Portland Timbers
Portland Timbers head coach Caleb Porter
On his takeaways from the game…
“I think it’s a good game to get us ready for the season. We haven’t faced a ton of adversity, or challenge with the top group during preseason, for the most part it’s been pretty smooth. I think there were some challenges, there were some things that happened tonight that will get us ready for the season. There is no doubt we will be ready. It’s been a good preseason. Primarily it’s been extremely positive, defensively especially. I thought with the way Chicago played you can’t give up the first goal because we were outstanding until we gave up the first goal. They played a five-back system; a 5-3-2 that becomes a 3-5-2 in the attack. When you give up the first goal now it stays more as a 5-3-2 and then you give up the next one then it really becomes a block of eight guys. I thought we played into their hands a little bit in that first half. They made it a game where we needed exploit them wide. That’s where you open up a 3-5-2 is wide. I didn’t think we generated enough wide today in the attack. It doesn’t matter how good you are in the attack when a team plays like that we need time and we didn’t have time. We forced things too central and narrow in that first half, we didn’t exploit them wide enough and then giving up the first goal played right into their hands and allowed them to be even more defensive. So like I said it’s all good lessons. But I don’t think we played bad today. I do think we made some mistakes that cost us. And I think it’s a good reality check, too, because we are MLS Cup champions but this is a new season. I think this game prepares us for the next 34 games knowing that you have to show up, you have be on guard, if you make mistakes you are going to get punished. It doesn’t matter who you are playing. In the attack you don’t always know what teams are going to do. You will see more teams that play very defensive and when teams play defensive you have to be sharp and you have to look for the openings and you need time. We needed to get that time, but if you give up the first goal it plays right into the away team’s hands and allows them to just sit and that’s what they did. We still got chances. We could have done better with our chances, but it was just one of those games. And there will be more games like this, but my belief is next week it won’t be a game like this. And next week is what matters more than winning this game."
If this changes anything heading into the regular season or is he set on things…
“Not really, again I don’t think we played bad today, I really don’t. We made some mistakes there is no doubt about it and we hadn’t made some of those mistakes in preseason. Defensively, the top group, I don’t think we’ve given up a goal. I thought we could have done better on both goals. So maybe we needed that to happen. In thinking about it, that kind of top group felt like we haven’t lost since nine games prior to the MLS Cup. For me it’s good, it just kind of levels everyone off now. Gets everyone aware we are in a new year. Nothing is going to be easy, there is going to be some adversity. There are going to be some challenges, going to be losses. This prepares us for the long road ahead. It gets everybody back to a little bit of reality. We are not going to be perfect just because we won the MLS Cup. We will be more ready by making a few mistakes today that locks the guys in, that allows us to kind of tighten the backs a little bit. Versus if we had put up another clean sheet and win 2-0, who knows, maybe this next game vs Crew we have what happened today. So I really like the way it played out to be honest with you and we are 0-0 starting Saturday.”
On if this reminded him of the Orlando City game seeing something tactically different he wasn’t expecting…
“Less complex, honestly, a 3-5-2 when you look at it, it’s pretty simple. In that game I think that Orlando did a few more complex things. But what I would say is our guys haven’t dealt with this system much before. Mostly, we generated on the right and the way they played made it nearly impossible to generate anything central. But if we generate more on the left and I think if we have time then we score a goal. But we didn’t get time and we didn’t finish our chances. We did create a lot. I think we had 20 chances, so it wasn’t like we had a tough time creating chances. But those are the fine lines in this sport, always. And we will talk about that a lot in these press conferences, the fine lines. They took the first two chances, so it played right into their plan. We didn’t. We had just as good of chances as they did up until they scored their goals. We finish ours and now we are up 1-0 and now they have to open up even more and now it plays into our hands. So for me it wasn’t a bad game, just wasn’t as sharp as it needs to be to win. And there will be other games like that, but I think it really locks us in to get us ready for next week.”
Portland Timbers midfielder Diego Valeri
On how tonight’s loss helps prepare the team for the upcoming season…
“It will be a help if we train well during the next week. I think it was a good preseason. We played well today, even if we lost. We don’t want to lose, of course, but I think we created a lot of chances. I think it was a good preseason for us and it was really positive.”
On how this loss was helpful for the team to stay grounded ahead of the new season…
“I agree with that. It will be a long, long season, like always in MLS. Hopefully, I think we will win a lot of games, but we will lose a couple of course. The goal is to make the playoffs. We know that at home we have to be strong and we will be there.”
On looking forward to playing Columbus in the season opener…
“Yes. It will be special for us. For them too. Obviously, the first game of the season is special and we will work this week to give these people, our fans, a win.”
Portland Timbers forward Fanendo Adi
On how this loss in preseason can help the team ahead of the new season…
“I told the boys that sometimes it’s good to lose because you get a feeling that something is at stake. We have those in preseason games, so I think it’s not a bad one. We just need to reorganize ourselves knowing that we’re heading into the season and will face teams like this that sit at the back. Of course you have to grind it out to get the right result.”
On what it’s going to be like for him on opening day next Sunday…
“It’s going to be amazing. It’s going to be one of the best moments of the year for us. Of course we’re facing Columbus, a very good team. We have to prepare for a tough test. It’s going to be an amazing game and we just need to prepare to get the right result.”
Notes:
- Sunday’s game was the third meeting all-time in preseason between Chicago and Portland.
- Defender Zarek Valentin, midfielder Ned Grabavoy and forward Jack McInerney appeared in all three games of the 2016 Simple Invitational.
- The 2016 edition of the Simple Invitational attracted 43,773 fans over three doubleheaders.
