KANSAS CITY, Mo. – Given his druthers, Matt Besler would be joining the US national team next week for this summer's CONCACAF Gold Cup. Instead, Sporting Kansas City's star center back will be waiting to see if he gets a second straight call-up for the Gold Cup's knockout round.
And while he waits, Besler said he has to keep his focus on the MLS club he captains and not on being left off US head coach Jurgen Klinsmann’s 23-man roster.
“Obviously, I'm disappointed in Jurgen's decision,” the 2014 World Cup veteran told reporters on Friday, his first comment on the matter since the roster was announced on Tuesday. “But I have to respect it. I will do everything I can to stay mentally and physically ready if he needs me later in the tournament.
“I also need to be the best teammate possible to the guys who are going and fully support them, and I wish them the best.”
Besler, who was called in for the Gold Cup's knockout stage in 2013 and was part of the Nats' run to the title, said he had not talked with Klinsmann about the possibility of that happening again this year.
For now, he said, the most important thing is Saturday's home match against the Colorado Rapids (8:30 pm ET, MLS LIVE), as Sporting look to continue their unbeaten home form this season – and bounce back from last weekend's 2-1 away loss to Real Salt Lake, which snapped Kansas City's unbeaten streak at seven in MLS play and eight across all competitions.
Sporting conceded 16 corners in that match, including the one that led to Olmes Garcia's deflected match-winner – just over the outstretched fingers of goalkeeper Tim Melia – in the third minute of second-half stoppage time.
“Part of our game plan in Salt Lake was to let them come a little bit,” Besler said. “It just happened that they ended up dumping a lot of balls in behind us, which we weren't expecting. I think if a team is going to end up dumping a lot of balls, we have to do a better job picking up the second balls. If we're able to pick up the second balls, we're going back at them instead of them coming at us and locking us into our defensive third.”
Melia, who took his first loss in eight matches as a starter last weekend, said dictating the flow of the match against the defensive-minded Rapids would help cut down the number of corners and other dangerous set pieces in Sporting's end.
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“I just think when you're on the front foot, they're not going to be in our end,” Melia told reporters during the club's weekly news conference – which was held outside on Friday, after heavy storms Thursday night knocked out power to the club's training facility. “They're not going to have the opportunities to get shots deflected or through balls bounced out of bounds. As long as we are controlling the game, we're not going to give away set pieces.”
Manager Peter Vermes, who said after the RSL match that Sporting hadn't matched their opponents' intensity, repeated that assessment on Friday but said his club had addressed the lessons from the loss in this week's training sessions.
“I think we've spent enough time talking about them within the group,” he said. “I think everybody kind of understands. It's really just about the next game and getting back into form. I don't necessarily think we had a good performance in the last game – but at the same time, the recognition from everybody is that that's correct, and now we've just got to get back to playing and get back into form.”
Steve Brisendine covers Sporting Kansas City for MLSsoccer.com.
