Quotes: Portland Timbers vs. Wilmington Hammerheads
Portland Timbers Quotes
Timbers head coach Caleb Porter
On the team’s mentality going into the U.S. Open Cup match:
“For 16 years, post-NASL, the Portland Timbers played in the lower professional leagues – 10 years in the USL. That’s one of the things I told the guys, that we should respect every lower league professional team because there was a point in time when this club was in that situation. I also told them we need to appreciate the fact that we’re in Major League Soccer and at the end of the game there should be no doubt which team is the Major League Soccer team. That was a big source of our motivation, that there was no doubt and that we continued to show respect for every opponent for the fact that we had been a lower league professional team, but now because of all the hard work of those players and coaches and our owner now have allowed us to be in Major League Soccer. We wanted to play with that type of appreciation. I thought we did and I thought it was a big reason why we performed well tonight.”
On if the final result was what he visualized:
“I don’t think you can visualize it like that because if you look at the other results, they weren’t like that. The majority of them were tight and close. I think the reason we played so well was because we went into the game with the right attitude and the right mentality and we didn’t take this team lightly and we had respect for them and respect for the game because, in soccer, anything can happen. Last year in this round eight MLS teams fell, including the Timbers. This year, already four had fallen and we didn’t want that to happen on our watch.”
On Frederic Piquionne’s four-goal performance:
“I knew it was going to happen at some point because he’s a goal-scorer. We feel very good about this young man – I call him young, even though some people call him old. He’s got his legs and he’s a quality player. You can see tonight why he’s been at Lyon and West Ham and some of the other top clubs around the world. It’s good when you get guys scoring goals; we’ve got a lot of guys scoring goals which is the mark of a good team. We’re not a one-or-two-headed monster; we’ve got a lot of different guys that can show up. Today it was Piquionne, next game who knows who it’s going to be. That’s a great feeling knowing you’re going to get goals in different ways.”
On the team’s work on set pieces and crosses:
“We’re getting better as a team. One of things we talked about last week are two areas of our game that we wanted to improve in – our ability to score goals on crosses and our ability to score goals on set pieces. We got two goals on crosses and three goals on set pieces. I do want to credit my assistant coaches Sean McAuley, Amos Magee and Cameron Knowles. I gave the set pieces to them to work on and they deserve all the credit for the set-piece goals. They’re the ones that devised what we did.”
Timbers forward Frederic Piquionne
On the match:
“We started the game very well, scoring the first goal in the first minutes. Two goals up after 20 minutes, it was good for the team. We stayed compact and stayed together. We felt good at halftime and it was easy for the second half.”
On scoring his first goal with the Timbers:
“I waited for this first goal from the start of the season. I had many chances, but I missed them. Tonight, I had maybe five shots and four goals. It was good for me. I need to keep scoring like this and I hope we go on to win this trophy.”
Timbers midfielder Will Johnson
Overall thoughts on the match:
“It was a good performance. Anytime you win a game 5-1, you do a lot of good things. I still think there’s room for improvement. I still think we can do better in some areas. Overall, we wanted to advance in the cup and we achieved our goal.”
On the importance of putting the game away early:
“We were excited and right before we were going out, we found out that Seattle had lost and we would host the (next) game. As a Timbers player, I don’t know what more incentive you could ask for than to play another game in front of these fans – an important, knockout game. That gave us a real boost going into warm-ups. I think you saw that. From the first minute, we wanted it more; we were aggressive and pressed them to score a goal right away. It was impressive.”
Timbers goalkeeper Milos Kocic
On preparing for the match:
“We approach every game like a final and that’s how we approached this one. We talked with our captain Will (Johnson) and everybody else. This trophy is as important as MLS Cup and we want to win the U.S. Open Cup. At the end of the day, you’re only as good as the trophies you win. No matter how many wins you have, if you don’t win anything at the end, it doesn’t matter.”
Wilmington Hammerheads Quotes
Hammerheads head coach David Irving
Overall thoughts on the game:
“I thought we played well at times; you just can’t give goals away like that; disappointing from that standpoint, but a good experience. I know if we play like that in the league we’ll be alright. We’ve just got to defend a little better, you know, one minute and your one-nil down. We made a fight of it in the second half, but you can’t give silly goals away like that.”
Thoughts on the performance of Timbers forward Frederic Piquionne:
“You’ve got to pick him up. He’s got good experience, he’s a quality player and he’s been around the block. He got good service, made his runs and he finished it – all credit to him. A Learning experience for our guys, we’re pretty young. We just can’t give goals away like that.”
Thoughts on the play of his side:
“We didn’t sit back. We tried to make a go of it, but we were unlucky. We had some chances. Another day it might have been different, but we’ve got to defend better on set plays and that was the difference in the game. Portland’s a good team and it’s a tough place to play. But like I said, we made a fight of it, and I think if we play like that in our league, we’ll be fine.
Notes:
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Forward Frederic Piquionne’s four goals marked his first goals as a member of the Timbers. He becomes the first Timbers player – across all eras – to record four goals in a U.S. Open Cup match. Piquionne is the second Timbers player in club history – across the various eras – to tally four goals in a single league or cup match. The other was forward McKinley Tennyson on Aug. 13, 2002, in a 6-1 win over the El Paso Patriots.
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Piquionne joins Sounders FC U23 forward David Gino as the only players in the modern history of the U.S. Open Cup (1995-present) to score four goals in one half of in a U.S. Open Cup match. Gino recorded the feat in the first round of the 2013 tournament. Piquionne is the 11th player overall in the U.S. Open Cup’s modern era to record four goals in a single game.
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The second-minute goal by Piquionne was the quickest goal scored by the Timbers in a U.S. Open Cup match in the club’s history.
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Piquionne is just the third MLS player to score four goals in U.S. Open Cup play.
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The goal by Piquionne in the second minute (1:26) was the second-quickest goal scored by the Timbers as an MLS side across all competitions. The quickest goal by the MLS Timbers is 1:13 by midfielder Diego Chara in a 2-1 in over Vancouver Whitecaps FC on Aug. 20, 2011, at JELD-WEN Field.
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With his third goal of the match, Piquionne joined forward Bright Dike as the only two players in Timbers history – across all eras – to record a hat trick in a U.S. Open Cup match. Dike registered three goals in a 4-1 win over the Kitsap Pumas (PDL) in the second round of the 2010 U.S. Open Cup on June 22, 2010.
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Piquionne’s hat trick in the 34th minute was the fifth of the 2013 tournament and only hat trick recorded in the third round of this year’s competition.
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The five-goal output by the Timbers against the Hammerheads marked the most goals scored by the club in a U.S. Open Cup match, eclipsing the four tallied in the second-round win over Kitsap in the 2010 tournament.
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The Timbers join the New England Revolution as the only MLS clubs to score three or more goals in regulation of their third-round matches of the 2013 U.S. Open Cup.
- The Timbers are one of 12 MLS sides advancing to the fourth round of the 2013 U.S. Open Cup.
