Quotes & Notes | Portland Timbers 3, FC Dallas 1 | Apr. 4, 2015

Portland Timbers Quotes

Portland Timbers head coach Caleb Porter
On how it feels to get that first win…
“Feels good, feels really good. We are off and running now. I finally figured out why we don’t win in March it’s because we’re not on the training pitch until April. It’s funny because every time we get on the training pitch we start winning. This is the first of many. It feels good. Weights lifted, we will play even better now. We are looking forward to coming back at home because we have to do it again. We need to now accumulate points and accumulate wins.”

On what he likes about the production he got out of the lineup…
“It’s about putting out a team that can be effective. We have [Diego] Valeri out, who is one of the best players in the league and he’s certainly one of our best players. Right now, I felt that to be effective it made sense to go 4-4-2 and put two guys up top who can create problems and press and be a handful. I know both of them [Maxi Urruti and Fanendo Adi] are capable of scoring goals. I didn’t think we played great football tonight. Part of it was them. The way Dallas plays, it’s a very direct game. They are effective with it. We knew it was going to be that type of game. We need to be able to win these types of games. In MLS you have to be able to adapt to play against a team like Dallas, who plays for set pieces, who plays off second balls. I thought we adapted well in the second half. First half I didn’t think we played all that well, but we dug deep in the second half and I thought we scored two great goals in the second half. Obviously three total. I thought it was a good win.”

On how he feels about managing the things Dallas does well tonight…
“We obviously gave up the one set piece, so we didn’t manage that moment well. That’s disappointing. But also Dallas has scored a lot of goals off set pieces so they are tough. In the end, we got the result. We will continue to work on set pieces every week like we do and hopefully we don’t give up anymore. I thought we managed them very well through the run of play. I thought we managed [Fabian] Castillo very well. He didn’t get loose much at all. They moved him over against Jorge [Villafaña]. I thought Jorge did a really good job against him all game long. We knew this game was going to be about them going direct, going off second balls, them looking off the counter attack to Castillo and set pieces. I thought we managed the counter, we managed Castillo and we managed the crosses in the box to [Blas] Pérez and [David] Texeira. We managed the other set pieces well. We didn’t manage the one well.”

On being able to see goal-scoring production from multiple areas…
“Again, we scored three goals in three different ways. This was a tight game. Like I said it was ugly. It was a ping pong match. It’s not the game we wanted to play, it’s the game we knew we had to deal with and I thought we dealt with it well. In the end, we scored a goal on a set piece ourselves, we scored a goal on a great counter attack and we scored a goal where Darlington [Nagbe] went on a run and played [Dairon] Asprilla in and Maxi kind of poached a goal. So three different goals in three different ways from three different guys it’s great to see. With Valeri out we are going to need that. We are going to need to do that by committee. But I also think Adi and Maxi are capable of scoring goals and we will continue to look at them playing together. Obviously Asprilla came into the game off the bench and really made an impact as well. Let’s not forget that because we scored the second goal a minute after he went into the game. So I thought he did really well coming in off the bench just like he did against Vancouver.”

On the progression of Adi and Urruti from the last game to this one…
“I think it’s still a work in progress. They haven’t played together a lot. I’ve seen them play together at times in training. I know that at times they like to do similar things, which is why it’s probably not the ideal pairing in terms of one guy who is a second forward and one guy who leads the line. They are both guys who like to lead the line. But right now with the situation we are in it’s probably our best way to go in terms of being an effective team that can get points, score goals and get results and put pressure on teams. I thought it was a bit better than the first game and it will continue to get better because we will continue to work on it.”

On whether there is a psychological benefit to getting that first win…
“Yeah, no doubt, it relaxes you, but you can’t relax too much that’s the key. We need to get right back to work. I think what’s interesting for me was that even though we hadn’t won after four games I could never sense that tension in the group, which was a positive thing for me because sometimes you get very tense if you don’t win and you start pressing. I thought we showed a little bit of that after we gave up the goal. That was one of the things I said at halftime we almost looked like we were down a goal, when we were just 1-1. So we had to kind of settle down a little bit and I thought we did that in the second half, but that’s the psychology when you haven’t won sometimes you start pressing and you get a little nervy and wobbly and I thought there was a little bit of that at the end of the first half. But now I don’t think that will be in our team at all and I think you will see better football out of our team. I think our confidence will be better and will play a little bit less tense in the game.”

On the performance of Ridgewell and the defense as a whole…
“I thought Ridgy, Nat [Borchers], Adam [Kwarasey], those three guys at the end of the game were huge. They made a lot of little plays that no one will remember. I will watch the tape tonight and count 10-15 little moments that they did to help us get the result. I thought those guys were exceptional all night. And it’s a tough game for them because they have to deal with a lot of balls dumped in on them and it’s a lot of little plays where you have to be brave and go up for headers. Adam made the one play where he put his face on the line. I thought those three guys were really important for us tonight getting a result.”

Portland Timbers defender Nat Borchers
On how it felt to score his first goal with the Timbers…
“It felt good. We’ve been working on set pieces a lot in training. We got scored on a couple of set pieces this year. So to score one on a set piece I thought was good. A great feeling to get the first goal and open things up.”

On whether he expected the ball to come all the way through to him…
“It was strange. I wanted to make that back post run. I kind of took a couple steps to the front post then faded to the back post and just lost my guy and somehow the ball just came to me and I was unmarked. I was just hoping to get good contact on it and not miss the goal.”

On how it feels to get the win…
“That’s the most important thing. I think this group has done everything to get wins these last five games and the four games previously we just haven’t been able to do it. We’ve played better games and gotten fewer points so I think that tonight was tremendous for the group and for the feeling. I thought we were very deserving of it.”

Portland Timbers forward Maximiliano Urruti (through an interpreter)
On what happen on his goal…
“It was a quick ball and Dairon [Asprilla] played a ball to the first post and I was able to anticipate and finish.”

On how it feels to get the win tonight…
“The whole team had a great effort tonight and whoever has the opportunity to play, they have to make the most of it and luckily today we were able to get the three points.”

On how he felt about scoring…
“Happy, lots of joy. As a forward you are always looking for the goal. The important thing is the three points and the victory and we are all happy today.”

On having three different players score goals against FC Dallas…
“Very important. Each of us has to be able to finish the goals and today the goal opened up. I’m incredibly happy and it’s incredibly important to have diverse attacks.”

On getting a win against an FC Dallas that came in unbeaten…
“We have to beat everybody. They are a good team that play well on the ball. Today things worked out for us and we are really happy with the three points.”

Portland Timbers defender Liam Ridgewell
On how it feels to get the win tonight…
“It feels fantastic. We deserved it for a few weeks now from the start of the season. It didn’t come the prettiest way, but we grinded it out and the boys played really well.”

On what it says about taking the pressure off the team’s shoulders…
“We wanted to get a win early, it would have been great to get it the first game of the season, but we kept going and kept believing we could. It’s a platform to build on now and we’ve got to make sure we can win next week as well.”

On how he felt after a physical game…
“I feel great. Sometimes you have to grind out results. It’s not always going to be pretty. I think tonight we showed a different type of Portland Timbers team that people didn’t believe we could be, so it’s good to get the result.”

FC Dallas Quotes

FC Dallas head coach Oscar Pareja:
On the overall match…
“I thought we played very well. Sometimes the best team is not the one that wins the points. That’s the game that we [were in tonight]. That’s what makes it very exciting.”

On looking ahead to next week’s match against Colorado…
“No. We don’t undervalue any team. It’s like when we came here to Portland. They haven’t won games and they have a bad situation but we respect them anyway. We prepare our games with the same professionalism. Losing and tying is just part of the game. I’m very proud of the players today. We really put a great exhibition on for the fans that came. The fans got to see a team that is attacking minding all the time. We came in here and tried to play our game away from home. It was great but as I said the best team isn’t the one that wins the points sometimes. We have to accept it.”

FC Dallas midfielder Ryan Hollingshead
On the overall match…
“I mean anytime you lose a game it’s not good. We came in, we thought we were prepared, we knew what we needed to do to execute and to win. I don’t know what happened out there. I know we’re disappointed. We feel like every time we step on the field we’re able to win and we should win and we have the confidence that we can beat any team in this league, so it doesn’t feel good walking out with a loss.”

On if they learned anything from the match…
“There are always things to learn, things to figure out why we were weak in the defense, things to see that we had multiple chances that we didn’t score. I had one myself. I just took a huge touch and that’s not OK. Those are things we need to work on… We know this is a long season. It is 34 games. We’re only five games into it so there’s a lot of room to grow… There is a lot to learn from here on out but we have had too much [success] on the season to get down. There is a long way to go.”

On if the international call-ups effect the game…
“No. I don’t think that’s an excuse for us. We have enough guys that can come in off the bench and enough depth that we don’t feel like we’re losing anything to substitute guys in or bring other guys off the bench. It’s not an excuse for us. We don’t think that’s the reason we lost. I think if we put that same lineup back on the field and play them again we beat them. I don’t think that’s an excuse and we’re not going to say these guys were in or these guys were out. We can all play and we all should be expecting a win when we play.”

FC Dallas midfielder Tesho Akindele
On the overall match…
”I thought it was a decent first half. Obviously they came out with a lot of energy. I think we matched it, even after we got scored on we bounced back well. Just the second half didn’t go our way so it was kind of disappointing.”

On second-half game plan…
“We felt like we were going to score another goal. We really believed in it and it was just one of those days it just wasn’t going for us. The last ball wasn’t there.”

Notes:

• Saturday’s crowd of 21,144 was the team’s 71st consecutive home sellout at Providence Park since 2011. Portland has sold out all of its regular-season home games since joining MLS.
  
• With his goal on Saturday, defender Nat Borchers has scored at least one goal in each of the last seven MLS seasons. The goal was the first of his Timbers MLS career.
  
• Midfielder Diego Chara registered the fifth regular-season goal of his Timbers MLS career on Saturday, nearly a year to the day since scoring two goals against Seattle Sounders FC on his birthday (April 5, 2014).
  
• Forward Maximiliano Urruti’s goal was his first of the 2015 season and marked his 12th career goal for the Timbers.
  
• Midfielder Dairon Asprilla registered his first career assist for the Timbers on Saturday.
  
• Midfielder Darlington Nagbe’s assist on Saturday moves him into a tie for seventh place on the Timbers all-time career assist leaderboard with 17. Nagbe is tied with NASL Timbers players Willie Donachie and John Pratt.
  
• Nagbe also made the 132nd appearance of his Timbers MLS career on Saturday, drawing level with USL Timbers midfielder Hugo Alcaraz-Cuellar for fifth place on the Timbers all-time appearances list.
  
• Defender Alvas Powell marked the 25th appearance of his Timbers MLS career on Saturday and his 20th career start.
  
• Defender Liam Ridgewell also marked his 20th career start for the Timbers. Ridgewell has made 20 consecutive starts since joining Portland on June 25, 2014.
  
• Defender Jorge Villafaña made his 110th career MLS appearance on Saturday.
  
• Dating back to last season, the Timbers are unbeaten in seven consecutive home games (3-0-4).
  
• With the win, Portland remains unbeaten against FC Dallas at Providence Park (4-0-2) since 2011.
  
• Seven different players registered a goal or assist for Portland in Saturday’s match. It is just the third time in the team’s MLS era that the Timbers have seen seven different players record at least one point in a single match (May 17, 2014 vs. Columbus; Aug. 3, 2011 vs. LA Galaxy).
  
• Portland is now 7-0-3 overall in its last 10 home games played on the same day as a full moon.
  
• Since 2013, the Timbers have earned a record of 8-2-5 immediately following a loss, including a mark of 5-0-2 at home.