Portland Timbers
Portland Timbers head coach Caleb Porter
On his initial reaction to the game…
“Devastating, the way that game played out. We came out on the front foot, it was one-way traffic really the whole game. We knew they were looking for one moment, one moment on the counter, or one moment on a set piece and they found it. We couldn’t find the one moment to finish in the final third. You see this type of cruel result happen all the time around the world but when you are on the losing side of it, it’s devastating. “
On playing well and not getting the result and if it’s frustrating…
“It’s really hard to swallow, no doubt about it. When you dominate like we dominated today, and we’ve had other games that were similar, and you end up losing or drawing and you leave the game empty handed. You leave the game thinking to yourself, you don’t know how you are empty handed, and it’s hard to swallow for sure. This will hurt. It’s not going to be easy to get over, but we’ve got time to get over it. We will get over it and the reality is we can’t do anything about it. All we can do is focus on the next game and we’ve got three games to go. We’ve got a game in hand on San Jose, we are level on points. They’ve got a home game and a road game. We’ve got two road games and a home game. So we still have an opportunity to get in the playoffs and we need to focus on going on the road like we did after New York and get three points versus Salt Lake.”
On if it was Melia’s great saves or if he would have liked to seen better efforts…
“We had more than enough to score. You can look at shots. You can look at final third entries. We were in good spots. We got good shots. Again it was pretty much one-way traffic the entire game. If you look at the stats that tells the tale, that tells the game, the story. We had plenty of opportunities to score, but we didn’t. Whether it was the goalkeeper, whether it was the finish, we didn’t score and you can’t win unless you score. Then on the other end, like I said even if you can’t score we should have never given up that goal, never. It was 1-vs-3. Credit to [Krisztian] Nemeth he pulls off a play, couple guys slip, but you leave the game again going ‘how does that happen?’ How does that guy pull off a play and score out of nothing? With all the play that we had, all the dominance we had, how do we not find the goal? But that’s the name of the game, that’s what it comes down to. I’ve said it all the time, I’ve said it so much, it’s a broken record. It’s the boxes. It’s us finding that quality, finding the little bit of brilliance to score. Then the other end, not letting them score. They won the game because Nemeth found a little bit of brilliance, and we didn’t, it’s that simple."
On what needs to change…
“I don’t know what you can do. You can’t play much better than we did. In terms of energy, the way we came out and the aggressiveness. That’s what makes this one even tougher then the New York one because the New York one we really weren’t at our best and probably didn’t deserve to win the game. We deserved to win this game, but again that doesn’t matter, we didn’t win. It’s a bottom-line business and we didn’t win, we didn’t score. You can’t win unless you score, but we should have. There’s nothing more that you can do other than keeping getting in good positions and hope that you can finish. That’s what we did, but we didn’t finish and we gave away a goal we shouldn’t have.”
On how he needs to approach these last three games to get into the playoffs…
“We’ve got three games to go and San Jose has two. So even though we are level on points, we have an extra game. We can only focus on the next game. We need to get over this because like I said this one hurt us. We are going ‘how did that happen?’ not because of our poor performance like New York, but it reminded me of the exact same game last time we played Kansas City. Should have scored, should have won and the goalkeeper made saves but we need to do better in the final third. The only difference this time was they were able to find a goal. I think they had two clear chances. Adam [Kwarasey] made the one save where he tipped it over the bar and that was the only other chance I think they had the entire match over 90-plus minutes. And the one they did score I don’t really look at that as a clear chance. He created that out of nothing, dribbled a couple guys, a few guys slipped. But you have to credit him; he was able to find a goal. We had guys who were in positions but we didn’t get the goal.”
Portland Timbers defender Nat Borchers
On the overall match…
“Soccer is a cruel game. There is no doubt about it. In the back, obviously, we need to do better on that play. They did a good job of cutting us up. I need to do better, definitely, to stay on my feet and ride the challenge and not give up a goal. I definitely take responsibility for my part in the goal. Obviously, we had some good chances and we didn’t finish those chances. It’s disappointing for sure. This is a game that we need. The points that were there for us [it] was a great opportunity so we’re disappointed for sure."
On the impact of all the foul calls had on the match…
“You know it was a chippy game for sure. From minute one they were wasting time and they came here to get a draw and they eked out a win. You want to punish teams like that. It’s really frustrating when teams come in and play that kind of negative soccer. We had the bulk of the possession, bulk of the shots, bulk of the chances but we just couldn’t get that goal to force them to come out.”
On if there was frustration prior to the goal by Sporting KC…
“I thought we did a good job to put ourselves in an opportunity to get three points. If we don’t’ give up that goal in the 83rd minute, we give ourselves a better opportunity because they’re tired from that midweek game. They’re dealing with a lot of injuries. They were a thin team for sure but credit to them. They were able to come in here, get a shutout and get three points.”
On if anything has changed…
“The hardest part is we played a poor game against New York [Red Bulls]. We all held up our hand and were accountable for that game. We responded well against Columbus [Crew SC] and we had some momentum coming into this game and unfortunately we weren’t able to capitalize on that. We played good soccer. We pressed the issue and we wanted to win but it just didn’t fall for us.”
Sporting Kansas City
Sporting Kanas City head coach Peter Vermes
On the team’s performance over the week...
“It’s been a good week, for sure. I think the biggest positive about it is that the manipulation of the roster, Sunday, Wednesday and today, the contribution from all the different guys we had on the field was fantastic. I think to me that’s probably the biggest positive thing going into the end of the season. We’ve given a lot of opportunities to a lot of guys throughout the course of this season due to the number of injuries we’ve had and it’s paying off like we were hoping it would. The experience and guys being able to come in and contribute positively at this time of the year is really important.”
On if this performance was more impressive than their last match in Portland considering the roster changes…
“I do. I think the other thing too is that we stuck really well to the game plan. We knew we were going to create something at some point, there was going to be an opportunity because we’ve been in this situation many times at our place. They actually took advantage of a couple years ago one time at our place where we were on in the game. We had the possession, we had a lot of the chances in and around the goals but they countered us a couple times and they had the goals. For us it was really about making sure we were going to be able to deal with the danger that they pose in regards to quite a few guys that they have that are weapons. I thought we kept our composure. I thought we had good concentration through the game and at the same time we knew there was going to be a point we were able to strike. I didn’t know it was going to be as good as Krisztian [Nemeth] did but that was a fantastic goal.”
On how the win affects the team’s confidence going forward…
“Confidence is one thing but what I really appreciate is that many people would have said it would have been very easy for us to have a letdown after Wednesday. Tonight’s performance shows a really strong mentality in the group and that’s probably the most important thing that I look at. When you get into this time of the season you want to make sure you have that going into what’s going to be the toughest time of the season. It’s good to see that our guys have it.”
Sporting Kansas City goalkeeper Tim Melia:
On if this performance was more impressive than their last match in Portland considering the roster changes…
“I thought we did such a good job tonight. To come off a midweek final that went into overtime in penalties is really an emotional roller-coaster. To be able to come into a place like [Providence Park], which is a really difficult place to play, to get a result in the fashion that we did and to be able to rest a few guys, it’s an incredible feat for our club. I’m proud of all the guys tonight.”
On if the results from the week is how he dreamed this week would turn out…
“The [U.S.] Open Cup was huge for us. That was a really important hurdle we had to cross. It was a difficult turnaround to it being a couple days later [and] having to grind out results. We’re a little higher now but the [Western Conference] playoffs are so difficult and everyone is jockeying for positions just to get into the playoffs so this was huge."
On if he was concerned there would be a drop-off in energy following the Open Cup championship win on Wednesday…
“No I think that [head coach] Peter [Vermes] did a good job inserting guys who were maybe were a little more fresh and could come in and give us that energy we needed.”
Sporting Kansas City defender Matt Besler:
On playing the match on short rest…
“We don’t have much left in the tank but it was a heck of a week for us. We left everything we had out on the field in both games and that’s all you can ask from your teammates and of your team. I think this is a week we can be proud of.”
On if this performance was more impressive than their last match in Portland considering the roster changes…
“Anytime you can come in and get a point here in Portland, I think it’s a good result. Portland is a great team and [Providence Park] is such a hard place to play but the fact that we were able to get three points on three days’ rest having mixed up the lineups so much, yes, I do think it was a much better result than last time.”
On if coming to Portland seems less tough each time they get a good result…
“I think anytime you can win on the win you should gain confidence from that but at the same time the next time we come here we aren’t going to take anything for granted. We know it’s going to be tough and we know we’re going to have to work our tails off in order to give ourselves a chance. I just think right now we’re focused on ourselves and trying to get as many points as possible. I know the [Western Conference] is extremely tight and people are jockeying for position and there’s going to be a lot of action that goes on in the next two weeks but right now we’re worried about getting as many points as possible and trying to get the highest seed possible."
Referee Ismail Elfath
On why the Timbers were not awarded a penalty in the 66th minute when a Sporting KC defender collided with Melano in the box…
“From my position I saw no offense committed.”
On why only four minutes of second-half stoppage time was added despite five substitutions, two extended injury delays and multiple time-wasting warnings to Melia…
“Time allowance was given for the four subs during the 45 minutes (1 sub took place at halftime) and for the two injury stoppages.”
On why no time was added on account of the time wasting on the part of the goalkeeper…
“That was included the [sic] total time allowance added.”
Notes:
- Sunday’s crowd of 21,144 was the team’s 84th consecutive home sellout at Providence Park since 2011. Portland has sold out all of its regular-season home games since joining MLS.
- Midfielder Darlington Nagbe made his 157th career MLS appearance for the Timbers on Saturday, three games shy of tying Willie Anderson for most games played for the Timbers across all eras.
- Midfielder Rodney Wallace started his 125th career MLS match on Saturday.
- Portland attempted 433 passes in the match, which is the most by the club since July 11 against the Philadelphia Union.
- Nagbe successfully completed 42 of his 43 attempted passes in the match for a completion percentage of 97.67 percent, which is the highest percentage by Nagbe this season.
- Defender Jorge Villafaña, goalkeeper Adam Kwarasey and Nagbe each started for the 30th time this season in MLS matches.
- Saturday’s match marked the eighth meeting all-time meeting between Portland and Kansas City in the regular season since 2011. Five of the eight meetings have been decided by a single goal.
- The Timbers have lost just four home games (11-4-8) in their last 23 matches at Providence Park.
- Following a home loss since 2013, the Timbers are 4-0-2 in their next game, all on the road.
