Portland Timbers quotes
Portland Timbers head coach Caleb Porter
On winning the first road game…
“It's not always about being pretty. It’s about winning, and on the road, especially, you have to dig deep to win games. I thought our guys did that. We had some new guys in the lineup, some injuries to manage this week. Marco Farfan makes his debut at 18 years old and looked like he fits right in. Roy Miller steps in with only a couple of days with the team. Ben Zemanski has to come into the game before half. So, these are things that you need out of a team and these are things that you need to do to win games. You need to grind, you need to stick together and you need guys to come up with big plays like Jake (Gleeson) did at the end of the game, making that save. Obviously there are things to improve on like every game – win, lose or draw. We’re going to look at that. Obviously, we should’ve put the game to bed a lot sooner and then it would’ve been, more pretty.”
On the performance of the back four…
“This is a true team. Our depth was tested. I’ve been talking about it all preseason, the fact that we have a better bench. So, we had to put our money where our mouth is in this game and play some guys that haven’t played, and I thought you saw a guy like Roy Miller, who wasn’t the biggest name signing in terms of people talking about it, and you saw what he can do when he steps in the game and he got the job done with only two days of training. So, really pleased with him, Marco, Ben Zemanski and the entire team. It takes a team to win games on the road. It takes 11 guys and subs. We weren’t able to do that in 17 games last year, so I’m pleased that we were able to do that in the first game. There’s a reason in ’14 and ’15 that we were one of the best road teams in the league, and I think that will be the case this year if we keep playing the way we did today.”
On scoring on the counter attack…
“Yeah, and (Diego) Chara almost had one at the end too. So, again, with a true team you have to have guys that come up with goals and sometimes it’s unlikely people like Chara. A holding midfielder, he’s not always going to get on the scoresheet, but he comes up big. We need to spread our goals around and it was great to see that happen today.”
On the Timbers level of play with LA down to 10 men…
“If we score our chances, then the game is over earlier. We missed a number of chances or opportunities on the counter. When you don’t finish those, you let the team hang around and obviously they have to gamble more and more as the game wears on, and they’re getting some chances the other way. But, they didn’t have a ton of clear looks. Maybe they had a bit more possession because the pressure is off a little bit. Sometimes, I’ve seen that. Sometimes it’s the team with 11 who thinks it’s going to be easier. Maybe it’s a little bit of that psychology. But, again, I thought we defended really well today and it’s great again to get that first clean sheet and that first road win.”
On if this is the best Timbers group since 2013…
“I think it’s a very good team. But, being a good team doesn’t mean anything unless you show up every single game for 90 straight minutes. In this league, if you don’t show up and if you don’t dig deep and you’re not hungry, then it doesn’t matter how good of a team you are on paper. What I’m seeing in the last two games is a team that’s very hungry, a team that has the right mentality, and a team that’s not taking anything for granted. They know they have to show up every day in this league to get points, and we showed up today and we showed up last week. That’s what it’s about. We have to show up next week as well, and play a Houston team that’s 2-0 themselves.”
On the status of David Guzmán…
“Yeah, a little shoulder sublux. We’ll see how bad it is. He’s a tough guy. I’m assuming he’ll rebound okay, but we’ll see. I don’t know right now.”
Portland Timbers defender Marco Farfan
On his MLS debut…
"It's a dream come true. I don't think a kid can dream something better than this debuting, playing 90 minutes and getting a clean sheet with the guys out there. It was just fantastic."
On whether the preseason game against the Galaxy helped him tonight…
“Yeah, I came out with more confidence than two weeks ago. I knew that I can play against these guys. I just wanted to keep the tempo and play my game.”
Portland Timbers midfielder Diego Chara
On not pressing the Galaxy more...
"It's not that we didn't pressure them. Galaxy is at home and tried to tie the game and in some occasions we would lose the ball and that gave them the opportunity to send in crosses into the box and cause problems for us."
On scoring against the Galaxy...
"I feel great. I think that the goal was a great team play. I think we created a lot of chances on goal today."
On the team playing on the counter...
"I think the game was open. We created so many chances on goal. Today we were effective, similar to last game, and I think it was a good performance today."
Portland Timbers midfielder Darlington Nagbe
On how it feels to get a win in their first road game of the season…
“It feels great. You always start off and get a win. You know we’re 2-0. But obviously it feels good and considering last year where we didn’t get the first one. It feels good and all the guys worked hard and we put in a good fight.”
On the Timbers’ backline and how they fared in their first time playing together…
“We definitely felt comfortable. It’s a lot of new pieces. Marco [Farfan] played his first game and he did a tremendous job so I’m proud of him and the whole team.”
On how it feels to start the season with two wins...
“It feels great. We’ve never started off 2-0-0 before, so it feels great. Mentally it gives us a lot of confidence at home and on the road.”
LA Galaxy quotes
LA Galaxy head coach Curt Onalfo
On the two yellow cards issued to Jelle Van Damme…
“I haven’t seen the plays. I haven’t been able to see the replays. I was told that the players dove, so that’s unfortunate. But he did get a yellow card for dissent and we can prevent that. We dug ourselves a hole, regardless of if the referee made a bad judgement or not. We can’t put ourselves in that situation. We’re at home. We need points. And there in the 34th minute, we’re playing with ten men.”
On how the team should have defended Portland’s successful counter attack…
“It was a corner kick, an attacking corner. You just have to break up the play. There’s players on top of the defense that have to break up the play. Then you have to run hard back and it was a bad goal to concede early in the game.”
On why Giovani dos Santos was subbed off at the half…
“Gio has a slight strain to his hamstring or just tightness. We’ll know more tomorrow, but he couldn’t go in the second half so we had to make that change.”
On the team’s effort while trailing and playing with 10-men…
“Just like I told the team when we got in the locker room, the effort and the way the worked, they were warriors. Sebastian Lletget led by example. I thought he was excellent. I thought he was the best player on the field in every aspect. A play that draws a lot of attention to me is when he has to run back, basically the length of the entire field, to help make sure that we didn’t concede that second goal and to keep us in the game. And that’s what happens when you grind it out and you do all these things that you’ve got to do. Winning games is hard work. You’ve got to position yourself to make a play and we had some set pieces that we’ve got to capitalize on. Jose [Villarreal] has the late header and maybe you walk away with a point and you’re feeling a little better. But I’m very pleased and proud of the effort that the guys put in and that’s what I’m going to focus on.”
On how hard it’s been to start the season with injuries, suspensions and youth…
“You’re always going to deal with adversity through the course of the season. You don’t want to draw it up where it’s this early. I actually look at it differently. We’ll be better for this. We got some players some minutes and they performed well. That helps create depth to our team. We were down five players today. That’s never easy. As we add the players back from injury and suspension and you look at performances like Sebastian had and Ema [Boateng] who was very good again today and had an excellent week of training. And all of the sudden, you have options and it makes you better. It’s unfortunate. I’m a forward-looking person, I don’t look back. My job is to continue to make the group better and that’s my focus.”
LA Galaxy goalkeeper Clement Diop
On when he learned he was going to get the start and how he felt about his performance…
“I learned about it on Friday before practice. I don’t care about my performance, since we lost, I didn’t do well enough. So I hope we will win the next game, that’s it. If we lose 1-0, if we tie 1-1, maybe I did a good job. But it’s not a good job when you lose 1-0. It’s not enough.”
On his save to keep the score from going to 2-0…
“I tried to keep the team in the game as much as I could. We put in a hard fight and a great effort, but we lost so the result wasn’t here and we know that we must win in Salt Lake. Everybody knows that.”
LA Galaxy defender Rafael Garcia
On fighting until the end…
“It’s in our DNA. Unfortunately, we went down a player. We had to roll up our sleeves and fight. We’re proud with the effort but we’re not happy with the result. We obviously wanted to get three points tonight.”
On Portland’s counter attack…
“To be fair Portland is a pretty good team attacking. They have some speed up top and maybe with the red card we were a little late on transitioning on a few plays. But with that being said, I think the effort from the guys tonight was outstanding and we’re satisfied with that but we know we could have done better.”
Notes:
- The Timbers held the lead for 82 minutes, marking the largest length the club has ever held a lead in an away MLS match.
- The victory against the Galaxy marked Portland's first win in a road opener since joining MLS in 2011.
- The Timbers have won consecutive matches to open the season for the first time since the 2008 season when the club played in USL.
- After two weeks of matches, the Timbers have the highest Goal Difference in MLS (+5).
- Marco Farfan became the youngest Timbers player to play an MLS match at 18 years old and 120 days. The record was previously held by Alvas Powell, who was 19 years old and 16 days when he made his debut for Portland.
- Diego Chara scored his seventh career goal for the Timbers. Chara's last goal was also against the LA Galaxy at the StubHub Center, occurring on Oct. 18, 2015.
- Diego Valeri tallied an assist for a second consecutive match, marking the 13th time in Valeri's career that he has had an assist in consecutive matches.
- Valeri has recorded 44 career assists for Portland, which ranks tied as the third-most assists in Timbers history across all eras (since 1975).
- Defender Roy Miller also made his debut for the Timbers, starting and playing 90 minutes.
- Farfan had the most tackles for either team in the match (5).
