Portland Timbers Quotes
Portland Timbers head coach Caleb Porter
On today’s result:
“It’s a disappointing result. We felt this was a game that we could get three points in. No disrespect to D.C., but if we could play the way we game planned for, this was a winnable game. Obviously, we knew the conditions would be difficult, but I thought we compounded conditions by giving up a goal seven minutes in. The first chance they get from a set piece obviously a mistake. I thought we should have leveled it 1-1. We hit the crossbar with Jack Mac [McInerney]. If we score that the momentum definitely swings, but we didn’t and then we give up another goal, which I thought was on another mistake. I thought the second half was much better. We made tactical tweaks, which I felt helped and I thought just the overall push was better. I thought we should have gotten the goal to make it interesting, but could have, should have, would have. We fell short today. It’s not anyone's fault , it’s the team. We didn’t score. It wasn’t good enough in the attack. We had chances and we made some mistakes defensively, which ended with us giving up two goals. On that side of things, it wasn’t enough. I’m going to reflect as well on myself because I might have gotten it wrong tactically to start the game. There were reasons for playing 4-4-2. We played that the last two games prior to this. With [Diego] Chara and Ben Zemanski out in the center of the part, I felt it was best to go with Jack Mac in the game and that meant 4-4-2, but I thought we were much better with the 4-3-3 in the second half. For sure I will be reflecting and looking at that. We all play a part; the staff, myself and the players in a result. The key is we need to correct it and we need to move on from it and get ready for Seattle. This is one game. Obviously it’s disappointing, especially when points are at a premium right now, but this is one where you’ve got to have a short memory. You can’t dwell on it and let it hang over into the next game.”
On whether or not the hot conditions affected his team:
“I hate to make excuses. It is what it is. You’ve got to manage it. Obviously, we don’t play in this humidity ever. It’s not ideal, but, for me, if we don’t give up the early goal I think it’s a different game. You give up a goal and then another goal and now in the second half you saw the effort was there. The guys never quit. I was pleased with that. I thought we would get a goal to make it 2-1 and make it interesting, but in the end I’m not going to make an excuse with the heat today.”
On the team’s mindset going into Sunday’s match against Seattle:
“We’ll be fine. This is a resilient team. We have a good culture, a good locker room. We’re not going to play the blame game. There’s a lot of blame to go around, myself included. We’ll take responsibility, we’ll correct it and we’ll move on from it. We’ll keep our low high. If we do that, we usually rebound and respond because we could watch this game 10 times and could find all of the mistakes. We can point fingers at everybody and that does no good. At this stage, we’ll reflect on things that need to be better and then improve on those things in the week and then we’ll be ready to go against Seattle.”
On Jake Gleeson’s transition into the starting goalkeeper position:
“Yeah. He’s been outstanding. When you look at the second half, everybody was pretty good. We looked more like the team that we’ve been recently. I’ve got to look at that first half and I’ve got to figure out why it went the way it went, but the first thing I’m looking at is myself.”
Portland Timbers midfielder Diego Valeri
On his overall thoughts on the match:
“I think after the first goal, it was a very different game. After the second goal, we tried to push, but we left spaces. We couldn’t score in the second half with a goal that would have put us in a position to make the game a little bit more interesting. It’s frustrating, but we have to move on. We have two games coming up against Seattle that are very important.”
On the team’s mindset going into Sunday’s match against Seattle:
“I think we are ready. These kinds of games are always special. Now we have a flight back to Portland. We need to rest well, think [positive] and train well during the week.”
Portland Timbers forward Jack McInerney
On the team’s response after going 2-0 down:
“After we gave up the first goal, we still didn’t generate much. Giving up the second goal before halftime kind of killed us. We came out in the second half and played far better. We created chances, but we just couldn’t finish.”
On the pressure heading into the final stretch of the season:
“It’s definitively a little bit of pressure just because we’re right on the red line. A win can jump you a couple of spots and a loss could put you out of the playoff race. Coming off a loss this weekend, it just makes next weekend that much bigger.”
D.C. United Quotes
D.C. United assistant coach Chad Ashton
On the result…
“It was an all-around good effort. The guys put in a lot of mileage and a lot of work. Portland's attacking pieces on the other side are real, so to put up a shutout against them is a big statement. Just a credit to the entire team for putting in a pretty complete effort.”
On the importance of picking up three points…
“It was vital. I think we felt like overall we’ve let some points get away a little bit, so to put up the full three is a big deal. But for our mindset, we need to basically start and finish off games. To know that we’re capable of doing that, and to do it against the reigning champs, it’s a big deal. I think we felt like we were moving forward, and this feels like another step forward, and hopefully we can build on that.”
On Steve Birnbaum’s performance…
“Excellent. [Fanendo] Adi’s a monster up there, so to have to deal with them and then have to deal with guys running off of him is not easy, it’s not fun. But [Steve] gets a goal obviously, and overall I thought he had an excellent game. I think you can say that with everybody…defensively, it was just an excellent effort by everybody.”
D.C. United goalkeeper Bill Hamid
On what three points means going forward…
“It’s a big confidence booster to get three points, especially against the reigning champs. We’ve got to take it in stride and bask in it tonight, but once tomorrow morning hits we have to reach in and focus on the task ahead because New York (Red Bulls) is coming to town and they are not an easy team to take advantage of.”
On how he thinks the team did as a group…
“I think as a group they have done fantastic. Over the past three games, they’ve had very difficult forwards to deal with, Drogba and Sapong, and now Adi who is a big boy, and they’ve dealt with them fairly well. We put out a lot of fires and today we finished our chances, so we got three points.”
D.C. United defender Steve Birnbaum
On needing and getting three points…
“Yeah, we needed it. Hopefully, we can keep getting three points. We need to get above that red line, so we are pushing for the playoffs.”
On pushing forward…
“We had a lot of good service and have been working on some set plays and it worked out tonight. So hopefully we can keep getting on the end of those.”
Notes:
- Portland finished the match with 476 passes, which is the most by the Timbers in a road match this season.
- Saturday’s match marked the Timbers first loss at RFK Stadium, while also snapping the Timbers’ five-game unbeaten run against D.C. United.
- With the start, midfielder Jack Jewsbury recorded his 343rd regular-season appearance in MLS, tying Dwayne De Rosario for 10th-most games played by an MLS player.
- Goalkeeper Jake Gleeson made six saves in the match.
- Lucas Melano is the only Timbers player to appear in each of the club's 25 MLS matches this season.
