Newly acquired defender Daneil Cyrus made his Sporting Kansas City and Major League Soccer debut on Saturday, as he came in for Aurélien Collin in the 62nd minute.
“He did a decent job,” said manager Peter Vermes. “If he’s going to learn something, its better he learns in a game like this when we’re up by four goals.”
Sporting acquired Cyrus, 20, on loan from FC Santa Rosa for the rest of the season. He misplayed a ball that led to a goal, but all-in-all he feels his unexpected debut went OK.
“I recovered for it,” said Cyrus, who called his debut a good experience. “It’s OK.”
Collin, who has emerged as the centerpiece of a much improved back four, was listed as questionable on the pregame injury report with a left quadriceps contusion.
“Collin took a knee into his lower back and glute, and when he hit that last ball he aggravated it,” Vermes said. “He actually made the right decision coming out because there’s no sense in pulling it.”
•Whatever doubts there were about Jéferson’s fitness seemed to be ease by this game, as Sporting KC’s new designated player – who Vermes said would likely play 65-70 minutes – played a full 90 minutes. He even showed hustle in the 84th minute when, with his team ahead by two, he could be spotted chasing down Toronto players up the field.
“He probably played about 20 to 25 minutes too long,” Vermes said. “We were going to make a substitution with him, but with the injury to Collin we needed him. At times, he was very good for us. The way he found the final pass, relieving pressure, finding players – those things were very good for us.”
Jéferson didn’t expect to go the distance, but he knew at a certain point his team needed him to tough it out.
“It comes down to mental toughness, you know,” Jéferson said via a translator. “You can’t show other teams fatigue, because if you do they’ll eat you alive.”
•Saturday’s game marked the third time in franchise history and first time since 1996 that two players had two or more goals in the same game.