Portland Timbers Quotes
Portland Timbers head coach Caleb Porter
Overall thoughts on the draw:
“I think it is what it is. We can’t do anything about what happened, we need to move on. So I don’t think we’re happy with a point, but I don’t think we can be too disappointed either because at the end of the day, we came back from behind. I think our effort in the second half was very good; we had chances to win the game – that’s probably the biggest frustration. With a chance to win, I thought we got the wrong end of a call – that’s reality. I’ve just seen it, it’s a goal. We should have won the game so that’s frustrating. But first half I thought we were a bit flat, dug a hole for whatever reason – that’s on me. Coaches are responsible to get their team ready and for some reason, some guys weren’t ready, that needs to improve next game. But I liked the comeback, liked the point, thought we did enough to win, but we didn’t win so we'll move on, shift gears, get ready for [CONCACAF[ Champions League and get ready for a home game against Seattle.”
On the disallowed goal that would have put the Timbers ahead:
“I didn’t know until I watched it, it was close. The tough thing is that it’s the same linesman. He calls the one that’s tight and lets them score a goal and then the other one is tight and he calls it offside. It is what it is. I’m not complaining, I’m not blaming the referee for anything. We ended up getting a point. It is what it is. It’s not what we wanted, but we’re going to move on. We’ll focus our energy on the next game Tuesday and then Seattle in the league game.”
On how the team is managing its busy stretch of travel, Champions League and MLS play:
“The biggest thing you do as a coach or manger is being a decision maker. So there are a lot of decisions every day you make – what are you doing for training, how hard are you training, what are the tactics for the game, who or what lineup are you playing. For me, it’s nothing different, you’re just making different types of decisions in terms of how do you manage those three games in eight days and the travel and all that. So we came up with a plan of bringing everybody here because it is a closer distance from Boston to Guyana. We’ll send 10 guys back to train with a coach for three days while we’re gone so that those guys are getting ready and they’re fresh. Then we have a group that’s going to play that’s going to be, for the most part, fresh to hopefully get a result in Guyana and we’ll hopefully have a group that’s fresh and ready to beat Seattle. It’s just squad rotation, normal things that you have to manage in the season. It’s not easy, but good clubs deal with it and get job done.”
On Liam Ridgewell’s impact since joining the club:
“We’ve lost one game since he’s been in the lineup – so three wins, a draw, and a loss... So he’s [Ridgewell] obviously made a huge impact, including tonight. You don’t see central defenders score goals very often through the run of play so I think he showed not only his defensive quality, but he showed that when he does get forward at times, he can finish. I don’t expect him to be doing that a lot, but it worked out that way and he’s a big-time player and I think he’s showing his worth.”
Portland Timbers defender Liam Ridgewell
On his goal:
“I stepped in front of the forward, and it just opened up. I saw the right back tucking in and I thought I better keep going. I wanted to pass to be honest, but I couldn’t find anyone to pass to. I decided to shoot and thankfully it went in.”
On conceding the opening goal:
“We couldn’t get into the game. We kept losing possession in key areas, and it gave them a lot of momentum. We couldn’t get into our stride and sadly it cost us a goal. However, like I said before, it gave us the confidence going forward that we can come back from being down early.”
On fighting back to earn a point:
“It was good to come back; it showed our resilience and proved to us we can come back after giving up an early goal. We wanted the three points and in the end we might have deserved to get it, but sadly we couldn’t put away our chances.”
Portland Timbers goalkeeper Donovan Ricketts
On getting a point on the road:
“Once you put a point on the board it puts you a little closer [to the postseason]. We wanted three [points], but New England came out to play today.”
On conceding the opening goal:
“It was tough, because they were all over us the first 15-20 minutes. They gave us a run for our money during that time. We battled back and overcame it.”
On looking ahead:
“We need to focus on the [Champions League] game first and take it one game at a time. After our trip we will prepare for the Seattle game. I think if we just focus on one thing at a time it will help the entire team.”
New England Revolution Quotes
New England Revolution head coach Jay Heaps
On the match:
“I thought the game was a little bit of a tale of two halves. I thought we were there in the first half with the right way we played. Then the second half we let them back and that’s disappointing because when you have a team you think you can put away, we’ve got to start putting them away and we had the chance in the first half.”
On the team’s second-half struggles:
“I think (the team’s second half issues) are a little bit we stop playing. We’re not opening up wide enough and starting to play a little bit when the game is there. To be honest with you, it wasn’t anything as much what they did as much as what we did. We gave them the ball back. We had turnovers and I’m going to look on film, but I look down here and we’ve got 67 percent accuracy, it felt like 37 percent. We were giving the ball away unforced and that’s not good enough.”
On Portland’s equalizer:
“I haven’t seen (the Portland goal) yet on film, I’m going to go back and watch it, but live it was a center back beating two or three guys. We have three points on the line, we have to be better there.”
New England Revolution midfielder Kelyn Rowe
On the match:
“I think we created some good chances in both halves; yet we didn’t finish the final ball. As an attacking player – it’s my responsibility, as well, to put the ball in the back of the net, and I couldn’t perform tonight. At the end of the day, even though guys made some good runs; the final ball didn’t go through.”
On Portland’s goal:
“I think it was a weird play. He (Liam Ridgewell) won the ball out of the box, and we all dove in simultaneously. When this happened, he was able to beat all of us fairly easy. After he beat three or four guys, he ripped it far post; which we didn’t expect to go in.”
New England Revolution forward Charlie Davies
On his goal:
“It’s always great to score. Diego (Fagundez) played a great ball and I just got to try and make the most of my opportunities as a striker and obviously you take so much joy and pride in scoring goals. It’s just unfortunate we didn’t get the result we were hoping for.”
On the match:
“A goal is a goal. It’s good to get the lead and get the first goal. I think that’s really important for us as a team. I think we started slow in the second half and teams have been able to capitalize and we let Portland get a result today. I think we had a lot of chances. We had the space; we had the time, but we just didn’t capitalize in the final third. This is definitely progress because we ended up getting a point today. Hopefully versus Chivas we can finally put it all together and come away with three points.”
Notes:
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Defender Liam Ridgewell registered his first career MLS goal and his first goal for the Timbers on Saturday night, tallying the game-tying goal in the 65th minute.
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Midfielder Diego Chara made his 107th career MLS start for Portland on Saturday, moving into sole possession of first place as the Timbers MLS career leader in starts. Chara is also the Timbers MLS career leader in minutes played (9,468).
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Despite not registering a point on Saturday, midfielder Diego Valeri has registered at least one point in eight of the team’s last 12 regular-season matches.
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The Timbers have earned at least one point in 13 of the last 17 regular-season matches and rank among league leaders with the most points earned (27) in that span.
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Following Saturday’s match, the Timbers rank second in the league with 39 goals scored through 24 matches.
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Midfielder/forward Darlington Nagbe made his first appearance since July 27 after missing the last two matches due to a knee injury.
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Portland’s backline of Danny O’Rourke, Norberto Paparatto, Ridgewell and Michael Harrington has started consecutive matches.
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The Timbers have come back to register at least one point in 12 of 17 matches (4-5-8) when allowing the first goal this season, the second-best mark in MLS.
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Following Saturday’s draw, Portland is 2-0-2 on the road against Eastern Conference teams this season and 2-0-1 when playing in the Eastern time zone.
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With the draw, the Timbers recorded their first road point (0-1-1) when trailing at the half away from home in 2014.
- Portland’s 23 second-half goals ranks second overall in the league.
