Portland Timbers Quotes
Portland Timbers head coach Caleb Porter
Overall thoughts on the match…
“Obviously anytime you don’t get three points at home you are disappointed. But I can’t fault the guys’ effort. They gave everything they had. We wanted to come out with a strong start and get the first goal because we knew kind of in the second half because both teams had played on the weekend, us on Sunday, them on Saturday that it could get a little slow. We knew also that in the second half if it was a draw they would be content to kind of sit on that and that’s kind of how it played out, unfortunately. The disappointment is when we got our nose ahead we have to do a better job of not giving up that goal on the counter right before half because we looked as if we might get the second one. We were kind of in around the box several times and looked like we had all the momentum. Then we got caught up the field and we gave [Ignacio] Piatti, the one guy who we thought could pull off a play, time and space to do just that. We are an experienced enough team to not let that happen. But sometimes it does happen and in the second half we just didn’t have as much of a push as we needed. Obviously our bench is a lot more thin with the injuries and I decided to keep Jack Mac [Jack McInerney], [Fanendo] Adi, Luca [Lucas Melano] and [Darlington] Nagbe because I thought those were the four guys that would find the goal. And it looked like we might get one and I let that ride and eventually we put on the other two attacking guys in [Jack] Barmby and [Ned] Grabavoy. In the end I can’t fault the guys effort sometimes you don’t get three points. Sometimes you don’t find that bit of magic. Sometimes you can’t break a team down that’s sitting like they did. Ultimately it’s not the end of the world, but we are not happy with it.”
On if fatigue was a factor…
“Yeah. Obviously we played Sunday, quick turnaround, it doesn’t help. We are a bit spread thin right now. But I thought the guys were lively, they gave everything they had. First half looked good. I think second half kind of fizzled a little bit.”
On if there was an emphasis this week on set pieces…
“There’s emphasis every single week on set pieces. If you guys knew how much we worked on set pieces you probably wouldn’t believe it.”
On if there is more pressure to get three points against Seattle on Sunday…
“I don’t think so. Every game there is pressure. Whether it’s home or away. I think we all expect to get three points and going into every game thinking that we are going to. There’s not a game that the guys and coaches don’t think we are going to get three points. We prepare to get three points every single game. Sometimes it doesn’t go that way. Obviously we’ve been in a good run in terms of points and getting results. We still continue that. But we need to get three points at home. It doesn’t put any more or less pressure. Ultimately you always want to get results. Doesn’t add anything to it other than the fact that we turn around and play Seattle. It’s a rivalry game. We are going to be excited for it. We are going to be up for it. We know three points is again the goal.”
On the decision to go with Zarek Valentin at left back…
“We put up two clean sheets the last two games. So we wanted to go with the same back four as last game. Obviously we made the one move with [Jermaine] Taylor coming out after the Colorado game when Ridgy [Liam Ridgewell] was injured, but if it’s not broke, don’t fix it. For me that’s the way I looked at it. I wanted to keep as much continuity as possible in the back to build on the positive form there. And we can now in looking at this next game can rotate Jermaine in at any of the four positions. So that was a factor as well.”
On the prospects of Diego Valeri returning to the lineup on Sunday…
“Pretty good. We obviously have a little bigger window now with three days. We will be fully recovered by then and hopefully we will have Valeri. Obviously the last three games haven’t been bad results, but you can see our overall attacking production and chance creation isn’t what it normally is. And that’s no surprise. Any team in the league that loses a guy like him isn’t going to be the same. And Seattle I think has lost Clint Dempsey. So they will have to manage that as well.”
Portland Timbers midfielder Jack Jewsbury
On his assist on Jack McInerney’s goal in the first-half…
“It was a corner kick. For me, it’s all about putting it in a good area. We obviously have some big bodies in there. Jack does a good job of getting on the end of things and did so on that one.”
On the performance in the first-half…
“I thought it was good. We wanted to get the goal and get the lead. We’re disappointed right before halftime to give up Montreal’s goal. It’s a bit unfortunate. It’s a clearance that turns into a counter attack, but I feel like we were in a decent position. There were a couple of clearances that bounced off of [Ignacio Piatti] that went his way, but he made the most of it. That’s the disappointing point for us; not getting into halftime with the lead and being able to close it out.”
On building on this performance for Sunday’s match against Seattle Sounders FC…
“We’re unbeaten in eight games now, but we’re still disappointed not to get the three points today. We realize how big these rivalry games are and it’s a big one for us on Sunday.”
Portland Timbers midfielder Darlington Nagbe
On his overall thoughts on the game…
“We had chances where we could have won the game. We were controlling the game and then we gave up a goal on the counter, but overall it was OK.”
On the second-half performance…
“We started a little bit slower, but then we started getting on the ball and started pushing the game a little bit more. We were just unlucky not to find a goal.”
On building on this performance for Sunday’s match against Seattle Sounders FC…
“We’ve just got to build on it. I thought defensively it was good again; it was an unlucky goal [given up]. There was a double deflection and then it found its way into the net. We’ll build on this match.”
Portland Timbers forward Jack McInerney
On his goal in the first-half…
“I think I got picked. I was supposed to make a near-post run and I couldn’t get there. We talked about playing the ball back post and I just kind of peeled off and got a head on it.”
On scoring against his former team…
“It obviously feels good. I’m good friends with a bunch of the guys, and definitely Evan Bush is a good friend. I’ll get a good text message from him later.”
Montreal Impact Quotes
Montreal Impact head coach Mauro Biello
On his team recovering a point after going a goal down…
“I thought we grew as a team. It was a little tough early on with the fans. We had some trouble on set pieces. [Portland] had a little bit of the rhythm and momentum early on, but I thought that we grew and got better as the game went along and were able to control the game in terms of possession and also create some very good chances. [Ignacio Piatti] had a good chance in alone, Harry Shipp had a couple good shots. In the end, we did a good job managing the game and come out of here with a result.”
On Ignacio Piatti’s contributions….
“I think [Ignacio] is one of the best players in the league. He’s someone who gets chances every game. He’s able to unbalance you on the dribble. He’s able to finish. Up until now he’s been doing a good job and he works defensively. He gives 100% every night. For us to have him and be able to unbalance other teams is good for us. When you have players like that, they can make things happen out of nothing. His goal was going one-versus-one, got a bounce and it fell on his foot. He was able to score, but I thought my team did okay. In possession we were good. Different moments we kept the ball and created chances. I think that’s a good sign.”
On how the loss of Ciman during the match affected the team…
“Victor Cabrera came in for Laurent Ciman and did very well. I gave him a rest tonight and Dominic [Oduro] came in and did a good job also. In the end, that’s what you want in the team. You want everybody to be ready and everybody to contribute. If I’m able to have that within the group, we’ll be difficult to beat.”
Montreal Impact midfielder Patrice Bernier
On his team’s performance in the first half…
“We didn’t panic. We took the goal, yeah, but we know the quality of this team and there was space to play. Yeah, we had to rectify a few things. They were maybe passing the ball too easy through the lines and we didn’t enough pressure on the ball coming out of the back from them. Once we got it sorted out and once we started playing our game and slowly controlling the ball, we dictated the tempo, we got back in the game and I felt that we could have pushed to win the game. If you look, their goalie made a tremendous saves on [Ignacio] Piatti, on the shot from [Kyle] Bekker, Harry Shipp was very close to scoring. We felt in the second half we built up, we were climbing and we were in the right momentum to feel that we could score a second goal.”
On changes the team made coming out for the second half…
“Simply to stay more compact and to start forcing them to play the ball in certain areas. You saw [Darlington] Nagbe had to move around, roam around to get the ball and that makes the player a bit frustrated not getting the ball, even though he’s a good player and maybe he’s the biggest threat they have. We were able to stay compact, we collected the ball in the right areas and when we had the ball we were very patient in the buildup and we knew there were gaps where we could play. Because the quality of this team, we know when we hold the ball, we can have patient build up and find the right time to go at goal. We have [Piatti], Harry [Shipp], [Dominic] Oduro, [Johan] Venegas, and we had also a team that was rebuilding. There were six new starters in the game. Chemistry built up through the game.”
On the atmosphere and fan support at Providence Park…
“I was here three years ago and we won. It’s always nice to play here. These are the types of games you want to play every day because the crowd is there. They’re behind their team and even though they’re pushing their team, you feel you want to play to shut them out. This is one of the great places to play in this league. It’s very loud, very compact and it’s not easy to come here and get wins. So we’re quite happy with the result and now we have to go home and get the job done at home against an Eastern rival.”
Montreal Impact midfielder Harry Shipp
General thoughts on the match…
“I thought we responded really well. We got the goal right before halftime and then in the second half we did a good job keeping possession. We talked at halftime about getting in their half and keeping the ball and just playing quickly. I thought you saw us moving the ball well in the second half and creating some chances that could have won us the game.”
On if the game went differently than their game last Sunday…
“The way [Portland] play with their formation with [Darlington] Nagbe coming inside, it took us a little bit to adjust to that. I think after the first 15-20 minutes I thought we did a really good job defending that and then able to get on the counter as well as establishing possession and trying to break up them down that way.”
On the atmosphere inside Providence Park...
“This is actually my third time in three years playing here. I always enjoy playing out here. Actually the first MLS game I played was out here so I have fond memories of the atmosphere. It’s a little less intimidating for me now than when I was a rookie, but it’s definitely a fun place to play for sure.”
Referee Allen Chapman
Why did you not issue a straight red card to Ignacio Piatti in the 18th minute when he put a studs-up tackle from behind into the calf of Alvas Powell?
“On the field the referee crew deemed the tackle by Piatti to be a reckless tackle worthy of a caution.”
After reviewing the play, do you believe a red card was warranted?
“After reviewing the play in our opinion the slow motion video reveals that a sendoff for serious foul play was warranted.”
Notes:
- Wednesday’s game marked the 95th consecutive regular-season sellout for the Timbers at Providence Park.
- Timbers forward Jack McInerney scored his fifth goal of the regular season and his sixth across all competitions.
- McInerney is one of three Timbers players to score five or more goals this season, joining midfielder Diego Valeri and forward Fanendo Adi. Additionally, Portland is one of six MLS teams to have three players with at least five goals.
- McInerney is the seventh Timbers player during the team’s MLS era to score a goal against their former club.
- Midfielder Jack Jewsbury recorded his 340th regular-season appearance in MLS, placing him in a tie with Jaime Moreno for the ninth-most matches played by a field player in MLS history.
- Jewsbury recorded his first assist since July 18, 2014, logging his 16th assist with the Timbers. Jewsbury’s 16 assists places him in a tie with Jimmy Conway for the 11th-most assists in Timbers history across all eras (since 1975).
- Goalkeeper Jake Gleeson recorded six saves during the match, bringing his season total to 58, which is the sixth-most in MLS this season.
- The Timbers are undefeated in their last eight regular-season matches, marking the third time Portland has produced an eight-game unbeaten streak in its MLS era. Portland has surpassed an eight-game run on two occasions, producing a 15-game streak from March 16-June 23, 2013, and a 10-game streak from Sept. 7, 2013-March 16, 2014.
- Portland has scored in each of its 10 home matches in league play this season, joining FC Dallas, the Philadelphia Union, and Real Salt Lake as the only MLS teams with a goal in all their home games in 2016.
