Portland Timbers Quotes
Portland Timbers head coach Caleb Porter
Overall impressions of the game…
“I thought we were outstanding from start to finish. Again came out well. We knew exactly what the game was going to be like and it played out exactly like we thought. We knew it was going to come down to us trying to break them down. We knew they had a very good back four, extremely disciplined and organized, physical, strong, they showed that today. You have to credit them. I don’t necessarily like the way they played, but you have to credit their players in the back, and especially their goalkeeper. They were outstanding and they battled. That’s what they were looking for – one moment; one moment on a counter, one moment on a set piece. We knew they were going to play off second balls and I thought we managed it extremely well. They didn’t create hardly anything on the day over 90 minutes and it’s not an easy game for our back four to defend in. You see [Norberto] Paparatto and [Liam] Ridgewell both split open. They were just warriors and I thought they were up for it. They battled on every first and second ball, cut out crosses and managed set pieces. The entire back six held us in until we could find a goal. And I thought the attack, we were on the ball a majority of the game. We got in a lot good spots. I think there were times where we could have shown more quality in getting some more chances on frame. I think that was the one thing for me we could have done better, but you saw the team and belief we were going to win the game because obviously we kept pushing and I was really proud of the group. We’ve played a lot of games in real compact window and these guys have been digging deep and today was no different. It took a goal in stoppage time to win the game and it shows how bad these guys want to win. I’m real pleased with both sides of the ball and their performance today.”
On Jack Jewsbury’s stoppage time goal…
“You need that. Good teams have guys that step up at different times and you don’t know who it’s going to be. I told the guys after the game, ‘teams that find ways to win games those are the teams that end up doing special things.’ We’ve got that going right now and we were lacking that earlier in the year and at times last year. But with this team it’s great to see there is a lot of belief, a lot of confidence, a lot of hunger, for me there is somewhat of an aura building that we find ways to win games even when you don’t quite think it’s going to happen. Colorado, case in point. This game, case in point. We’ve left these games a little bit late, but we find a goal to win it. That’s huge for our confidence. As games go on and you get in tight games like we did today, we’ve won games like this. You see they continue to find goals like we did tonight to because of that spirit and that belief.”
On going from playing a team that pressed like Real Salt Lake to a team tonight that played deeper…
“When a team presses you have to be careful building out of the back. In some ways you can find more space in the layers and more space behind when that happens. Today they were very compact. They were happy to let us build and have the ball. There’s not much space behind to spring guys in. Pretty much in this type of game you are going to find a goal by creating width, getting service in, once you start to create width then now they get pulled apart and you can come through the middle, but it’s tight, it’s difficult. Our plan was to get outside backs forward and score off of good services, but also we felt we could get in between the layers in zone 14 with Darlington [Nagbe] and [Diego] Valeri getting balls off [Fanendo] Adi. I thought they did that a couple times and got a lot of shots. Like I said the quality on the shot at times needed to be better. I felt we could get a goal wide or off a combination play. I thought we created both ways, in all three channels right, left and through the middle. We did fine but maybe that final pass, finish, the run was missing. It’s not easy. This type of game you see this script all the time in every league in the world. A team sits, they make it tough and they kick you and they counter you and they look for set pieces and they slow the tempo down. They are playing for a draw and but also they’ll steal a goal maybe and you see it happen all the time. A lot times it ends in a draw. A lot of times it ends with a loss. I’ve seen this game time and time and time again. I’m glad we were able to find the goal and get the three points.”
On if this is one of the deepest team’s he has ever coached…
“Definitely. Three years into it we are building our roster. We had a deep team last year but I think we continue to pick up good pieces and over time that’s what we want. We want to be moving less pieces and adding in from the top and pushing guys down and few will drop off and again add in from the top. With drafts picks like a [Taylor] Peay and a [George] Fochive and a guy like Andy Thoma who hasn’t played this year, but who we feel really good about, those guys will eventually trickle up. You will forget about them, but we are developing them. We are training them, guiding them and eventually they will trickle in, but if you build your top really well it’s hard. It should be really difficult for young players to step in. But you’ve seen that with George this year, playing six or seven games. Taylor now he is getting a little bit of time. So those guys kind of made it up through and there will be guys who don’t, but slowly but surely we will build our squad more and more as time goes on.”
On Darlington Nagbe’s injury…
“He’s got a sprained shoulder. [Diego] Chara was out; we keep talking about the teams we play having guys out, but no one talks about us having Valeri out or Will Johnson out or Chara out. We’ve only played those guys together one game out of 19. So we have guys out too. Bottom line no one cares if you have guys out. You have to win, whether it’s international duty, whether it’s injuries. No one lets you off the hook by losing games when you have guys out. That’s why we don't talk about it but I’m proud we are winning games and I don’t care who is out on the teams we are playing.”
On having a full week off after an intense stretch of games…
“It’s big. We really haven’t had time to train. It’s been mostly recovery and we keep one group ticking over so they are ready for the next game. You saw tonight we rotated in six guys, so that helped in that last push we added some fresh legs. They did too. They had more fresh guys than us. Basically we have been in this cycle of playing and recovering. One session with six guys, piece in T2 guys, to make 10 for a training session because the other guys are recovering and picking lineups we laid out the six games and pretty much followed it to a T. We've got a lot of points in that window. Now we are in a one game a week cycle and we’ve got seven home games left, eight road games, 11 conference games and four non-conference, two long road trips: Philly and Columbus. This month of July is going to be crucial. We need to keep winning our home games. If we win our home games it takes the pressure off the road. Anything we get on the road is a bonus, if we keep winning our home games we are going to be in good shape no matter what happens.”
Timbers midfielder Jack Jewsbury
On the overall match…
“It’s good. It was a bit of a frustrating game because we’re on the front foot trying to push for the goal all game. We couldn’t get it and thought we had it maybe in Gastón’s [Fernández] goal, but I guess it was offside. Anyway, [we] kept pushing so it was nice to get the three points in another home game.”
On what it says about the team fighting to the end...
“It’s what this group has been about all year. It hasn’t come easy, especially early in the year for us. We had some games where we played well and didn’t get the result and we kept pushing ahead. Now we’re finally hitting our stride, five games in a row here at home, where we’ve gotten a win. That’s crucial. Something we’ve been talking about is making this place a fortress and it’s finally coming to fruition.”
On celebrating with his daughters
“It’s nice. Obviously to have the families here and after the game, when you get a good result, it’s great to have them around. Hopefully, [there are] more to come.”
On what he saw in the goal…
“Honestly, I don’t remember a lot before. I just remember going to the far post and I was just going to try to get something on it. You guys have probably seen it more than I have, but I just tried to get something on it and was fortunate enough that it found the back of the net.”
Timbers midfielder Will Johnson
On Jack Jewsbury’s goal…
“[It was] just a great goal. I mean you know what happens, the ball bounces around and all of a sudden it’s leaping into the corner and then you just see it goes in. Big relief I think for everybody. Just an exciting moment for Jack and for our club and I think for the game in general. To see that end 0-0 wouldn’t have been right.”
On what it says about the team to score after Gastón Fernández’s goal was called back…
“I felt it gave us energy when Gastón scored. He got up for it. You kind of felt it was coming. You knew you were going to get another look at it so instead of taking it as such a negative, which it was, I think we turned it into a positive and used that energy to push and somehow Jack found the legs to find a massive, massive goal.”
On what the key to winning has been…
“When you get on a run and start to win two or three in a row you start to get more confidence naturally so that’s part of it. We’re healthy, that’s part of it, and we’ve had quite a few of them at home. I think those are probably the three keys. Now we have to continue because we’re no longer a team that’s coming up. We’re a known quantity and people will be gunning for us. It’s just what comes with being near the top of the table versus the bottom.”
On getting through the grind of a busy schedule of late…
“It wasn’t much of grind for me. It was for my teammates. I just played on the weekends, but they did great. They got after it, they put their head downs, we didn’t get any days off. Flew to countless cities and put in the shift. We used everybody. We used depth. We used a bunch of different guys, a bunch of different positions and that’s the belief that we have in this locker room so I think that was the key to getting through that stretch. Winning your home games too, that really helps to put less pressure on the road. We’ll pick up some bonus points on the road, down the stretch, no doubt.”
San Jose Earthquakes Quotes
San Jose Earthquakes head coach Dominic Kinnear
On the overall match…
“Really disappointed. We defended pretty well tonight for long periods of time and I think the way the game was going it was either going to be a spectacular goal or a freaky one. It turned out to be a freaky one.”
On generating goals going forward…
“Possess the ball better. We had one cleared off the line, could have been a questionable penalty kick. We had a couple of good looks. Put ourselves in some pretty good positions, more in the first half than the second but you have to look at the other team and say, well they’re not going to let us score just because we’re on the field. You have to give the other team credit for defending well. It would have been nice to have a little more of the ball tonight that would have looked better for creating chances. They had the majority of the possession and that’s kind of how the game went.”
San Jose Earthquakes goalkeeper David Bingham
On the emotions of giving up a late goal…
“It’s rough. You never want to give up goals, especially in the last 5-10 minutes of the game. I think we’re disappointed with how we finished that play. We did the hard part. We kept them at bay for 85-plus minutes and maybe just one fluke of a play and that’s how it goes. That’s not good enough from us. We need to finish that game out and pick up points on the road.”
On trying to hold on for last 15-20 minutes when Timbers started pressing…
“[It takes] just commitment from everyone. It’s just keeping the right mentality that in this league it’s a long season and you have to pick up points on the road to be successful. We pride ourselves on our defending and if you look defensively I think we’re the best team in the league. We kept ourselves in the game and unfortunately we didn’t generate as many chances as we wanted but we fought the whole game and it’s a bit unfortunate to come away with zero.”
San Jose Earthquakes defender Clarence Goodson
On what happened on the goal and how to get past it…
“I know the ball was kind of bouncing around. We had a chance to clear it and we just weren’t able to do it. They took their chance and, a bit of a fluky goal, tight angle, but they took their chance. That’s the way it goes. I think we played well defensively. We made it difficult at times but all in all I don’t think we were quite good enough to get a win. Certainly to give up a goal in 90 minutes was harsh. I think we should have gotten a tie out of this but it wasn’t meant to be and we’ll get back to work. [There are] a lot of games in hand still and a lot of important games against conference opponents. If we can win some of those games in hand we will move up the table.”
Notes:
- Sunday’s crowd of 21,144 was the team’s 78th consecutive home sellout at Providence Park since 2011. Portland has sold out all of its regular-season home games since joining MLS.
- Sunday’s win marked Portland’s fifth straight home win at Providence Park, equaling the Timbers MLS-club record streak set during the first five home matches of the 2011 season.
- With the win, Portland is unbeaten in six consecutive regular-season home matches at Providence Park since May 2, including a stretch of five straight wins since May 27.
- The Timbers have won six of their last seven regular-season matches since May 27. The last time Portland won at least six of seven consecutive league matches was a seven-match win streak in 2007.
- Portland improved its record to 4-0-3 all-time at Providence Park against the San Jose Earthquakes in regular-season play during the MLS era since 2011. Portland improved its all-time record against San Jose to 5-1-6 in MLS play and 17-10-6 across all eras since 1975.
- Sunday’s match marked the 33rd meeting between the two sides in all competitions since their first match as NASL clubs in 1975.
- Portland’s 10 goals in the final 15 minutes of matches ranks first in MLS this season.
- Midfielder Jack Jewsbury’s game-winning goal marked his second game-winning goal in stoppage time for the Timbers this season as he also scored a stoppage-time winner on May 30 at Colorado – thus making him the first player ever to score multiple game-winning goals in stoppage time in the same season in Timbers MLS history.
- The Timbers have conceded just one goal in their last six home matches at Providence Park since May 2.
- Goalkeeper Adam Kwarasey made two saves, earning his eighth shutout of the season on Sunday. Kwarasey is tied for the league lead in shutouts with Seattle’s Stefan Frei (8).
- Portland is 9-0-1 when scoring the first goal during the 2015 season.
- The Timbers have 47 shot attempts over their last two matches, which is the most in the team's MLS era over the course of two games.
- Sunday’s match was Portland’s 155th MLS regular-season game since 2011.
- Forward Fanendo Adi made his 30th career MLS start for the Timbers on Sunday.
- With the victory on Sunday, Portland has won seven of its last 10 regular-season games.
