Portland Timbers head coach Caleb Porter
On the team’s performance tonight…
“I thought it was our best performance of the preseason, overall, in terms of balance on both sides of the ball. I thought we created more quality chances than we have in any of the other games. We should have had more than one goal if it wasn’t for their goalkeeper. Defensively, we were rock solid like we have been all preseason. Overall, I was very pleased. I think it gives us going into this season a feeling of a clean sheet, a feeling of scoring a goal and a feeling of a win. It obviously doesn’t count, we are still 0-0, and we have zero points, but it’s always good to get that positive feeling going in that last game going into the season.”
On the effectiveness of the changes in this match and how it impacts the lineup choices for the opener…
“We’ve got six games as a body of work in terms of evidence to go on. We will look at that and we will make decisions on our lineup based on the past, what we know, and based on the current form. I thought moving back to 4-3-3 and the lineup we played to start the game with more true wingers gave us a little bit more penetration. Those front four guys are dynamic. We went with a pace-power component and we were able to get some good width. The goal came through Jorge [Villafaña] on the flank. I thought we also created some stuff through [Dairon] Asprilla as well. Then you had [Fanendo] Adi and [Darlington] Nagbe, who were pretty good linking up. It’s one way to go. It’s certainly a good option. We’ve got other good options. I think that’s a positive because we are pretty flexible. We’ve got different personnel choices that we can make based on the game, and now we’re flexible a little bit more in terms of system. We can quickly shift now because we played a 4-4-2 a lot of the preseason. We can play that now if we want to, or we can go back 4-2-3-1 if we want to, or even play a 4-3-3 and we can pick and choose our wingers and that changes what we do. I think that makes us unpredictable. Salt Lake won’t know what we are going to do because we played a number of different lineups, which is good. There might be another wrinkle we throw on just like we did today.”
On the partnership of the center backs in the game…
“I think they were good in both games, awful good. They are focused. They are smart. They don’t take a play off. They are clean on the ball. I think you have to put Adam [Kwarasey] in the conversation as well. Those three guys are very experienced professionals and they are the backbone of our team. So that makes me feel good going into each game knowing that I’ve got three very experienced guys there, you throw Jack [Jewsbury] in there as well. You add up the number of games those guys have played as professional players. You know intelligence-wise, tactically, you know mentality-wise they are going to be 90 minutes dialed in, focused and smart. I think also when you reach kind of, I’m not going to say twilight, because it could be three, four, five years for any of those guys, obviously Adam’s a little bit younger, but I think you get more hungry to raise silverware and that is our goal – 2015 to be the first MLS Timbers team to do that.”
On Adam Kwarasey settling in so quickly and how his style effects how the backline plays…
“That’s what we liked about him. He’s very comfy. He’s not casual because there is a difference. He really looks like a guy who has played a lot of games. He’s in his prime right now. He’s played at a high level in Norway, obviously, he’s played internationally as well, and I think you see that in his presence and his confidence. Again, based on what we’ve seen in the preseason, he looks very good.”
