Quotes: Portland Timbers vs. Chivas USA
Portland Timbers Quotes
Timbers head coach Caleb Porter
Overall thoughts on the draw:
“We want to win. We are used to winning. So I think anything that is not a win, especially at home, is going to feel like a loss. When you’re on the road, you’ll swallow a draw. You’re not playing for a draw, but if you get one, it’s not a bad result at all, but at home it’s important to get three points as much as possible. We’re behind the eight ball, obviously. There are plenty of examples of teams that started slow that have won it all. I believe Houston started eight games without a win and ended up winning MLS Cup, and the LA Galaxy started slow when they won it one year as well. But, in the end we’re not where we wanted to be at this point, and we have to step it up. There is nothing we can do other than get back to work and keep fighting and keep pushing and improve in the areas we need to. We have 28 games left, so there are plenty of points, but it is a shame to give away a 1-0 lead tonight. One of two things has to happen – we need to get the second goal or manage the game and win 1-0. We were able to, last year, win a lot of games 1-0. We won a few games where it was more than that, but the majority of games in this sport are 1-0 – one way or the other. Sometimes you don’t find the second goal; and we didn’t, but we still need to win that game 1-0 if we don’t find another goal.”
On the team’s recent possession against opponents:
“It’s a big part of our philosophy, to control as much of the game as possible, dictate the flow with possession of the ball. I’m not sure why we gave the ball away so much tonight. That was one of my main points I made at halftime is that we have to do better with the ball. Maybe it’s because we are trying to score, forcing things a bit. We train every day to keep the ball, it’s a big part of our philosophy that we have. After we got the goal, I thought we made it far more difficult on ourselves than it needed to be. We defended more than we needed to because we kept giving the ball away.”
On defending Chivas USA’s set pieces, crosses:
“I know my team, I know what’s right, what’s wrong way more than I allude to in the press. [The players] know it and we talk about it. Set-piece defending has been something that we’ve wanted to address so we made some tweaks this week. I thought it was much better. I thought the back four was also much better, much tighter. I thought they did a great job, actually, over the course of the game with their box defending; they cut out a lot of crosses. It’s just unfortunate that [Erick Torres] got loose for the one, because we got punished. I thought overall the defending was much better, the box defending, on set pieces and on crosses was much better. But we still have to, like I said at 1-0, keep a clean sheet so we win that game.”
On changes to the backline against Chivas USA:
“I thought we needed a move, to get the chemistry sorted, get that tightened up, and I thought it was better. Overall, I thought Futty Danso had a good game. I thought Mikey [Harrington] and [Pa Modou] Kah had a good game. It’s just, like I said, a shame, because we gave up the one goal and that’s their job, to stop those plays. But I thought overall that those four guys had a very good game.”
Timbers goalkeeper Donovan Ricketts
On the result:
“It’s disappointing, but you don’t stay there for too long. We have an away game next week against Salt Lake. We can’t dwell. If we had won, we would have to move on and face Salt Lake either way.”
On the team’s recent performances:
“We’re going to get a win. We’re going to get a lot of wins. But right now, things aren’t going our way, but we don’t dwell on that, we keep on playing because we’re not playing badly. The break is going to come and we are going to start winning.”
On being back in goal after missing the last two games:
“I’m always with the team, emotionally. Physically, I was there tonight, so I didn’t feel like I skipped a beat.”
On keeping an even keel early in the season:
“There’s nothing to panic about, it’s a long season. Some people start good early and some people pick up late. Looks like we are the latter, we are going to pick up late, but we are going to do well. We are going to be there in the end.”
Timbers defender Michael Harrington
On taking positives from the draw:
“We came up a little short again, but we feel like we know the difference between winning, losing or tying is very small. It’s little plays here, little plays there. It’s coming out with a little more consistency in these games, and there’s a lot of soccer left. We know we have a team that’s capable of winning any game.”
On the defensive chemistry:
“I thought it was good. I thought the chemistry was good and we really didn’t get broken down too much and unfortunate to give up that goal in the end. If we don’t give up that goal, it’s a clean sheet and it’s a job well done for the back four, but it didn’t happen.”
Chivas USA Quotes
Chivas USA head coach Wilmer Cabrera
Overall reaction to the result:
“More than the result is the performance from the team. They are believing in what we’ve been working on. Today we have rebounded from a performance that didn’t belong to us last weekend. So that is very positive, especially here, away, against a very good team, a very talented team. We outplayed them. We showed personality. We came from the back, losing and we showed character, possession and that’s important for what is coming for us.”
On allowing Portland’s goal:
“We didn’t pick the right shoes. Sadly, Carlos [Bocanegra] slipped and he realized he needed to change his cleats and then he was on the sideline in the moment we conceded that goal. They were playing with 11, we were playing with 10. In that moment they took advantage and they scored the goal. But after that, we started to play. We started to move the ball, we started to administrate the ball better, create options moving forward – moving on the left, moving on the right. The whole team had a great approach to the game with a good mentality and in the second half we had the chance to create options and score the equalizer, which was a good reward for them.”
On improvements in the second half:
“The same mentality. Just keep possession, move the ball and let’s attack. Let’s continue being organized, but also, when we have the ball, attack and let’s try to find their goal. That’s a good mentality. Even though everyone is thinking, maybe, Chivas is always going to defend and defend. No. Today we showed good personality, good discipline and good administration of the ball, which is important to continue believing in what we do.”
On Chivas USA’s defensive organization:
“To be honest with you, that’s how we’ve been working throughout the year. As I’ve said, we didn’t have this performance only once and that was eight days ago against LA Galaxy. Today, we rebounded and we came back from what we were doing [against the Galaxy] and from what we would like to do. It’s being like that. Disciplined, intense and when we have the ball, try to play and try to play against anyone else in front of us.”
Chivas USA goalkeeper Dan Kennedy
General feelings about the game:
“I thought we took a really good step forward. Last week was a tough weekend for us, a tough game. So for us to bounce back like that shows that we have some character on this team and it’s going to be important for us throughout the year. I would say the most important thing for us tonight was not to give up an early goal and we [allowed one]. But it was how we responded. We didn’t let it get to us. I felt like this was, in terms of our soccer, our possession on the ball, definitely our best game. I think we had more shots, more corner kicks than Portland. So to come to this environment, a fantastic place to play, and put that performance together, the guys deserve some credit. I think it was a good result.”
On the changes in the second half:
“Playing the lineup we played with [Torres] as our point forward, it’s important we get him service. Leandro [Barrera] and Mauro [Rosales] were just doing what they do, getting up the field and finding ways to get balls in the box. Something’s going to give. You get enough balls across the box and something’s going to give. We found that goal.”
On the Chivas’ defense:
“A team like Portland has a lot of weapons. [Avila] did a great job with Darlington [Nagbe] tonight. I don’t think [Avila] gave [Nagbe] an inch. Just to make sure there’s cover and support is what this game is all about. Again for me, looking back at how things went last week, to completely turn around, put that behind us and put out this performance, that’s really what’s important.”
Chivas USA forward Erick Torres (through a translator)
On his mentality after Portland scored the opening goal:
“We just wanted to get back. It was a very early goal so we needed to stay positive and remain positive to be able to continue to do the right thing.”
On his game-tying goal:
“When I saw that Leandro [Barrera] had the ball on the flank, we had a good position between the defenders and the goalkeeper. When I saw the ball coming, the only thought I had was to shoot it as hard as I could to be able to get the goal.”
Notes:.
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Saturday’s crowd of 20,814 fans marked the 55th consecutive sellout at Providence Park since 2011.
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Timbers midfielder/forward Darlington Nagbe started his 54th straight league match for the club dating back to the 2012 campaign. He has appeared in 73 of Portland's 74 regular-season matches since the start of the 2012 MLS season.
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Midfielder Will Johnson’s goal against Chivas USA on Saturday marked his 20th career MLS goal and his 10th as a member of the Timbers, making him the fifth Timbers MLS player to reach 10 or more career goals with the club.
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With the draw, the Timbers are unbeaten in their last 19 regular-season home games (11-0-8) dating back to April 6, 2013. At 19 games, Portland's regular-season, home unbeaten streak is fourth-longest in MLS history.
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The Timbers are unbeaten in their last 19 regular-season home games against Western Conference opponents (11-0-8) dating back to July 28, 2012.
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In the 17th minute against Chivas USA, defender Michael Harrington reached the 15,000 minutes played mark in his MLS career.
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With Will Johnson's goal on Saturday, the Timbers have scored 12 goals in the all-time MLS series against Chivas USA, which is tied (with Seattle and Vancouver) for the most goals the Timbers have scored in an all-time series against an MLS opponent.
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Defender Futty Danso made his 50th MLS career start for the Timbers on Saturday against Chivas USA.
- Portland extended its current unbeaten streak against Chivas USA to four games. The Timbers are 2-0-2 against Chivas USA since 2013.
