Portland Timbers quotes
Portland Timbers head coach Caleb Porter
General takeaways from the game…
“A poor first half. There’s no one that was watching the game, no one in that locker room, players, coaches, that will think differently. I thought a big reason was we gave up the early goal. Obviously, when you give up an early goal it sends a funk in the team. But, I was disappointed in our composure right after conceding. We’ve obviously scored first in a lot of games and in the games where we’ve conceded the first goal, we’ve shown good composure. I didn’t think we had that in the first half. They started opening up our lines too much. We weren’t compact. We were forcing things and it was a downward spiral and then we conceded the second goal. It was a bad half. I thought the second half was better. I thought we were unfortunate to give up the one goal we did. I thought our push was there. I thought our mentality was good. We didn’t quit. I thought the subs came in and they helped but it just wasn’t enough today.
On how much the team was missing Diego Valeri and Darlington Nagbe…
Obviously, we thought we’d play better but everybody knows that Valeri and Darlington are a real key to how we play. We knew we wouldn’t have as much creativity and possession and imagination without those two because they’re our primary playmakers. But we felt we’d execute better in creating chances than we did tonight. I don’t think we created enough on the flanks. We never really had much connection in our front four and I think that goes with having guys in and out. Past 3 games Adi’s out then Valeri’s out and then Valeri and Nagbe’s out so we haven’t been able to put together our front four and I thought we lacked cohesion and chemistry. You saw that in our chance creation.
On how much this game can be seen as a one off…
Good question. With 34 games some games whether you win, lose or you draw, you can take things away. With this game, I think what you can take away is that we played really bad in the first half and we need to learn from that and not let it happen again. I know that I’ll have the guys’ attention this week and I know they’ll give a better performance against Atlanta.
Portland Timbers defender Liam Ridgewell
On the team’s performance…
“I think the first goal in the first 10 minutes killed us off a little bit and stopped us in our tracks, but taking no credit away from them, they played very well in the first half. They stopped everything that we got going. The second half obviously was a positive for us coming out and fighting, but the third goal wasn’t good enough and not a good night for us.”
On this takeaways from the game…
Not to rush on the ball when we go 1-0 down. We tried to pressure again, and probably not to consolidate a little bit. It’s tough, it’s a tough night for everyone to take. We wanted to come here and win the game and get three points. We’ve got to work on the training field and we’ve got a big game next week against Atlanta.”
Portland Timbers goalkeeper Jeff Attinella
On the team’s performance…
“I think once they scored the early goal we were unfortunate not to respond in the way that we wanted to, but at the end of the day it’s one game and a really long season so we’ll bounce back and be ready for Sunday.”
On his takeaways from the game…
“I think we learn from it just knowing that this type of game can happen, but the best thing that we can do is just move on right away… ready for Sunday and a good week of training and just move on.”
Notes:
- The result marked just the third time the Timbers have lost in San Jose since joining MLS in 2011, snapping the Timbers three-game winning streak against the Earthquakes across all competitions.
- Despite the result, the Timbers are 7-3-7 against San Jose in regular-season action.
- Saturday’s game marked just the second time in 2017 that the Timbers were held scoreless. With 20 goals scored in 10 games, the Timbers lead MLS in goals scored, averaging two goals per game.
- Additionally, the match against San Jose marked just the third time in 10 games played that an opponent has managed to score first against the Timbers.
- Two Portland players made their MLS debuts in the match against San Jose, with forward Jeremy Ebobisse and midfielder Victor Arboleda both appearing in the second half of Saturday’s match.
- Portland won two more duels in Saturday’s match (52-50), while also winning the edge in tackles won (18-14).
