Quotes & Notes | Portland Timbers 3, San Jose Earthquakes 3 | Sept. 7, 2014

Portland Timbers Quotes

Portland Timbers head coach Caleb Porter
On the game and how it played out:
“It was another wild one. Certainly, we’re entertaining here. The fans get their money’s worth. Positive is we dominated the game. That’s clear. 32 shots to 12. To get 32 shots you have to be a damn good team to get 32 shots. I believe that’s a club record, I think it’s top five in league history. The positive is we came back from down two goals, came back from the death at 3-2. We are a mentally strong team to be able to do that. There are not many teams in the league that would be able to come back, to pull that out. Those are positives. We are still in the fifth spot, playoff position. Those things can’t get lost in the shuffle of the craziness of the way this game played out and ultimately the disappointment in the fact that we got a draw instead of a win. Those are positive things that we have to keep sight of. The negative is that in getting 32 shots we probably could have scored 10 goals, realistically. I’m not joking. We scored three goals and it’s kind of ironic that we’re saying we didn’t do well enough in the finishing.  For me the first 20 minutes we’ve got to find a goal. It was our best first 20 minutes of the year. Completely dominant, seven or eight clear chances. We were absolutely on top of them. We had complete grip on the game, and the first time they get a chance it’s a goal. Again a lot of positives, more than negatives, but we’ve got to do a bit better with our chances. Then we’re not in that situation to have to come from behind, to have to get a draw. I thought overall we defended okay, but with their 12 chances they scored three goals. We didn’t manage the situations on their goals well enough. This isn’t the stage of the season to talk about learning lessons and correcting. It’s about getting results and getting the job done. In the end we lost the opportunity to get three points, but like I said overall the way we played, the way we dominated, the fact we didn’t lose, the fact that we came from behind and the fact that we are still in playoff position is for me what we are going to dwell on and think about. We’ll get back to work next week. We’ll take the point and get back to work and get ready for Colorado. We have to continue to do it the hard way. It doesn’t matter how you do it. In a soccer game it doesn’t matter how you get a result either, whether it’s starting well and getting the first goal or coming from behind. We had to do it a bit of the hard way today in the second half in terms of pulling a point out. And now overall, we have to go on the road and do it the hard way by getting points that we dropped at home.”

On what the team needs to do to hold onto the playoff spot:
“In some ways it’s easier than ever to know what you need to do. We’ve been saying that in the last week or two. It’s a four-team race for that fifth spot. We can’t count on that top four to stumble, maybe they do. I want to continue to put pressure on those teams by getting points, but we need to put pressure on the teams below us. We got one point, but three points would have put a lot more pressure on the teams below us. But it’s going to come down to the next seven, eight, nine games for some teams. How many points ourselves, Vancouver, Colorado and San Jose get. Who knows maybe Chivas? They would have to go on a run. They’d have to win a lot of games on the spin to put themselves in position, but you never know. It’s pretty clear. We’ve got to fight for that fifth spot and right now we have it. But we need to put more pressure on the teams above us and below us by getting more than zero or one point. Today we got one point. So now we’ve got to go on the road and hopefully get three.”

On if San Jose scoring on one of their first chances takes the wind out of the team’s sails:
“I think it did, but that shouldn’t happen though. We are a more mature team than that.  I think with as well as we played we shouldn’t give up a goal against the run like that and let it rattle us.  The majority of the halftime talk was spent stressing that we defend well in the second half because I knew we would get goals. We always find goals. We found three, but gave up two. So it was disappointing to give up that goal early in the second half, because now instead of a one-goal margin, which for us is not any big deal. We’ve proven that, now it’s a two-goal margin. We’ve actually come from behind by two goals twice now. Dallas we were down 2-0 as well. I don’t think there are any teams in the league that have done that twice. That’s a huge positive that we have a team that’s capable of dominating enough to get 32 shots to 12 and to come from behind. That’s what we need to focus on. The mistakes we’ll look at, we’ll correct. For me again it comes down to moments and doing better in those situations.”

On what concerns him more: giving up goals or not scoring more:
“What concerns me the most is getting in the playoffs. This isn’t the stage of the season to nitpick all the little things that are right and wrong. We are what we are. It is what it is. It’s my job to watch the tape, through training, through messages I give the team, through video and scouting to dig into some of those themes and points of emphasis. If it’s an individual thing, it’s my job to make sure the guys do better. But at the end of day it comes down to getting points. It comes down to getting the job done.”

Portland Timbers defender Liam Ridgewell
On the Earthquakes goals:
“Obviously the three goals are disappointing. It’s something we’ve got to work on going forward. Just one of those days. I think we had so many chances. We’ve got to be a little bit livelier and a little bit sharper when they’re looking to score. Just got to work on it, like I said.”

On his goal:
“I was hoping Diego [Valeri] was going to whip it across the six-yard box and hoped it was going to fall to me. I’ve done it a couple times in my career and was just trying to get to that back post in front of the defender. Something their forwards did twice today. It was obviously a great one to get and good to contribute to the team coming back from 2-0 down.”

On whether Chris Wondolowski did anything unexpected today:
“We saw him all week and saw what he was doing. Just something we need to do a little bit better on and try to pick up their forwards. He’s a good player. He’s scored a lot of goals over the years.”

On the Earthquakes’ second goal:
“I can’t remember it completely. I think it ended up rebounding off [Pa Modou] Kah’s ankle. It’s just one of those things that it rebounds off him and it could have gone anywhere. Could have gone forward, could have gone to the other side, but it fell suddenly to the person running in behind. It’s a sloppy goal that’s been given away. We have to try and cut them out.”

On dealing with the goals that were conceded:
“All the goals we could have stopped. Three goals shouldn’t have happened. We’ve had two clean sheets, I think three clean sheets maybe since I’ve been here, so we’re working very hard to try and rectify it.”

Portland Timbers midfielder Diego Valeri
On his performance today:
“I’m feeling sad because I think we did well enough to win, but we missed a lot of chances. I’m sad because I think I have to score. We create a lot, but it’s just one point and that’s disappointing.”

On feeling a responsibility to carry the team offensively:
“Yes, of course. I’m that type of player, a creative player. I think today it was strange. We create and we shot 30 times. We will rest and we will watch the game again. We will work on it this week.”

On the frustration of having chances, but not scoring:
“It’s disappointing because we create. That’s hard. In professional soccer it’s hard to create chances. It’s maybe that hardest thing to do. So we could do that [today]. We missed a lot of chances, but we scored three goals. It’s a strange feeling. We can’t win at home and that’s disappointing to me.”

On taking positives away from the game:
“The positive thing is we have to play San Jose two more times. I think if we play the same way we will win. That’s soccer. It can happen. We have to correct that. I think if we play like a winning team like with Vancouver and with San Jose today.”

On the team’s defensive inconsistency:
“It’s hard to talk now. I have to watch the game again. I think they scored in important moments when we were playing well. They were lucky, too. The first goal for me it’s a foul. Then it hits the post. That’s soccer. We have to try to defend like a team. Try to attack like a team.”

On putting individual pressure on himself:
“Yes like any professional soccer player, but we know that everything we can do is just play and try to get to a high level every game. I think we did the job with Vancouver. I think today we played well. We missed a lot of chances, but everybody wants to score. That’s a little bit hard to correct, to fix. We have to play the same way and keep working.”

Portland Timbers midfielder Will Johnson
On the defensive mistakes being about 11 guys and not just four:
“Last week you saw the whole team defended really well. Getting through lines, stopping it at the first line. It’s never just one guy. It’s never just the back four.”

On whether he agrees with Caleb Porter that the team could have scored 10 goals on Sunday:
“Yeah. Finishing was poor, especially in the first half. Just got a lot of good chances. Second half, finishing was better and anytime you score three goals at home, you should win. It’s just the bottom line. Leaves you frustrated to only get a point.”

On the Timbers mental toughness and tenacity in battling back from deficits:
“We never have to question that. You guys never come in here at the end of the game and say ‘Wow. There was no effort today. What was up with that?’ Those aren’t the questions we get asked. That’s never been in question. The character of this group is top notch, which is why we keep fighting back when we keep letting ourselves down. Like I said, it’s other things we have to fix.”

On what was missing when the team was creating good opportunities:
“I don’t know. I don’t know if you can put a finger on it. A goalkeeper starts getting hot, starts getting confident. [Our confidence] starts getting rocked a little bit, guys start hitting [shots] safe, instead of burying them in the corners. It’s just a mental aspect of finishing. You have to be mentally strong when you get those opportunities.”

On whether the defense is still the main area needing improvement:
“We haven’t had problems scoring goals all year. It’s just that we sit here and feel that we’ve scored some good goals and gave up some bad ones.”

San Jose Earthquakes Quotes

San Jose Earthquakes head coach Mark Watson
On the pressure that Portland brought to get back into the match:
“They’re a good team. They had a bit of the ball and they had a bunch of chances through the course of 90 minutes. Especially the last goal, we go up 3-2 with maybe six minutes of time left. That really hurt. We talk about those first three-to-five minutes after you score being a really vulnerable time. We needed to be really disciplined and take the sting out of the game. I haven’t seen the goal yet, but it seemed pretty soft. It was disappointing to go up 3-2 with very little time on the clock and see it slip away. I know we’ve got a disappointed group of guys right now.”

On what he says to the team to keep motivation high after being winless in six matches:
"What I would tell them is we need to stay positive. We’re disappointed. We’ll look at the video and the things we need to improve upon. We’ll get rested up and go again Wednesday in Vancouver. We all know we need wins right now. Everyone is well aware of that. We go over the game. We try to learn from some of the mistakes we made and letting a team back into the game and we push forward."

On Chris Wondolowski’s performance:
“That’s Wondo. He’s got a great instinct for goal. You look at the first goal. We started the game under a lot of pressure and battled and dug deep. Really had to fight through that 20-minute spell with their pressure. In the end we came out unscathed and scored a great goal. It was a classic Wondo goal. He almost got the first ball and then just stayed with it and was in the right spot for the one that came off the post. His second goal was just good movement. He’s between the two center backs. He wants that indecision between them and it was a great ball. He got between them and the finish was perfect. That’s just Wondo. He can be quiet for large parts of the game, but he can strike at any time. It’s disappointing that we did score three goals and weren’t able to get the result.”

On whether the goals scored today were defensive errors or good attacking play:
“I think if you look at any goal there are a couple little defensive mistakes, so I don’t think that’s unusual. We talk about moments in the game and we went up 3-2 with six minutes left and it’s just about seeing the game out. It’s unfortunate that we weren’t able to take that little sting out of the game because you score a goal away from home, you know that team is coming right back at you. It’s disappointing not to have done better. I don’t want to comment on the goal because we don’t have a very good vantage point, but we’ll see it on the video and we’ll take a good look at it.”

San Jose Earthquakes forward Chris Wondolowski
On whether he was confident that the Earthquakes were going to win:
“I always feel confident that we’re going to win, but that’s why it feels so gutting to come away with a tie. We need wins at this point. We need as many points as we can. We can’t keep settling for ties.”

On what he says to the team to keep their heads up:
“We’ll find that out. I don’t know what to say. I’m a bit speechless right now. Just again, to a man in the locker room, we know it’s not good enough right now. Hasn’t been good enough all season. We end up just shooting ourselves in the foot. It hurts.”

San Jose Earthquakes midfielder Shea Salinas
General thoughts on the match:
“It was a fun game to play in. It was exciting. We played super hard. Everyone that was on the field was working their butts off. The first 20 minutes were very difficult, but we didn’t concede, which was great. It was unfortunate to come away with a point, but at the same time, we can’t be too upset.”

On the Earthquakes defensive performance under a lot of Portland pressure:
“They’re a really good attacking team. They move a lot, which makes you work really hard defensively. It makes you think a lot defensively as well. So allowing three goals is never ideal, but scoring three is nice.”

Notes:

• Portland attempted the third-most shots in a single game in MLS history (32) on Sunday against San Jose.
  
• Along with setting an MLS-club record in shots (32), the Timbers also tallied MLS club-record marks in shots on goal (13) and corner kicks (16).
  
• Midfielder Diego Valeri set Timbers MLS single-game records in shots (9) and shots on goal (5), while also matching his own MLS single-game record in assists (3). The multi-assist performances was the seventh of Valeri’s MLS career and moved the midfielder into a tie for second place overall among MLS league leaders with 12 assists in 2014.
  
• Valeri has tallied at least one point in seven of the last 10 regular-season games for the Timbers, including five goals and four assists.
  
• With three assists on Sunday, Valeri has registered 10 or more assists in consecutive seasons.
  
• Valeri becomes just the second Timbers player all-time (all eras) to register 12 or more assists in consecutive seasons, joining NASL Timbers midfielder John Bain (1980, 1981).
  
• According to Opta, Valeri leads the league in chances created (83) in 2014. His 12 chances created on Sunday is the most in a single match in MLS this season.
  
• Valeri attempted a Timbers MLS single-game record 14 corner kicks on Sunday against San Jose.
  
• Portland tied a Timbers MLS-club record with 19 shots in the first half, matching the mark set in the second half on June 11 in a 2-2 draw against FC Dallas at Providence Park.
  
• The Timbers have tallied 15 goals in the final 15 minutes of matches this season, which ranks first in MLS. Portland has also netted a league-best 27 goals in the final 30 minutes of matches in 2014.
  
• Portland ranks first overall in MLS with 31 second-half goals this season.
  
• With the draw, the Timbers remained unbeaten at home against San Jose in MLS regular-season play since 2011 (2-0-3). Portland improved its all-time MLS regular-season record against the Earthquakes to 2-1-6 overall.
  
• With the draw, Portland takes over sole possession of fifth place in the Western Conference standings with 35 points through 27 regular-season matches.
  
• Sunday’s draw marked the second time the Timbers have battled back from a two-goal deficit to record a draw. Portland also overcame a two-goal deficit on June 11 in a 2-2 draw against FC Dallas at Providence Park.
  
• Defender Alvas Powell has scored a goal in consecutive matches.
  
• Midfielder Kalif Alhassan netted his first goal of the season on Sunday. The goal was Alhassan’s fifth-career MLS goal for Portland.
  
• The Timbers have earned at least one point in six of their last eight matches (4-2-2).
  
• Midfielder/forward Darlington Nagbe made his 120th career MLS appearance on Sunday.
  
• Midfielder Will Johnson made his 175th career MLS appearance on Sunday and the 55th of his Timbers MLS career. Johnson also made his 35th consecutive regular-season start for Portland on Sunday.
  
• The Timbers tallied three goals in a half for the fifth time as an MLS club on Sunday. It was the first time Portland netted three goals in a single half since Oct. 26, 2013, in a 5-0 win over Chivas USA.
  
• Sunday’s crowd of 20,814 marked the 65th consecutive sellout at Providence Park. The Timbers have sold out every regular-season match at Providence Park since their inaugural MLS season in 2011.
  
• The Timbers have battled back to earn at least one point in 13 of 19 matches when conceding the first goal this season.