Quotes: Portland Timbers at New England Revolution
John Spencer, Timbers head coach
Overall on the game ...
“I don’t think there was much in the game to be honest with you. I thought maybe the first 10-15 minutes, they were playing that three in the middle with Shalrie Joseph floating off the front a little bit. I think that once we adapted to that system, we committed to the game. Obviously, we gave a goal away, which as disappointing as it is at halftime, I thought in the second half we were very unlucky not to have got a second. With Kalif’s (Alhassan) free kick off the post and Matt Reis drops one under the cross bar, I think with a little bit of Lady Luck there, we could’ve gone away with the three points.”
On his team’s resolve ...
“We could’ve just put our heads down, and died a little bit - third game in eight days. [We had] to dig in, come back and get something out of a good and very physical team. I watched them play against D.C. last week. They caused D.C. a lot of problems. [New England is] very powerful, very physical - a lot of pace in the flanks. I thought we matched them very well, to be honest with you.”
On the play of goalkeeper Jake Gleeson ...
“(Backup goalkeepers) are paid to perform well. We don’t pay guys to play poorly. I keep saying this. Jake Gleeson pulls off an unbelievable save. He’ll probably get save of the week again, for that one that skinned the top corner in the first half from (Sainey) Nyassi - a wonderful save. And James (Marcelin) comes in, makes his MLS debut, and Kalif (Alhassan) comes in a makes his MLS debut, as well, and he was unlucky not to score off a free kick.” Ed. Note: Alhassan made his MLS debut in the season opener at Colorado
Jake Gleeson, Timbers goalkeeper
On if there was any pressure to perform ...
“Coming in young, there’s probably a lot of pressure on me to perform as well as Adin (Brown) or Troy (Perkins), but I put a lot of pressure on myself. To come out and hold the goalkeeping standard up high and playing well, so I think most of the pressure actually comes from myself because I want to be as good as those guys at the moment, which is tough.”
On making his first MLS start on the road ...
“It’s hard if the crowd’s yelling, I’m not used to the noise level, but I’m getting better. Each game I go out and play, I’m learning more and more so. [Confidence is] something you definitely get with experience, with age and more playing time. Hopefully, I can just keep getting better week in and week out.”
Jack Jewsbury, Timbers midfielder
On his goal ...
“Kenny (Cooper) did a great job the whole game holding it up. The ball came into him, he tried to play Jeremy (Hall) in, Jeremy got a touch. It kind of bounced off the defender. Jeremy laid a great ball back to me, and I just struck it left footed and found the corner of the net.”
On building confidence in the team ...
“I think Tuesday was a good win for us, we got some confidence. We don’t really put too much into what other team’s think of us. We try to focus on ourselves and what we can do to make ourselves better. I think this week we progressed a lot, and it gives the guys a good feeling with the two week break before we have our home opener.”
On the team beginning to jell more ...
“I feel very comfortable with the group of guys. As the captain, in the leadership role, my experience comes into play. [I want to] continue building this team. We’ve just got to continue to fight for one another, and improve upon the things that we haven’t done so well and continue to build the things that we have.”
Steve Nicol, Revolution head coach
Overall on the game ...
“We’re just disappointed all around. There were very few things about tonight. I guess if you’re not on your game and you pick up points then you should be happy. But obviously we’re at home and we want three points. We don’t want one point. We had a couple of chances where we might have won the game, but in all honesty, we were disappointing tonight and we were pretty flat most of the time. We just never ever got rolling.”
On his team’s passing ...
“The bottom line is we didn’t pass the ball well so it wouldn’t have mattered who we played tonight. We didn’t pass the ball at all, all night, and when that happens, you’re going to struggle.”
“We just didn’t have any passing. Let’s be honest: very few times did we actually put three or four passes together and anytime we did, we actually nearly created things. But it was few and far between. Certainly wasn’t regular enough. We didn’t pass the ball well at all. And when you don’t, you’re going to struggle.”
Notes:
- Timbers head coach John Spencer used a different starting lineup after sending out the same starting group for the team’s first two regular-season games. Gleeson, David Horst, Alhassan and midfielder James Marcelin all made their first league starts of the season. Marcelin also made his MLS debut.
- The match was the first meeting as head coaches between Spencer and fellow Scotland native Steve Nicol of New England.
- The match was the Timbers’ first on artificial turf this season after playing their first two regular-season games on natural grass.
- Portland has yielded a goal in the first 25 minutes of each of their first three matches.
- Both of Jewsbury’s last two league goals have come against New England. He last scored for the Kansas City Wizards in a 4-1 home win against the Revolution on Aug. 21, 2010.
- Darlington Nagbe and forward Eddie Johnson both appeared on the 18-man matchday lineup for the first time this season.
- Cooper recorded his first MLS assist since June 24, 2009, when he assisted on FC Dallas teammate David Ferreira’s opening goal of a 1-1 draw at Colorado.
- Hall‘s last assist came on Sani Ibrahim's opening goal for the New York Red Bulls in a 2-1 home win over the Philadelphia Union.
- Entering the game, Revolution captain Shalrie Joseph had factored into all three of his team’s goals this season (2 goals, 1 assist).
- The Timbers wore white shorts with their green shirts for the first time this season.
