Portland Timbers quotes
Portland Timbers head coach Caleb Porter
On tonight’s result...
“We’re all competitors. I never like losing ever. In saying that, we knew with the lineup we put out it was more about giving guys a run, giving them experience, seeing how guys do and putting them in a real game, a real first-team situation. A lot of these guys play in T2 games, and it’s great for them to learn what that next jump up in a first-team game is like. Seattle had a lot of S2 guys as well but it’s a higher lever and it requires a little bit more. I thought there were some really positive performances out of guys – I thought specifically out of the T2 guys. Harold Hanson is 17-years-old and he looked up for it. Augi [Augustine Williams] scored the goal and I thought he grew into the game and didn’t look overwhelmed. I thought Andre Lewis… I thought out of the first-team roster guys, Marco [Farfan] and a few others did well but there were several that I would have like to see a little bit more. These are guys that are at the backend of our roster or guys that don’t play always. When you put them in a game like this, you want to see a little bit more and I thought that’s great for them to see and feel and understand. It’s great for me also to be able to, at the end of the game, say in this type of game that we need a little bit more. I look at it nothing but a positive the experience of it. Obviously, any game we play as a club we’re always going to be disappointed when we don’t win though."
On coming out the game with no injuries…
“That was definitely what we were looking to do. We basically kept the starting 11 back because we have a tough window and we have injuries. We didn’t have the luxury of playing Darren Mattocks, who would have normally played in this game because he’s a second guy, or Chance Myers or Jack Barmby because these guys are injured. That means Amobi Okugo, Dairon Asprilla and Lawrence Olum are now in the starting lineup, and so it’s a domino effect. That’s why we played mostly the backend of our roster and T2 guys. When we made the decision to do that, it was a decision because we wanted to give guys some experience. We played eight guys that are 21 years old and younger in the game, and that’s great for people to see because everybody sees them with T2 and for some maybe limited minutes with first team but It’s great to see them at this level, it’s great for us to see them and it’s great for them to get that experience, and now we’re fresh going into Colorado. We have a full 11 that didn’t play in the match. We didn’t feel like we had the luxury of playing anybody in that 11 because if we get any thinner we’re going to have a hard time putting a lineup out in the next game."
On the expectations heading into Saturday’s match against Colorado…
“When the committee sent us here, our priorities changed. Unless you win all five games and win the cup, it doesn’t help you any to advance. And yet, you saw by my body language and my energy on the sideline and the guys’ energy at the end of the game that we still wanted to win the game, but we just chose to try to do it and get a result with some younger guys. Now, our focus completely moves into the league and it's unfortunate we're out of the competition but we don’t have to manage another round, or another coin flip or where we’re going to be and who we're going to play in the next round. With the guys that we have, honestly that’s probably a positive because we’re very thin right now. We don’t have a lot of depth and we have an extremely difficult window. We’re at Colorado. We’re at Minnesota. We’re back at home with Seattle, and then we’re at [Sporting KC]. So we can throw everything into the league now, and we don’t have to compartmentalize and try to manage this extra competition.”
Notes:
· Tuesday’s match was the 97th competitive match between Portland and Seattle since 1975.
· The Timbers have scored in each of their seven U.S. Open Cup matches against Seattle.
· The Timbers starting lineup featured eight players age 21 or younger and six players age 20 or younger.
· Forward Augustine Williams became the first player born in Sierra Leone to score for the Timbers in the 42-year history of the club.
· Williams is the 10th different Timbers player to score against Sounders FC in U.S. Open cup play in all eras of the club (since 1975). Williams became the 52nd Timbers player to score a goal against Sounders FC in a competitive match.
· Defender Rennico Clarke and midfielder Ben Zemanski each recorded their first assist in U.S. Open Cup play.
