Portland Timbers head coach Giovanni Savarese
Overall thoughts on the loss…
"It’s definitely an unfortunate result. I felt that we did some very good things in the first half. I think we were the better team in the first half, but unfortunately you’ve got to capitalize in the moments that you have. We didn’t. They did, and in the 45th minute they found a way to be able to get 2-1 and then unfortunately, in the second half they found two goals that killed our momentum. Especially when Chara came out, it became a very complicated game.”
On the parallel with the start of the 2018 season…
"We knew that it was going to be difficult. We changed some things and now we need to analyze what we need to do. It’s not a result that we feel happy with, even though we played some good soccer in the first half. That is not enough, at the end the result is the most important part in the game. We need to analyze these things and continue to work.”
On what he tells the players after a match like this…
"That the game is about details and you can be the better team on the field. But if you give away goals and you are not 100 percent always caring about every single detail, at the end you have to chase the game and chasing games is not a good thing for any team.”
Portland Timbers midfielder Sebastián Blanco
Overall thoughts on the loss…
"Our season will be long and complicated. That is no excuse for today’s match, by any means. I believe we played a good match until the score was 2-1, but then we lost focus and [LAFC] started to find space. Then we got a red card and that made everything more difficult.”
On the reason why the team was unable to come back...
"There is no excuse. We made some mistakes that cost us the game. However, there is a long season ahead of us. Sometimes it doesn’t matter how bad things start, but rather how you finish.”
Portland Timbers midfielder Diego Valeri
On looking toward the next game after a disappointing result...
"[The season] is just starting and it’s a long tournament, we know that. We have been through these moments in other seasons, but we have to scout the game and see in what aspects we can fix things and be better for next game.”
On conceding late in the first half after evening the game…
"The second goal was key for them to relax and wait for that third goal. We couldn’t score a goal at the start of the second half, which probably would’ve give us more momentum to the end of the game.”
Los Angeles FC head coach Bob Bradley
On keeping his players ready and focused…
“You try every day to create a football environment where they see the things that we’re doing well but they continue to understand how it gets better. I’ll find enough examples in this game of little things that still need to be better. We’ve tried from the beginning to challenge players to come in every day with an open mind to be challenged, to be pushed, to understand how they can become a better player, what kind of football we want to play, and how that needs to be worked on every day. The response has been great and in those ways, we just keep going. We also know that in a long season there’s no such thing as just a smooth ride. You get tested in different ways so if you immediately start thinking toward next week, playing in Yankee Stadium against NYCFC, that’s going to be a different kind of game a very hard game. We will look into things we think we did well, we’ll look at a few things we think need to get better, and we’ll keep working and training every day.”
On LAFC’s play from the midfield…
“I think our midfield played well and in order to say that against a good team like Portland, that means the guys that played in there did a good job. [Mark-Anthony Kaye] has a good feel for the game, he steps up, he reads situations, his way of receiving when people are around him and knowing where the next pass should go. Eduard [Atuesta] played really well, as I noted after the Sporting Kansas City game, and again I thought tonight, [he was] really good. He maybe doesn’t need to take that yellow, maybe he can just try to run and get across the guy that forces him to go sideways and not reach from behind and grab. I thought he did a good job afterwards of being smart while playing with a yellow, that’s important. And Lee [Nguyen] as the other guy in the midfield deserves a mention as well. I think the midfield play was good.”
Los Angeles FC midfielder Carlos Vela
On his overall thoughts on the match…
“I’m really happy. When someone starts off a season in this way, winning two games with two good rivals, it gives us a lot of confidence and raises our morale in believing that this is an important team in the league. We have to keep working.”
Notes:
- Jeremy Ebobisse scored his first goal of the 2019 regular season. Ebobisse has scored four goals in his MLS career.
- Sebastián Blanco finished the match with a team-high three chances created.
- Diego Valeri notched his second assist of the 2019 regular season. Dating back to Oct. 6, 2018, Valeri has registered an assist in four consecutive MLS regular-season matches.
- The assist, the 67th of Valeri’s MLS career, places him 20th all-time in MLS history for assists.
- Two of Portland’s five goals scored in 2019 have come from free kicks, the most in MLS this season.
