KANSAS CITY, Kan. – Peter Vermes doesn't usually address his club in a group after matches. On Friday, Sporting Kansas City's manager made a rare exception.
It wasn't to scold them for falling behind 2-0 in the first half, or taking their fifth loss in their last six league matches, after falling 3-2 to the New England Revolution at Sporting Park. It was to deliver a message of encouragement – even confidence.
“I told them – and I don't think that I've ever said this to them before, but I said, 'If you play the way that you played tonight, and we have to obviously put the goals aside, it's not that you're going to be competitive in this league,'” Vermes said in his postmatch news conference. “'It's that you're going to win it. You're going to win, and you're going to win a lot, and you're going to win very often.'”
Vermes and his players acknowledged that Friday night's result stung – especially after Sporting fought back early in the second half to force a 2-all deadlock before Jermaine Jones' late match-winner for the Revs. But with only four matches left before the playoffs, center back and captain Matt Besler said the manager's approach is the only one Kansas City can take right now.
“That's a positive way to look at it, and that's how we are going to look at it,” Besler told reporters. “I can't explain it any better than he did. It stings. It hurts, especially the way we played in the second half. But going forward, what are you going to do? You've got to look forward, and you've got to take positives out of the game. You've got to keep going.'
Forward Dom Dwyer, whose 56th-minute equalizer made him the first 20-goal scorer in club history, also agreed with Vermes' assessment.
“We're disappointed,” he said. “There's no hiding that. But our reaction at halftime was spot-on. We crushed them for 25 minutes straight, but we weren't lucky enough to be ahead. That's what happens sometimes. They hit us on the counter at the end. That's football.”
It wasn't as if Friday's loss continued a recent run of futility for Sporting, either. Yes, they had a four-match losing streak not long ago – but since then, they had won three straight across all competitions, including two hard-fought CONCACAF Champions League victories in the eight days leading up to the New England game.
“Playing three games in nine days – massive effort by our team,” he said. “I'm extremely proud of the way that they played. I actually thought that we were good in the first half, and I thought we were unbelievable in the second half.”
Steve Brisendine covers Sporting Kansas City for MLSsoccer.com.
