Portland Timbers head coach Giovanni Savarese
On featuring an strong lineup against Seattle…
"We want to compete. This is an important cup for us. We had the chance to be able to put a good lineup on the field and we had to do it. We never take any game lightly. We want to always compete and today we got a very important win because Seattle, even though it has some players missing, they still were a difficult team to play against and they created some chances, they were difficult. But I thought in the second half we played a much better game, and at the end of the day it was a very important result for us.”
On the significance of the Seattle-Portland rivalry…
"It’s always good for us to win in Seattle. It’s always a rivalry match, doesn’t matter if it’s U.S. Open Cup or if it’s a friendly match or if it is a league game. There’s big respect for them, for the coaching staff, for their group. We’re rivals, but when the game finishes we keep moving forward. So, right now we are very happy that we went through.”
On Seattle’s resilience…
"They are always difficult to play against. They are always tough because they never give up, they keep on playing, they keep on going. They had some good chances, they had a PK that went well for us. At the end of the day, we worked hard to be able to get a win.”
Portland Timbers midfielder Diego Chara
On his thoughts on the match…
"It was a difficult match. Seattle always has good players and tonight they featured very talented young players. I think we played the match we wanted to, achieved the result we wanted to, and we return home happy.”
On Portland’s ability to bounce back in league play…
“We have a good team. We are aware of the responsibility we have. Now we will play several games at home and we hope we can obtain positive results.”
On his desire to win a U.S. Open Cup with the Timbers…
"Of course. We want to win every single tournament we play. We hope we can make it to the final this year.”
Notes:
- Making his U.S. Open Cup debut, Brian Fernandez scored two goals. Fernandez now has six goals in his first four games as a member of the Timbers.
- Fernandez is the fifth Timbers player to record a multi-goal game in a U.S. Open Cup match.
- Fernandez is the first Timbers player in all eras of the club to score in each of his first four competitive matches with the team.
- Sebastián Blanco, Jeremy Ebobisse and Diego Valeri each registered the first U.S. Open Cup assists of their career.
- Jorge Moreira, Claude Dielna, Tomás Conechny and Fernandez made their U.S. Open Cup debuts in the match. Steve Clark made his Timbers debut in the competition.
- The match was the 31st U.S. Open Cup match in Timbers team history. The club’s all-time record in the competition is 17-13-1.
- Wednesday’s match marked the eighth time Portland and Seattle have faced off in U.S. Open Cup competition.
