Q&A With Sporting KC Winger Jacob Peterson

If numbers are anything to go by, this season has been somewhat of a stark contrast to the amount of playing time Jacob Peterson has seen on his former MLS teams Toronto FC, Colorado Rapids, and the San Jose Earthquakes. Just looking at the first six games of his respective seasons with Toronto and San Jose, he had averaged about 185 minutes of playing time for both sides at this point of the season as compared to his 90 minutes with Sporting KC thus far.

Technically, all together Jacob Peterson has amassed exactly one game in minutes this season with Sporting Kansas City, mainly being subbed on late for left winger Bobby Convey. But the amount of playing time he's gotten under Peter Vermes won't fall too hard on to the shoulders of the 26 year old, who knows his job in the team right now is to provide energy off the bench.

So, I decided I'd asked Jacob a couple of questions on how his short time in Kansas City has been and how far he thinks SKC can go.

Keep Reading for the Q and A's with Jacob

What do you want to get out of this year with Sporting KC and how far do you think this team can go?

We can be as good as we want to be. We have the quality in terms of players throughout the team to earn results throughout the entire year, it's the best team I've been a part of at any level by a long shot. As long as we keep the right mentality and attack each and every game, treat it like we should, there's no reason why we can't put the bar as high as we want.

What have been some of your most memorable matches playing in the MLS?

The only time I've ever been part of a playoff team was my rookie year, and going into the last game of the season we needed to earn a win or a draw against Houston. We were down, and I scored late to equalize the match from a corner, and we ended up going through.

You were let go by San Jose at the end of 2011 and became a free agent. I think a lot of people are curious as to what free agents actually do while they're out of contract and during your search for a team did it just spurn you to train harder?

I worked out a lot in Denver for most of the time, actually. I had a guy that I trained with, a former NFL player who runs his own gym, and we just did lots of strength work trying to get my knee back to 100% after I kind of took the previous offseason off. I just wanted to make sure everything was good with my body because I didn't know where I'd be going, I let my agent handle all of that stuff.

We all know you can play out on the wing but can or have you played anywhere else on the pitch?

With the exception of left back and center back, I've played everywhere. Obviously I'm more comfortable out wide, but last year in Toronto I played center mid for the first 14 or 16 games of the season. That's a position that I'm familiar with, I don't know if it suits my skills all that well, but I can do it. And then being a winger, right back is a pretty easy transition, as well.

What are some of your best attributes you can bring to the table for SKC?

With my role right now, I think whether we are winning or losing, I have to give a spark off the bench and add that energy, come in there and do the work that some of the other guys were doing in the 20th minute but can't do in the 80th minute. I think I bring good movement off the ball, I like to get in behind and since I've come into the league I've gotten progressively better at crossing the ball to the point where I now consider that a strong part of my game.