. Then he plays the next year, and like you said, he's flying and he gets injured again. I actually thought that he was maybe going to really give it up.

I had a long talk with him, and he got over that piece and he's worked really hard to get back. I think it was great that he didn't come in last year. I really do. I think it was great he was able to go through a full preseason with us where he was healthy.

I told him the only thing he has to be now is be patient. It's kind of muscle memory. You've been out that long, you need to just train, train, train, train and play exhibition games whatever, whatever USL team, I was going to try to get his feet wet there as well. He's done well with it, but it's been hard for him, I will say. I can see it on him. I have to every once in a while have a bit of a moment with him and say, hey, you've got to keep fighting man. You've got to keep going. It was good.

I'm really happy for him the way he got in tonight and the way he played. That was a big step forward for him. The key for all of us, him, myself, and the way we manage the situation going forward, we've got to be very careful not to use him on a regular basis for a lot of games in a row. That's where we have to be careful. Tonight he played nearly 45 minutes because he came in the last five minutes of the first half, so that was good.

FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports

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