Portland Timbers head coach Giovanni Savarese
On his thoughts on the match...
"We knew it was going to be a tough match. We played against a team that is difficult at home, but I thought our guys fought through the entire match. We had our moments. Maybe if we scored a second goal, 2-1, I think it could’ve been a little bit different ending. At least coming out of here with a point would’ve been great, but I have to be very proud of the guys. Everybody just was involved, they were disciplined, they tried. There were moments that still you can tell that we need to be a little bit better as a unit, but overall I thought the guys worked very well and they fought hard. Unfortunately we didn’t get a point, which is at least what we wanted, but we saw a lot of good things from the players that are emerging and most likely are going to give us a lot this season.”
On the tactical moves he made for the match…
"We are trying to adjust with some of the things that we saw, trying to make sure that we cover better the spaces, that we became a little bit more dangerous in some areas and are making a few switches in the first half. And then in the second half we just established ourselves and we felt pretty good. I thought that we started to create a little bit more, but unfortunately we leave without a point. ”
On lineup rotation and Sunday’s upcoming match against FC Dallas…
"We had to do this rotation. It was very important. We still believe that we could’ve gotten a little bit more from this game and now we have the guys there [Portland] ready to be able to battle this weekend. It was important. We couldn’t play four matches in two weeks, especially traveling to Montreal, so now ready to be able to play this coming weekend.”
Portland Timbers goalkeeper Jeff Attinella
On the team’s performance…
“We came in with a young group and I thought the guys fought really hard and actually played really well. I felt we were a little bit unlucky not to get a point out of this game. They had two goals and sometimes, what are you going to do when they have goals like that? I thought we played hard, played really well, proud of the way the guys fought. For us, especially this group that came on the trip, it’s a really good step in the right direction and I think we could all leave this game with our heads up. We fought hard. We were in a tough situation and I thought we made the most out of it and just came out a little bit unlucky.”
Portland Timbers midfielder Eryk Williamson
On what he thought of the game…
“Guys played hard. We had a young squad tonight. Lot of guys did really well. I think as a group we made a couple of mistakes that could have kept us in the game and could have won us either a point or won us three points. So I think it’s just a matter of getting that experience, getting those minutes and continuing to push harder.”
Portland Timbers defender Julio Cascante
Overall thoughts on the game…
“I think it was a good game. It was difficult for us and we knew that. We knew we were going to play against a good team, one of the top teams in the East Conference. We tried to play simple and to do the work. But I think we deserved more than zero points, but that’s football, it just happens.”
Montreal Impact head coach Rémi Garde
On the team’s performance tonight…
“We suffered a little due to the fact that we haven’t played in a game-type scenario in three weeks, which is a very long time. The field is a lot larger than in training. I knew a few of us would suffer. But you need to learn how to suffer on a football field, and today we wanted to suffer together, for one another, and we made it through.”
On the reaction after conceding…
“Our reaction was very good. We were able to really play deep in their own zone by using our offensive players well. We hurt them with those runs, Orji [Okwonkwo] and Saphir [Taider] in particular. It’s a part of our game that needed improvement, but it caused them problems today.”
Montreal Impact midfielder Ken Krolicki
On the team’s performance…
“We had a good game. We had a lot of the ball in the first half and we created a lot of chances. The reaction from the team after they scored was fantastic. All in all, it was a great game on our end.”
Notes:
- The average age of the Timbers starting lineup in the match was 24 years old. The starting XI for Portland featured five players age 22 or younger.
- Modou Jadama and Eryk Williamson earned their first career MLS starts in the match.
- Tomas Conechny scored his first career MLS goal in his second career start with the Timbers. With the goal, it marked the second straight week a Portland player scored their first career MLS goal after Marvin Loria netted his first goal in league play against Houston on June 22.
- Conechny is the 10th player to score a goal for Portland in MLS this season.
- Julio Cascante and Loria recorded their first assists of the MLS season. The assist was the first of Loria’s MLS career.
- With assists from Cascante and Loria, a total of 10 players have recorded at least one assist for Portland in MLS play in 2019.
- Marco Farfan made his first appearance in an MLS match in 2019, starting and playing 90 minutes.
- Foster Langsdorf made his second career MLS appearance in the match as a second-half substitute.
- With the season debuts of two players in Wednesday’s game, a total of 26 have featured for the Timbers in league play this season.
