Portland Timbers Quotes
Timbers general manager/interim head coach Gavin Wilkinson
Thoughts on the match:
“I thought we deserved to win it. I said that in the last game against Chivas USA. I’ll give a lot of credit to the guys. We went down 1-0. It feels that every mistake that we make at the moment we get punished for, and I think that’s a valuable lesson for us. I hope we learned from it, I hope we continue to move forward, but I don’t think any of the guys hung their heads. I think they kept working hard, I’m very proud of them. And with everything that we’ve gone through at the moment, I think it’s a tremendous sign that when they didn’t give up, they knew what we expected, what they expected with themselves, and I take that as a big positive and a big plus for the players. They continued to try to find a way to win, and some of the football that we played I thought was very impressive, given that you would say the conditions today are probably more suited to Dallas, we continued to try throughout the whole game. We tried to put them under pressure, we tried to play our game at home, and create rhythm and tempo in the way that we played. I give a lot of credit to the guys.”
On if there was more urgency after the FC Dallas goal:
“Yeah, that’s always going to be the case, unless the team don’t respond as they should. I think their response was absolutely brilliant, absolutely brilliant. If you’re on a bit of a losing streak, and you’ve got young players and you question the mentality and the past, and you question the leadership; for that response, hopefully shows that some of the players are maturing, some of them are starting to give it a little bit more sacrifice, and I think that’s a positive. The urgency, I think we controlled the game prior to that, so we didn’t have to take the risks that possibly we took, and that we were creating chances. I think even if you look at the number of shots that we had had when they had a man sent off, it was still double what Dallas had. We were controlling the game, we were creating chances, and when you don’t put the chances away, being a defender and being in that position in the past, it’s hard not to be a little bit negative in that position and start to say, ‘When are we going to score,’ because it is every mistake that we make at the moment we are getting punished. And hopefully that changes.”
On the first substitutions of the second half:
“Just a system change. We went with two up top to try and apply a little bit more pressure and push our wide midfielders a little bit higher, trying to keep them camped in their half, and I think it worked. If you look at the chances that we created, the movement of Danny [Mwanga] and Bright [Dike], I think was effective. The urgency from those two was very impressive, and we started to get a few more chances. We were going for the throat of that stage. We were down by one, and we had to do something to positively affect the game.”
Timbers midfielder Jack Jewsbury
On his goal:
“It felt good, obviously I hit it solid. I don’t remember how it popped out, but it came out pretty high … and I was like, ‘Stay focused on it, and try to hit it solid,” and I did. And luckily I found the back of the net.”
On moving forward:
“I think for us, it’s building off two positive performances. Points wise, yeah, we didn’t get what we wanted out of them, but if you look back at these last two games, the team as a whole fought, battled, created chances, and defensively we’re a lot more organized than maybe we’d been earlier in the year. There’s definitely some positives to take, and now it’s just about turning those positives into three points.”
Timbers midfielder Franck Songo’o
Feeling after the game:
“Not good, to be fair, because we were expected to win the three points, and we created a lot of chances. We played against ten almost all the second half … I think they weren’t really dangerous, like they had two chances I would say, so we’re not really happy with the game.”
On whether he’s carrying the team:
“No, it’s not about me. I think everyone is, because we are in a position that we shouldn’t be. We don’t think we should be there. I think we’re a great team, great players, great staff, but … everyone has to take a bit more responsibility. I’m not carrying the team, I think everyone is. I think we’ve got to do a bit more.”
FC Dallas Quotes
FC Dallas head coach Schellas Hyndman
On the outcome of the game:
“You know I would have liked to seen us play with 11 players. I think there were enough things going on out there that it could very well have been 10 players on each team. It seems that when you’re on the road sometimes the calls don’t go your way.”
On dealing with Portland’s strengths:
“I thought we needed to get Julian [de Guzman] out there, especially here in this environment. I thought the one area we were going to have trouble with Portland was on the transition, on the counter attack. They’re awfully good with Chara and others are really quite good with the speed and athleticism they have coming at you. We thought Julian might be a little bit more mobile than Daniel [Hernandez] in that position. It had nothing to do with Daniel not playing well, we just didn’t want to put him on the turf and have him cover players running through.”
On Brek Shea:
“I think you all know Brek’s issue, so what we wanted to do was take the pressure off him. The competition committee thought the best thing to do was to keep him out two to three games, and he’s been doing so good in training, had a big turnaround in focus and his attitude and being able to deal with his frustrations a little bit better. I thought he did fine. Tonight he did well, he played hard, was able to go the full 90 and had a great assist didn’t he.”
FC Dallas midfielder Brek Shea
On returning to the team:
“It was good to be back with the team playing again. I do [soccer] because I like it and it’s good to be back. Whenever something like that happens you have to earn your way back. You can’t just get back, so I’ve been working hard to get back and I didn’t think I was going to get to play, but I got to play and wanted to show that I wanted to be out there.”
FC Dallas midfielder James Marcelin
Thoughts on the game:
“Today Portland stepped up after the red card [to FC Dallas defender Zach Loyd], so Portland really stepped up their game, tried to win the game. They played with three forwards and a lot of players forward even the defenders wanted to go forward, so they had a lot of initiative today.”
Thoughts on the crowd:
“I’m used to the crowd, so for me it’s a motivation for me when I’m playing here. I don’t really think about it.”
Notes:
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Prior to kickoff, the Timbers held a moment of silence in honor of Columbus Crew midfielder Kirk Urso, who passed away Sunday morning.
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The Timbers and FC Dallas concluded their three-match, regular-season series Sunday. FC Dallas took the 2012 season series against Portland with a 1-0-2 record, and leads the all-time series 2-1-2.
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With the draw Sunday, the Timbers remain unbeaten at home against FC Dallas (1-0-1). Portland defeated FC Dallas 3-2 in their lone matchup at JELD-WEN Field on April 17, 2011.
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Sunday’s match against FC Dallas concluded a run of 11 straight matches against Western Conference opponents for the Timbers.
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The Timbers are unbeaten at 2-0-1 in day matches at JELD-WEN Field this season. As an MLS club, Portland is 3-2-1 in daytime matches at JELD-WEN Field.
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The goal scored by FC Dallas forward Scott Sealy was his second goal of the season and second scored against Portland. Sealy also tallied in FC Dallas’ win over the Timbers on July 21.
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Captain Jack Jewsbury scored his second goal of the season to level the score against FC Dallas and was the club’s fourth goal scored from outside the penalty area this season; striker Kris Boyd and midfielder Darlington Nagbe are the only others for Portland to have scored from outside the 18-yard box this season.
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Jewsbury’s two goals this season have each helped result in points for the Timbers; his first strike was the game-winning goal in a 2-1 win over San Jose on July 3.
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The Timbers set a new 2012 season-high with 21shots against FC Dallas, besting the club’s previous mark this season of 19 achieved on two occasions – July 3 vs. San Jose and July 28 vs. Chivas USA.
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Midfielder Franck Songo’o took seven shots against FC Dallas, the most by a Timbers player in a single game this season.
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Songo’o was issued a caution in a second straight match Sunday – his fifth of the season. As a result, Songo’o will serve a one-game, league-imposed suspension on Aug. 15 against Toronto FC for yellow card accumulation.
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The ejection of FC Dallas defender Zach Loyd was the second time this season in which a Timbers opponent had a player sent off.
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Goalkeeper Troy Perkins appeared in his 150th MLS match on Sunday and becomes just the 10th goalkeeper in MLS history to reach the milestone. He also made his 51st consecutive start for Portland, a streak dating back to April 23, 2011.
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Portland Homegrown Player Brent Richards made his second straight start Sunday. He has appeared in four of the club’s last five league matches since making his MLS debut July 14 against the LA Galaxy.
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Timbers forward Bright Dike made his 2012 MLS debut Sunday against FC Dallas, coming on as a 61st-minute sub. He forced FC Dallas goalkeeper Kevin Hartman into a clutch save at the top of the box on a breakaway in the 68th minute.
- The six saves made by Hartman was one shy of a season-high by an opposing goalkeeper in 2012 (LA Galaxy goalkeeper Josh Saunders made seven saves in a 5-3 win over Portland July 14). The Timbers have forced opposing goalkeepers to make six or more saves in five games this season.
