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Monday, July 1: Time Out KC Soccer
I'm Gerald Bentley and welcome into this edition of Time Out Kansas City. We're looking at the week in Casey Soccer and it was a big week. The Kansas City current broke records in the NWSL, sporting Kansas City as you can see in the picture behind me. Let the fans go home happy with a fireworks display after the win. They pick up a W against Austin, Roger Espinosa officially ended his championship career with sporting Kansas City. We got to talk with him and the Kansas City current continues their winning ways as they broke an NWSL record and won their seventh, eighth straight game, 17 games without a loss. They continue to sit at the top of the table in the NWSL. Before we get into the actual games, I want to go back to Roger Espinosa who had a great career with sporting Kansas City and also played in the English Premier League. He officially retired before the game on Saturday and we had a chance to talk with him and get some reflections on his career, what plane in Kansas City meant to him and of course his connection with the Kansas City current. He is the husband of Kansas City current team captain, Lil Lebontec. Here's Roger Espinosa. Roger obviously honored down there on the field. He had many great years here, so just how did it feel to hear the crowd reaction and see your jersey there in the frame? It felt good. I didn't know many people liked me. At least I was taking it or something. Right now it was probably good. It was the most nervous I ever been. I don't know why because I had zero pressure. I had to go on the field and perform it also but I am very thankful for all the fans that came in support of it. The team is still supporting the team right now. We just got to keep it going for the next 45 minutes. There are people who have said the first day you are eligible you are going to be with your name painted up there on the wall as a sporting legend. So to know that people think that highly of you, how does it make you feel? Great, great but that's not my decision, we'll see. I don't know how many years it takes us off. If that happens, obviously I'll be just a master in my career but I'm very happy just to be here, finish as 40 and the team that kind of, I would say, started the trend and having new facilities, new stadiums, the club that did it all for the ownership, it was amazing. It did that for us. As you stand here now and reflect back on your career, you know, one trophy's in Europe, he's here just in your wildest dreams as you started off your professional career. Did you think it would go this way and how does it feel? Sir, if someone told me that, I would never believe that. Absolutely not. I had those dreams and I'm glad they came to. I'm glad they came to and I'm glad that I get to retire here with Sporting Kansas City. A club that gave me my first opportunity and to become who I am. So for that I'm very thankful. Roger, did you pay him? I asked you those questions. So everybody always talks about what a great leader you are, whether it's your teammates, your coaches or whatever. Where did that come from when you did it? Something that's as you're growing up, you learned or just said that came out of you. I said earlier when I did the press conference on Thursday, you know, I was talking a lot about my parents and how they sacrificed so much. First of all, coming to America is very difficult. And to bring in us here for a better opportunity, so I would say that I saw my parents waking up very early in the morning, getting home late, never, never in my life, I heard my parents complain one bit about anything. And so it becomes all about that. And, you know, it's just me as an example, you know, you don't complain about anything. So I don't know that maybe the leader who I was or anything. But I always thought about my parents. They never complained. They did all the work. They always were worried about my siblings and I. And that's the reason why I did everything in the field. What was your long hair coming back? No, I don't know. Long hair just I was a young kid who didn't care much about going to the to the barber or anything. I just wanted to do well in my career and not worry about anything else outside of a song. What's your legacy? Good question. I was, someone asked me in Spanish the other day, shoot. I would say that, you know, that coming to Kansas City and starting with the club and leaving the club better than it was, it's something that I will always think about. You know, you're thinking of the wizard days and the wizard days were very tough days. And so that's the legacy we leave as players. I always like to include all my teammates out with me. You know, it wasn't all about me. I like to include guys. Guys around the shooting me right now, Matt Beasley, Graham Susie, Seth Cinnabish, Kai Kamara, Teo Bumborees, Tejay Sapong, Jimmy Nielsen, and then he goes back for that. So just to name a few. All those guys left out let me see and they help me in the field. You mentioned leaving the club better than you left it, but Kansas City as a whole as a soccer city now, getting ready to host the World Cup in two years, Copas here right now. I mean, yourself and the guys you named that might not have happened, could you not have the success that you've had? So how does that feel and being part of your legacy even beyond just this club? Yeah, I mean, this is how the club does from now on. I think there is a culture in the club. You're not always going to win games. It's difficult. You know, it's difficult. You can come to a new generation of players and stuff. But I think everybody in the locker room and everybody in Kansas City knows what it means to be an athlete in this city. You know, there's zero distraction. There's a lot of expectations. And I think guys know that. Sometimes you're going to have ups and downs. We see it with the Royals, we see it with the Chiefs, everybody thinks everything, but nobody knew anything about the Chiefs before Patrick Mahome, right? And you'll have his culture a little bit. And then it goes like that. You know, it's just, it's difficult. You've got to work for it. And I think the city is prepared for that. I think the expectations of every ownership does that and our club did that. That's what you, they had a vision and the vision is not. I mean, I may just retire. But what's next? Hopefully, I'm soon involved with the game. I try to keep myself involved with the game. I'm doing soccer, campus and stuff. I like to come to games as much as I can. I go to even the comments games. I think soccer is an amazing sport. And I love to be involved in it. I just don't know the wack capacity of the game, but hopefully I'm involved someday. Well, Roger, first family of Kansas City soccer with low helping out the current, leading the current to the top of the table. Yeah. Talking about leaders earlier, that's a leader right there. I think she's super smart, as you guys know already. Just broke the record yesterday. So that's it's a lot about the team. You know, they broke the record and NWL. I hope Orlando lost the night so no one can catch it on that record or loses tomorrow actually. But on top of that is, it says a lot about women's sports. You know, it's a Kansas City current Orlando chasing that too. Not many teams have gotten 17 games undefeated. And so it's a lot about sports. And like I said earlier, it says a lot about Kansas City. Yeah, and shows Kansas City is in fact the soccer capital of America. You guys are here showing that you guys care about it. Speaking of records, is anyone going to catch your red card record? You think? I see a record I want to be have is the nicest guy because he was the nicest guy doesn't mean you make it very far in pros. So someone's going to catch you. I don't know when. Maybe Jake a little bit, but I don't want to. Jake is a great player and he's doing well. So go back to when you're first going out of college. Peter likes to brag that he was the only one who really saw the value in you. What were your thoughts at that point when you were drafted? You're like, I've got this opportunity. What in you really made you take advantage of that? It's actually a very true story because I didn't know Peter before. And just hearing at the time and me going in college, I'm like, I'm not going in the draft at all. I'm not doing this. And there was like, actually, there's a team that will take you in the draft. Nowadays, the NIL, we can speak about all this, but there's a team that will take you in the draft. And I'm like, okay, 100% there. If you go to international leaders, that team has to take you. No matter what, if you're left out in the draft, someone has to take you. And so that's a true story. That's a true story. And so for me, it was a no-brainer. I said, I'm going to go to the draft. And I know that team has to take you no matter what because I'm international leaders. And so that's sort of what. So when a team believes in you that much or a coach believes in you that much or a GM at the time, not a coach, then you've got to go for it. And it's easy because someone believes in you. I was a young guy. A lot of people believed me when I was younger. So I'm always very thankful for that because I worked hard for that. And I'm very happy as that's the way it went. And I ended up in Kansas City. Now, I'm sure Roger's going to be a first ballot Hall of Famer to the Sporting Kansas City Hall of Fame. That'll be coming soon. But since he just retired officially yesterday, it's going to be a little while. It was a big week of Hall of Fame ceremonies in Kansas City as Bo Jackson went into the Royals Hall of Fame across the city. Of course, a boat and play soccer, but I'm sure if he did, he would have been really good at it. Sporting Kansas City riding that wave of retirements, they played host to Austin FC. And what really has become a must win game every home game. The rest of the way is a must win game for sporting as they're really up against it to get to that 44 point total, which has been historically the playoff cut line in the MLS. They need to have another run like they did last year basically winning out the season to make it to the playoffs. They looked good against Austin, controlled the game, a clean sheet, and a offensively dominating performance keyed by the young offensive edition of Stephen Afrifa. If you've watched the show all season, you remember in the preseason, we had a chance to talk with Stephen Afrifa about his role as a forward as a striker for sporting and how important his contributions would be. It took a little while to get going, but he's now scored three goals in four games. And he scored quickly when he's coming as a substitute. Within minutes of coming into the game, he's made an impact and really added energy. Had a chance to talk to Stephen Afrifa about his contributions to the team. When you saw that ball come off the outside of Johnny's left foot, what was going through your mind? The whole run, Johnny didn't look up once. At least I didn't see him look up. I was kind of worried, but right at the end, he looked up, seen me, and he was all good, just had to focus and put it in the back of the net. Did you realize he kind of did it off the outside of his left foot as it was happening? In the moment, after yes, but in the moment, I wasn't worried about that. Just seen the ball come across, happy, lovely ball from him, so just got to keep going with it. And then the double, the lead in that moment, I mean, we know that it's been a struggle at times to get victories throughout this year, and to give your team that extra cushion in a pretty important home game, just what does that mean to you? Everything. One nothing lead is one of the hardest leads to protect at home when I get out with the win for the fans, and just being able to put us that goal up just helps a lot. So, enjoyed it and got to keep pushing. That's three goals when you last four games. What kind of confidence does that give you going forward? And a lot, just take my opportunity, just got to keep pushing, because at the end of the day, I want to help the team, and just want to show Peter that I'm ready to do that. Peter was very complimentary of your performance, and he then said, you know, but there's still more to come, there's still room to grow. So, what do you feel like is sort of the next thing that you want to work on as you continue to grow and establish yourself in this team? A lot, for me, number one thing that I think we all agree on with coaches, the offensive effort, just in situations I kind of take, take time off and just lose a little bit of focus. So, that is a big part. Offensively, just getting better at combining with the rest of the guys. I'm obviously my dynamic is just always fast pace. Need to lean to slow down a little bit, play with the guys. So, just, there's a lot of different things to learn. And then there's also a moment where, you know, you had a good run down the field, you earned a corner, you kind of laid there for a second on the field, because, you know, you just put a pretty good effort and Johnny applied it and ran across the field to pick you up and give you a high five. So, to earn that level of respect in the game from a captain and a player like him, you know, what does that mean? That's amazing. We play for each other. I'm just trying to do my job, just seeing him come over that far, just help me keep on pushing, just get up, man, keep going. It seems like today on your run, you're a little more patient, a little more technical, as I just stuck things that you've been working on in training. I'm just watching over the past two games, just running for moments. There's times where I go too fast, just make the wrong decision. So, just again, taking my time, learning and just improving. Then after the general media meeting, I got to talk with Stephen one-on-one a little bit and reference back to the interview we did in the preseason. It's one thing to score in the preseason. So, another thing to score in the regular season of Major League Soccer. Here's Stephen. Great preseason, obviously. Great time for me. This is the kind of form that I had back then, so it's good to be back there and just got to keep holding on strong. Just all starts Tuesday or Monday, get back in, just focus like we have been last week, put a lot of effort in understanding what we have to do, understand the weaknesses of Austin, and again, we've got to get back in training and just do the same thing for next team. Postgame, we heard from Peter Fermies, the head coach of Sporting Kansas City. They made some news this week because longtime technical director Brian Bliss and Sporting decided to part ways. It's going to be interesting to see how the new technical director, the new Sporting Director does for the team. He's going to be introduced on Tuesday. We'll talk about that in a little bit, but it is good to see Sporting Kansas City pulling it together and living up to their potential. Here's what Peter Fermies had to say. Yeah, before you go, I just want to say this, you might have questions about the new Sporting Director position. I'm not going to answer those tonight. It's about the game. We got that Tuesday. We can, there's a press conference on that day. I'm happy to answer any questions on that day. So, thank you. Tonight, one of your most complete wins of the year, a clean sheet, two goals, just what you only held Austin to two shots. What was working for you guys tonight? I think there was a, you know, you always have to have effort, so that's an easy one, and that was there from all the players, but there was a high level of concentration and focus in the game. I believe that we stayed very disciplined to the concepts, to our model of play, and to the things that we normally do very well. And so, that's why you put yourself in a good position like this. They don't always turn out this way, right, because sometimes, you know, maybe the ball's not going in that night or whatever, but the fact that we didn't give silly situations away, where we reacted really well. And I thought that one other major part was, is that, well, it's two things. One is we're, we're very good in possession, where we use the field well, and then the other is, is that, especially up front, we had very good transition today. When we lost a bar, say we put a service into the box, we immediately put them under pressure, which made them have to play very quickly, which we won the ball back very fast ourselves. And so, you know, I said, I don't know if I said this last week or not, but when we played Columbus, they did to us what we normally would do to teams in the past. And so, I think tonight was more of, we did that, I believe, to Austin. Austin's a good team. They're, from the back, they're a good team. They're, they're solid. And they have some very, very good players, but I thought the fact that our guys were, were positionally very disciplined, and then also in the transition, we were excellent. It really didn't give them much opportunity. Even the second goal, too, came in transition for you guys from winning the ball. You guys haven't scored a ton of counter-attacking goals as a good counter-attacking goal. What is, what do you need to see to see that more out of the guys? Is it, is it decision-making when those moments come? Sure. Yeah, probably, probably decision-making, but I mean, we've, it's not like we haven't gotten into those positions. Sometimes it's execution, but I would say the, the positive has been that we've been in those situations. We just haven't executed. And tonight, you know, that, that second goal was, was, was fantastic. So, it's good. Speaking of the second goal, a free for the last 20 minutes he was in seemed like he was just kind of running things offensively. So, what was your impression of his performance? Yeah, it was good. It was good. I think still he needs, he needs to have recognition of certain situations on the field, but the important thing was, is that when he came in, he, he contributed in a meaningful way. And it wasn't just the goal. I think he put him under a lot of pressure with the ball. He still can, he still can be a lot better defensively, but he definitely put him under pressure with the ball, which was very good. And then Tim Leibold returned from injury tonight, played the whole 90 minutes, obviously scored his first goal. Game winner, thoughts on his performance? I would say again, for the most part, it was good. There's still, there's some things that he's got to have better recognition with. And when he does, he'll, he'll be a, I believe, and even a bigger impact into the team. But I thought he had a solid game. He was good on the ball, which was important. And then I also think that he, he managed because they, they changed the wingers in the second half and they put him under pressure. And I thought he handled over on really, really well. And he's not an easy guy to handle. I thought KP did a great job on the first half against him. KP had a really good game tonight. It's one of his best games. He's played for us since he's, since he's, since he's been here, which is a good sign for him. I also thought that Rosaro and, and, and Robbie Voladera, it's good partnership there as well. And I, and I, you know, you don't see it, but tonight, or maybe you don't, maybe you don't, maybe you did see it. I don't know, but Alan, Alan had, he was very good in the flow of the game, but also his timing to pressure his decisions were really good to help make the game predictable for us to want it back. Peter thought the balance in the midfield was strong tonight. How do Jake and Eric and Nemanja compliment each other? Nemanja is a, he's, he's, he's like a little pit bull a little bit, right? He's more of a ball winner. Tommy's out and out. He wants to go forward, mostly, and Jake is in between her. And so the good thing about Jake is he helps us with some bite in the middle of midfield. That helps us a lot. And, and games like that, Nemanja needs somebody at times next to him to really help him. So he's not having to, you know, cover all that space as one, where Jake had good, good space. I thought when memo came in, this was one of his more disciplined, positionally games that he's played. And, and it was very impactful for us. And then bouncing off the midfield, do you see, do you see Jake staying there for, for coming to time being? I think right now, um, with us not having still guys back, it, it, it seems like that's going to be a place that we're going to need him, you know, all hands on deck type of thing at the moment. And it seems like the, the same thing with Daniel with, with him being now, as it marino's coming in, a free becoming in Atlantis. You know, we haven't talked about marinos. I thought that some players sometimes feel a lot better when they start. And he does, he's one of those guys. And he gets them into the flow and the rhythm of the game. I think in the first half, there was many times that him, Tommy, and Leibold were, were very good in their interchange and keeping the ball, especially, you know, obviously down in the corner. And they created some really good stuff out of there. The one time when he picked the ball, went to go, if he just went straight, I mean, he's possibly, there's a chance he goes right up the middle, right? But outside of that, I thought he had it. I actually thought he had a, a good game. It was good for us. It was good, again, for another guy like that to have an impact. He had a lot of energy to win the game. Well, Peter, the technicality that went into closing out the game too, because that's something that's been missing this year. And that was great to see just the lockdown and the game. Agreed. But I, I, I, I attribute that to what I said earlier. I think it's the, it's that, it's the focus and the concentration in the game, but it's also the discipline positionally for all the guys. If, if we, if we're in our place and we don't lose our minds and like, you know, you don't get emotional. And then all of a sudden, hey, I want to, I lost the ball and I chase this guy. And all of a sudden, you're the guy exposes the team. I thought we were very good at that tonight. And I think that's a big reason why. And then there's also some very, we had some intelligence in the game on certain situations. Like we didn't lose ourselves, right? We didn't panic. We, we got in front of the ball. We didn't try to win it. It was just, it was good decisions. Yeah. You told a story earlier this week about Roger where he said, I, I'm staying in the midfield, kind of the thing. Jake, similar kind of bounced in and out. I'm just curious. He's not ready to say that yet. So let's be clear on that. He's not ready to say that to me yet. He can try, but yeah, it's not happening. So is there more to the question or no? Is that it? Oh, okay. Yeah. So that was easy. Okay. Yeah. No, no, no, no, no, no. And he'd be, he'd be surprised when I would say if he brought that to my attention. Hard to follow that up. Peter, Joe Lowry from back he'll.com. Thanks for taking time for this. Zooming out slightly to look at your defensive approach, not just tonight, but over the years where there has been a lot of similarities. One thing that always strikes me is that when you all defend, it tends to be a little deeper downfield. When, when you're deeper downfield, I should say it tends to be one of those tens or dual number eight, whatever you want to call it, that step up to join the striker when the ball circulates to their side. Why has that been your chosen look over over the years and certainly tonight and earlier this season where it seems to me that maybe oftentimes we might see a team defend in just a straight up four, four, two to have similar pressing shapes from the front. Why has that been your, your go to like, what do you like about it? Yeah, or, or I would say sometimes when a team plays a four, two, three, one, they'll go with the three against the backs, right? I mean, that's another thing. What I'd say is, is that, and not to get too, too deep into this, but the, when you're in, when you're, at least when you're playing a four, three, three, and you're in the, and you're in your attacking third and you're defending there, you're a four, three, three. When you, when you come back into the middle third, you're more like a, a four, one, four, one. And so a lot of times what I think can really help is, is that it's a, again, there's a little bit of a, there's a little bit of a difficulty here. And that is, if, if the two central defenders play a little wider, then it might be beneficial for your wingers to press, but not both at the same time, right? So like your, it could be like your center, center forward could go to the, to the left central defender. When the ball comes back across, he could cheat up. And then you, you maintain the stability in the middle where the problem is, is that if they're a little tighter, it's too far for them to get inside. And that happens is if they don't do a good job of cutting out the pass and they play the ball wide, the midfielder's got to give way too much work to get there. So for me, it's the, it's the, you know, the two tens, two eights, ten and eight, whatever you want to say. If those guys have good timing, they can put a team on depression. I thought, I thought tonight, our pressure was very good. And our timing, like the anticipation to go and press was excellent. And Peter, second shutout of the season after 12 goals in the last three games, what does that just mean to the guys to be able to earn a shutout? Well, I think they're going to feel pretty good. Well, they'll feel good tonight, but they'll feel pretty good tomorrow as well. I mean, like, if you drink coffee, coffee will taste a lot better than it's tasted other days after a game here recently. But I've always, I don't know how many times, I mean, I probably said this many times because I've been here a long time, but having played as a center forward for half of my professional career and the other half is a central defender. If I never would have played as a central defender, I probably would not have had as much respect and understanding how important defending is. Defending always wins championships. If you look at all of our successful years here and there's a lot of them, we always are like top three in goals against or in a lot of years top. We're number one. And so you have to be able to defend because you're not always going to be on the attack side because it takes something special at certain days. And so tonight, as I said, it comes down to being very disciplined, very focused and concentrated in your position and not letting emotions drive the game. And when you're that way, then it becomes very hard for a team to, you know, to find a way to break through you. And then the final piece on that is that if you're pretty good with the ball above average, now it makes it really difficult for the other team. Like Peter said, starting off that press conference, they're going to have a special press conference and they're going to introduce the new sporting directors, the new general manager for lack of a better term. If you're wanting to compare to football and baseball, his name is Michael Burns. He comes over after a few years removed from a run long run with the New England Revolution. So different voice, a different person in the decision room could make a significant difference as sporting has the ability to turn over up to 18 players on their primary roster, thanks to expiring contracts or club options. That's a huge turnover. And it probably won't be anywhere near that number, but as the Crosstown Kansas City current have shown, adding just a couple of key players can make a huge impact. The Kansas City current, they win a dominating game, but they only won to nothing. They've completely dominated the game in every other snap in shots and possession and just watching the game, the actual flow of the game was a masterclass performance. They just didn't put it into the back. They did get two goals though, and that continues adding to their record number of goals for the season and Tamua Chiwinga scored them both in rapid fire fashion. She's up to 11 goals now, which sets the personal record for the most goals by a current player in the year. Here they are in almost real time. Speaking of injury news, Vanessa de Bernardo did train this week, coming back from a head injury, suffered against Chicago a couple weeks ago. That's good news. Tarsiade, Tarsiade got something out of Chiwinga. Campbell knocked it down, got Chiwinga, scores. Level for the Golden Poop. An inevitable talent for Kansas City has the current of the cost of history. Well, so many chances in that first half. And some in this second half that haven't been able to find the back of the net, but it comes with one big ball over the top of the... And finally, the US men's national team there, trying to advance into the knock-out stage of the Copa America, they're pretty much in a must-win position against Uruguay following a disappointing really kind of shocking loss two to one to Peru and Atlanta. That loss was really kind of accelerated by a red card that was handed out to Timothy Waya for throwing a punch during the game. The US was up 1-0 at that point. They ended up losing 2-1. Timothy Waya will not be playing in this game. And if the US wins in advances, he won't play in the first game of the knock-out stage either. It's going to be a key game. That's coming up at GEHA Field at Arrowhead Stadium. It's Monday night here in Kansas City. Kansas City continues to get ready for the World Cup. Should be a good crowd at Arrowhead Stadium. Some tickets are selling for up to $1,600. That's basically for the field boxes that would be about $800 for a Chiefs regular season game. So it's definitely going to be an exciting atmosphere at Arrowhead Stadium. You'll be able to get more updates on that game right here on the fired-up network. But until we come back next week, with both teams having home games, the Kansas City current taking on Orlando and what's going to be a battle for the top of the NWSL, that is on Saturday night. And then sporting Kansas City tries to continue their winning ways at home. They have another must-win home matchup. That's on Sunday night. We'll be back to kind of wrap those games up and give me an idea of what's coming ahead for soccer in Kansas City as the current continue their march towards the NWSL play-offs and sporting Kansas City tries to climb their way back into the mix. For the fired-up network, I'm Gerald Bentley. Thanks for joining us here on Time Out, Casey Stockton. Bye. Bye. [BLANK_AUDIO]