Tale of Two Coaches

Kansas City defeated DC United, 4-0, to open the 2010 Major League Soccer season. Listening to the coaches of the two teams, it sounds like two different directions that these teams headed in.

“We talked as a team that we spent 62 days getting ready for tonight," Wizards coach Peter Vermes said. "We knew we were going to make some mistakes, but we had to come out with all the ideas of how we wanted to play and stay disciplined to that, and the guys did an excellent job of executing."

His opposite number and former coach of Kansas City Curt Onalfo didn't have a similar response.

“For me, at the end of the day, for whatever reason we stepped on the field thinking we were just going to win the game. In real life, we actually need to roll up our sleeves and fight and earn it on the field. It was a disappointing performance. Having said that, it’s one game and we have to put it behind us quickly, learn from it. You know, we made a lot of youthful errors. We struggled with the size of the field, we struggled with the surface, we struggled with clearing the ball. A lot of things went wrong in one evening.”