FiredUp Network
Sunday, July 28: Timeout KC Soccer Tournament Time
Welcome into the fired up network. This is time out Casey soccer. I'm Gerald Bentley and we're going to be talking about some tournament play as both the NWSL and the MLS are in their mid-season breaks largely because of the Olympic Games taking place but we're getting a couple of different tournaments going. The NWSL League MX familial summer cup is kicking off. There was a big game in that tournament at CPKC Stadium against the current facing off against one of the oldest professional teams in North America Pachuca of League MX and then the League Cup kicks off which is the battle between MLS and League MX. Sporting Kansas City gets their first match in the group stage. They're going to take on the Chicago fire. That's later on tonight at Children's Mercy Park. I have a chance to hear from the current head coach Vlacko and Kristin Hamilton who's made her reemergence on the roster with a couple of goals and back-to-back games. We hear from the head coach of Pachuca Oscar Torres, one of their midfielders Nalea Diaz and then as we move over to the League Cup side, to the men's side, get to hear from a few sporting Kansas City players Remi Volter, the midfielder who's making his comeback from an ankle injury and is at the right time to be back because sporting definitely needs a little bit of an assist, a little bit of an injection of bodies into the roster mix. Robert Castianos, one of your centre backs who's had a really good year for sporting Kansas City and the most electrifying player on the team this year, Eric Tomi, all talking about the advantage of having a little bit of time off to get ready for this match after a crazy Pach schedule for sporting last month and then Peter Vermeez tells us about the difference between League play and tournament play and how the time off benefited a team that really got hit with a very tough run of the schedule. We'll get right into that, but first, I wanted to let you know the best place to get fired up network content is on that True TV applause app. It's available anywhere you get your apps. You can download it on Apple, Amazon, Roku, even Google Chromecast. So definitely check that out. You can also see our sister channel wrestling spot right on there. And if you're on your mobile device, you can see both channels on sports.tv as well. But with that, let's get into that Kansas City current match up. Got some of the highlights here. It was a game that the current absolutely dominated. They ended the first half up three nil and up 12 shots to one. And it really didn't get a whole lot better for Pachuca. They they stopped the scoring, but it was a definitely a dominating performance. And easily the best half of soccer this year from DiBenia, the Brazilian midfielder for the current who's just, you know, battled injury and really hasn't been as effective as you would think. It could be a sign of really great things to come considering the current has one of the best offenses in the NWSL, even without many contributions from her. Check out these two goals that started off the scoring for the current. Here comes a corner for Kansas City, trying to take the lead. DiBenardo slides that one through. Heavy touch from Cooper. Not a Fiest Cooper's down in some pain. Ocampo as well for Pachuca. This one lifted from Fiest. Two players still down as Ocampo's able to get up. What a shot! My goodness, DiBenia! A monster goal! That's Gola so Gola so Gola so Gola so what a strike that is. She's had a couple of looks as we suggested. I didn't really test the goalkeeper, but maybe she was just getting her sights right. This is a wonderful strike here. Absolutely brilliant. Yeah, tough tackle and... It would be great if she is in the prime DiBenia mode because that adds a huge weapon to the current's roster. Another weapon that they've added maybe during this summer break. Kristen Hamilton, a longtime striker for the current. She's actually their player association rep. Hasn't had a lot of time on the pitch yet this year, but she's been making her presence felt here. She converted on this opportunity. Cooper puts it across the Hamilton. Yes, Kristen Hamilton on the finish. Two straight games with a goal. It's three-nail Kansas City. Now let's hear from Flacko and Kristen about this game and how it went and what it means moving forward. Yeah, I mean one of the things we talked about before the game was that we wanted to start out fast. We wanted to start it out intense and we wanted to impose ourselves to the opponent and set up the tempo. We wanted to be the one that is going to control the tempo, which I thought we did a very good job in first half. Even in the second half I didn't think it was a good performance overall in terms of like precision and creativity. But we knew what we wanted to do. We wanted to finish the game without getting scored on. We wanted to finish the game healthy and that's what happened. For you Kristen, just overall the match and the level of the game has played, but we're taking away a strong point in our national opponent and kind of being that you saw a play. Yeah, I mean it's kind of a new realm for all of us, right? So we go in like Flacko said with the mentality that we're going to go in and impose ourselves on them, come out fast, strong, hard, and then really focus on us. We only know so much about these opponents and how they're going to come out. So it's always a really good test to see kind of how we match up against the world stage. [inaudible] [inaudible] [inaudible] [inaudible] [inaudible] [inaudible] [inaudible] [inaudible] [inaudible] Well, yeah, I can speak for myself on that one. [laughter] [inaudible] [inaudible] [laughter] Yeah, I mean, obviously I'm benefiting from that right now. So yeah, just staying ready. I think it's been really fun and really good for, like you said, players who don't get a lot of minutes throughout the season to kind of step in, see what they can do at this level. And it's just a really good morale kind of boost for everyone, keeping everybody motivated, keeping everybody happy and motivated and trying to get those extra minutes now in the regular season. So yeah, it's always just a fun experience. [inaudible] [inaudible] [inaudible] [inaudible] Absolutely. I mean, that's one thing about this team. We trust every player that will get on the field that will maintain the style, the philosophy, and just our DNA. And that's what happened. We saw it happen in the last game, we saw it happen in this game, and we have no doubt that it's going to happen in the next game as well. [inaudible] All the players should go to the players as a coach, we're just facilitators, and we're maintaining the environment and just setting up high standards, but the players are the ones that are implementing all the principles and the players are the ones that execute everything that we ask. So I've been blessed with such a great group of players, and I know we have Hemi here sitting next to us. She didn't have a lot of minutes in the previous games comes in in the last game and changes the game for us. I mean, both her and Desi, they came in and I thought that the game changed in the moment they came in. Today, we saw the same thing comes in and gets the goal and assist. So it's something that we're happy to see. We're proud of them. We're proud of everything that they're doing for this team and everything that they're willing to do. It's full feeling and it's actually a nice feeling to have a group of players with such a great mentality. [inaudible] Yeah, I mean, I think it's a testament to what the coaches have instilled in all of us and giving us a really solid game plan that everybody can follow, and it's the day-to-day at training. The standard never drops, no matter who you are. So everybody's always ready. So, and everybody understands your role, your principles, and kind of what we need to do when you step on the field. So it makes her really seamless transition, no matter who's coming in. You know, you've got Claire Hutton stepping in at left back, you've got Allie coming in, who's never played at the team before. But it's just those principles and the standards that we've implemented day-to-day that allows everybody to step in and just do the roles that they're asked. [inaudible] Yeah, I was going to say, it's just, I mean, like I said, it's a short turnaround, but we're used to it in this league. You know, we're kind of used those mid-week games, but it's just keeping everybody healthy. It's kind of the biggest thing going into the second half of season. So, you know, I'm not going to speak for the coach, but there might be some player rotation, who knows, but everybody who gets to step in is going to, you know, make an impact on the team. So, yeah, it's just staying healthy. Yeah, for us as a coach, the first thing that we'll look into is how much time we have to prepare the team. And obviously, it's not a regular week, so what we're going to go into is prioritizing. And that's going to be very important, meaning when we say prioritizing is, what are we going to focus on? Make it as simple as possible for the players. If we're changing anything, if we're tweaking anything, if we implement a strategy that hasn't been implemented before. So, that's the most challenging thing for us at this point. So, for a coach in Kristin, a junior head coach, there's already a team saying that you will be able to offer in the future for this tournament to most for the American team to go down to Mexico to play the second half. I would like to know more of any of the guys' thoughts about how you guys feel about also playing the tournament and how you make it. I mean, I think that would be great if you think about Mexico, such a great football mindset and culture that if we go there, we can see, we'll definitely experience the support from the fans, and it would be nice. Personally, I've coached a team in Mexico before, and it was a great experience, so wouldn't mind doing it in the future again. Yeah, I was going to say, as players, I think it would be awesome. I think it's always nice to see how other leagues operate, how they run, and me being a PA rep, seeing what they're doing well, that maybe things that we can bring back here to make our league better. So I think it's always a great idea and a great experience to kind of dip our toes into other areas. So in case of career lights, I'll always say in the extent of all our women, women, women, women, women, people are fantastic players. What we would talk to the people that manage all these things is for the women's clubs to just improve because it was a hugely great experience for our team and others. All we can tell is that all of you are going to be ready to try to take in decisions, or what we want to say. I mean, I don't know if I'm the right person to tell anyone everything. Obviously, we're so focused on our team and what we do, and we want to display a good product on the field. But one thing I can say is we're very proud and very happy for what we have here, and we're thankful also for everything that we have. And I know it comes from our owners and goes down to, in every level, in every department, that the mindset is that we want to be leaders. We don't want to be followers, so we want to be the first in everything and do anything possible to lead in the industry. I'm just going to turn my phone around and let's say 14 times I'm trying to get the ability to play off. I love the workloads, I always do my same, just how much difference is it? How much emphasis is it on the scoring in general? I was going to say, I don't feel like that's something we really talk about. It's like, oh, we need to score goals. I think it's more so like about the performance, and those things kind of come. Obviously, it's a weird format, but if we win all our names and we don't go through, it is what it is. It's kind of interesting, but no, it's not something we harp on. I don't think we really talk about going into games. We need to score X amount of goals or do this. It's always about performance and just implementing the things that we know how to do, and all of that comes. I was basically going to say the exact same thing, is that we never talk about scoring. We never talk about score two or three or four. We're so focused on the process, and we believe in the process that the outcome is just going to come if we execute the problem. Dave? Oh, she was standing first extended play to that. She played pretty well and didn't really impressed me. What were your thoughts on her 60+ minutes? We were very happy to have her back on the field, and initially she was supposed to play a little bit less minutes, but because of the way we structured the game, she didn't have those high intensity runs as many as she would usually have if she played a little bit different. And that allowed us to have her a little bit longer on the field, which we were all happy about. We're like today, which the media sports two tonight. I noticed it's kind of rough here for our injuries and our disappointment from that. They call it the Olympics, but you know, it's only one goal of interest itself, but how big is a set of players to use to turn it like this to me? That's a fire to the very decision, frankly. First, I say that we're very happy for the goals that she scored, and we never looked at the goals that she scored or didn't score before. We just believe in her abilities, and we know that there will be a time where she's going to make a difference. I mean, this game was a great example of it, and hopefully, like I said, hopefully this is just a beginning of her comeback or getting back to the form that we all know she can be in. It helped her a lot in the last game, especially because the position didn't change much. Her role in possession or an organized attack was almost identical, which was great for her. But then this one was a little bit different. The position was a little bit different, but the behaviors were very similar. She was very comfortable. We were comfortable with her back there. I thought one thing that was very helpful with her being there, her speed and physicality was something that we needed in this game, especially playing against Corral, who we know is deadly on counter attacks. And we had to have Haley there, so I thought that she was great. Yeah, she's as far as I know, she's doing great. She just had a little bit of a cramp, and she hasn't played consecutive 90-minute games in a while, so we didn't want to risk anything, and wanted to take it a little bit easier. Same thing with Michelle. You know, we pulled her out, she's great, and we just didn't want to take any risk. And then with two people in the bench now for a few games now, is there any emphasis on trying to do so? Yeah, we were thinking about it, but because of the limited minutes that we had with some players, or we're managing the minutes, I mean, Hammy being one of them, we couldn't afford to make us up, but we'll see how everything goes. Hopefully we can get someone on the field. Going across the city to Children's Mercy Park, a little bit different for sporting. While the currents trying to get deft pieces used, trying to kind of get people back in form who maybe weren't quite in form, change a few line up rotation, see what works, and just get a good feel as they go into the second half of the season with only one loss. Sporting is in a position where they're trying to regain that form that they had at the end of last season when they made that deep playoff run. They're in a position where they really almost need to win out in MLS play to make it to the playoffs. That's magnifying these championship opportunities they get in the Leaks Cup and the US Open Cup, where they're getting ready to have a semi finals match coming up on August 27th. So season's not over by any means, but it's a different mindset. Sporting's really kind of got their back against the wall and it's go time now. We had a chance to talk with multiple key contributors to Sporting Kansas City, starting with Remy Voltaire, who's extremely important right now as Jake Davis, who had been filling in at midfield, is at the US Olympics. He's been called up for national team duty and may well see some playing time in Paris as the US men's Olympic team is trying to advance. To the advance to the knockout stage actually. They won yesterday four to one against New Zealand, but they did start the Olympics dropping one to the home country, France three nil. Little sporting connection. John Luca Buceo punched a goal in for the Olympic team. So little Sporting Kansas. Contribution to the team along with Jake Davis and John Pulse can't be in there. Here's a Remy Voltaire had to say about how good it is to be back and if he's ready to go and carry someone low for Sporting. Just I know last couple of games, you've gotten a long stretch of minutes, just how good does that feel to get back into playing like that? I think we had a pretty good game, unfortunately we don't get the result we wanted, but now we get prepared for the discount because it's now. It will be for one month, so everybody should be focused on that and we will talk about MLS after the tournament. How would you personally, just coming back from injury, feel good, feel at your level? Physically I think I could be better, I would be better for sure because after two months in half without playing any games, it's for sure hard to play and I play like two times in 90 minutes, so it was pretty hard, but it is what it is and I would be ready for the next game and the rest of the season. What's the hardest part coming back as a fitness or just getting back at the game speed and touch? I think everything, when you stay out of the field for a long time, physically, mentally, it's hard because you are not ready directly. We try to do our best to be in that place, but it's always hard, but I will do my best to be ready for the rest of the season. I will work physically during that month because I think it will be good for me and I will just stay and just keep confidence on those next weeks to be good for the rest of the season. I forget how exactly you just said about you're not completely back or physically ready, is it more of a fitness or is it still like a pain? I have to deal with my injury, it's for sure not 100% yet, but I'm on a good spot, I think both, I'm on a good spot about my injury and about my fitness side. But for sure that I will be ready on both for the next few weeks, that is coming. With the way the schedule lined up, Four Leagues Cup, what did you guys learn last year competing in Leagues Cup that you can apply to this year? Maybe Four Leagues Cup itself or even the rest of the season after? Every year is different, we just know what we have to do, it's a different type of game, when we play Cup game it's always different, but we have to be ready, we know Chicago, and we have to be prepared for this game, so we will this week. And after that it will be Touluca, we played them last year, we know that they are a very good team, different type of style of soccer, but we just have to be focused on us, play with confidence, play with our strengths, and everything should be fine if we play like that. Robert Castellanos has been one of the bright spots in the defensive rotation for Sporting Kansas City, he still feels there's a lot to play for this year, and here's some of his comments. What do you expect from Leagues Cup play starting in Chicago? It's going to be fun, I think this tournament lets us all showcase our abilities in the Mexican level and the United States level, and I think it's going to be a fun tournament, you just never know what's going to happen, I think the guys are ready. I think we're in a good groove right now, so we're just going to build off of that. Traditionally, Mexican teams are slightly higher level than MLS teams in general, this is a good chance to show that maybe that level is close now. Yeah, I think that's just all about perspective. I think we have competed very well against them, anytime we go up against them, especially last year, all throughout the MLS, so I feel like MLS represented themselves pretty well. And I think it's another year that we can represent ourselves at that level again, and hopefully, with it. Just curious, last year you guys had the Leagues Cup, the way it went was kind of the first time through it. What do you think you guys learned about that Leagues Cup break and how you guys came out of it that you guys can use going in this year? Yeah, I feel like the way it's set up gives you kind of a little break in between that you could use for players that were, you know, heavy loaded or players come back from injury and sort of, so I think we did learn a lot from that. Obviously, learn what kind of days we take off to rest up our bodies and start ramping up so we could be ready for the game and not come in kind of last days ago. I think with last year being the first time running through it this year, we'll have a better experience on managing those days and getting ourselves ready for those knockout games. Forward, Eric Tomy easily has been the most electrifying player of the year for Sporting Kansas City. Here's his take on going into tournament play, what changes, how different is it than regular season, and what to expect from the Chicago Fire team that they know very well. Morning Eric, Leagues Cup play, I know last year you got a good experience with it. Just seems like even watching the games last night, the chaos that can happen in this tournament and matches is something that you guys have to be aware of. What about these games makes it so chaotic at times and you see these wild back and forths? I mean, I think every game is different. I don't expect a chaotic game tomorrow, to be honest, we play at home. It's a great opportunity for us to win another title. It's a completely different situation, it's not the MLS, it's Leagues Cup. We're happy for that and we will put our work in to get the maximum out of it. Is it refreshing for players to take a step away from the grind of the regular season and play in a tournament like this in the middle of it? Or is it something that maybe you would prefer to play throughout a Champions League or something like that? I mean, it's a schedule. I think everyone in our locker is happy, I could see the intensity in the training, it was really good. And like I said, Leagues Cup, it's another opportunity for us to turn maybe the season around to get something out of it. Maybe a title, never know, it's a long way to go. We have our first game in front of us tomorrow, so we are excited about it. Maybe it's a good thing for us to have a break, to be honest. And with all that match congestion, the travel you guys had, you were at home last weekend, now you're at home for the next two matches. How nice is that just to have some time being here in Kansas City? Extremely good for us, I think it was demanding, especially last few weeks to travel around and stay over six days in Wankoor or San Jose. That's like a demanding, so now play at home in front of our fans, it's totally different, it's good for us. And although I think now we have seven days between next week or eight days between, so enough time to recover. Is it a little more enjoyable to play some teams that you don't normally play? Yeah, it's a great experience for everyone of us to play also against Mexican teams, because I think they have a different style of play compared to us. Yeah, it's great and I think the match is going to be competitive, yeah. I know you've got to get some rest in this week and all that, you know, not having midweek games, but what were you able to focus on maybe just to, you know, coming into Face Chicago? I think the first thing is to look at us, how we want to play and we play at home. When we play at home, we think we have to, yeah, like to show them the way we want to play and the way we want to set them up. And yeah, we worked throughout the week and like I said, we are prepared for the game for Chicago, but the main focus was on us the whole week, I would say. You mentioned when you play at home, you want to show them the way you can play, not your exact word, but is there maybe a different kind of pressure to playing at home versus on the road? Like you have to try to be a different team or be the team you want to be? I mean, yeah, there's a small difference for sure, but it depends also on the opponent, but obviously at home you have more possession. That's clear, I think you can see the stats, you get it more out of the games, so yeah, it's also more joy to play in front of our culture and our fans supporters, so yeah, to be honest for me, it makes more fun to play at home. You guys played a couple Mexican teams last year, what kind of things did you learn about the different style of play that they might play? I think the games were intense against them, technically a little bit different. Yeah, it's, I mean, it was to Luca and the other team we played was not rigorous. Thank you. Great teams, great individual players, like I said, different style, it depends on the opponent, I can't say too much, but everyone is different, but it's good and it's great for us. Peter Vermes met with the media and just talked about how good it is to get a little bit of a time to get the roster reposition, get everybody healthy and fresh because they had a stretch of extremely tightly packed games. When you put the US Open Cup and regular season play together, add in losing a few players to the national team for the Olympics and added injuries. It was a tough stretch for sporting. They came out of it well, actually, they're probably playing the best they have all year. So this is a great opportunity for a reset. Here's what Peter had to say about it, headed into the game. Just how has this week been in terms of being able to work on tactical stuff? I know it's been a while since you've got a full week run into the games, just how much of a difference does that make? Yeah, I think this week was more centered around because we had such a congested schedule. It's been centered around little recovery first, and then the second piece would be really just kind of keeping the guys hungry. I think next week will be a little bit more tactical for us, if you will, because we played a lot of games and we really needed the time in a different way. But I do think it was a good week and it was good not to have a midweek game. Last night, watched a bunch of the League Cup games. I mean, I think there was 20-something goals in five games, but games seemingly over at 3-1, coming back to 3-3, getting to penalties. What's kind of the message to the guys about the chaos and maybe the unexpectedness of a lot of these games that we even saw last year too? Yeah, I can't speak for all the other teams in the way they're playing or whatever, but I mean, I don't think that we need to change, you know, in that you're all sudden playing these games in a much different way. I think you're playing these games with the idea that you've got to defend well, you've got to take your chances, you've got to be really good on set pieces. I mean, there's really no difference in that regard. And then just level of health with your team, I know. Yeah, there's probably going to be a few guys out just because they're not completely there yet. And I'm going to tell you who they all are going to be. I'm just not. Although we are bringing up both Seba and Tishandra, so both those guys will be activated within the roster for this game. And then just one on Logan. He'll be in. He'll be in the active group. He's not starting. He's not ready to do that with him yet, but make a decision from there. But he's been moving in a good direction from a physical perspective. And with all the congestion you guys have had, the travel, how nice is it now that you had this match at home and you get up until at least next Monday, you know you guys are going to be at home? Yeah, no, it's good. It's a good reset for us from that point of view. And I think not having midweek games is very good for us right now. And even though this week maybe wasn't the kind of week that you would have for a regular build up to a game, I just think that having no game in the middle of the week, giving the guys some time off and then getting them back fresh for this game tomorrow was important. And then next week we have a, I think, a really good setup going into the next game. I know usually teams will stay true to their nature, but what do you expect from Chicago? Will they stay true to what they normally do, or do you think they'll change up a little bit? Yeah, man, that's a good, I don't necessarily think they'll change formation all that much. They've been playing at 343, so I think they'll probably stick with that, you know, could they change sure? But at this point in the season for us, like all the teams, at least the MLS teams, you know, we basically have seen every formation you can possibly think of, so I think our guys can adapt it in just pretty quickly. I know you're never going to give your lineup or your formation going into a game, but do you have the depth with healthy players and with the call-ups to maybe go between what you've been playing and, you know, the original 433? Yeah, I think so. I think so. It's maybe, you know, in some areas of field it's a little, it's not as robust, you know, but we have more than enough guys I think that we can make it work. Yeah. And finally, just to wrap it up, did have a chance to talk to Pachuca head coach Oscar Torres and one of their midfielders, Nelia Diaz, just about how good it is to see NWSL, LigaMX, playing together, having the tournament and what it means to both leagues. You may have just talked about the game and what you guys can learn from playing a match like this playing in this atmosphere. Yeah. Coming in, we knew that this league is a very strong league. The girls are strong. They have a good mentality. The atmosphere of the stadium was great. I think you guys have some great fans here. Yeah, it was a good game. I think both teams learned a lot. We definitely had to transition to more of a switch up some formation, but it was a great game. I'll go first. I think it's very important. I mean, I know that all the girls in LigaMX are very excited to be competing against these girls. It's good just to support each other as women in sports, and hopefully we are able to do this every single year. I think that all the girls in LigaMX are really good. I think that all the girls in LigaMX are very good, and they are very good. To make these kind of tournaments for them? Yeah, it's a very competitive tournament. Make this compete at a different level. It's a very competitive tournament for many of them in Mexico. It's really good for the progress because our game is at the level of time. Hey, and with that, we'll wrap it up here for timeout Kansas City Soccer. Still, the season just keeps going, right? You have the Sporting Kansas City presence in the Olympics with John Luca Buccio, with Jake Davis, with John Paul Scamp on the U.S. national team. You have a current presence in the Olympics with multiple players contributing for their countries, Brazil and Canada. And you have a summer game coming up for the current on Thursday, so it's another packed wake. We'll be back. We'll cover it here on the Fired Up Network. Go ahead and download that TrueTV+ app to keep up to date and have the channel right there on your smart device or your TV for Fired Up Network. I'm Gerald Vellini. Thanks.