Quotes & Notes | Portland Timbers 3, Vancouver Whitecaps FC 0 | Sept. 20, 2014

Portland Timbers Quotes

Portland Timbers head coach Caleb Porter
Overall thoughts on the game:
“It was going to be a big game we knew that. It was going to be all six games, but like I told you guys leading into this game whoever won this game was going to be in the driver’s seat, so we control our fate. We take care of business in the next five then we are going to be in the playoffs, but we’ve got some work to do still. I’m really pleased with our performance. This was a pressure game. This is crunch time. I knew that our experience in these situations last year when we got results under pressure was going to be pay off. I thought for me that was the biggest difference was that mentally we looked like we were confident, experienced and mature. I thought we were very patient and composed. I thought it was our best defensive game all year, I don’t even know what the stats are but from my standpoint I thought it was our best defensive performance of the year. That is a good team, it’s a talented team and they didn’t get very many good looks all day long. I think a big part of it was our backline, our holding mids, all the way up through our front guys. It was team defending – sound collective defending, very organized. I thought our shape was very good. I thought we were disciplined. We were patient. It took us 27 minutes to get the first goal. In some games we haven’t been patient, we haven’t been organized, we’ve been a bit reckless trying to get that first goal and I thought today we looked very mature. When you get in games like this when, you’ve got to get results. We can’t be reckless. We don’t need to be flying up the field. We don’t need eight, nine, ten guys getting forward. I thought today our balance was right. I thought our shape was right. I thought our discipline and our patience allowed us to get the first goal and once we did I was really pleased second half we continued to stay disciplined and patient and scored on a couple of counters to put the game away. So for me again, I thought it was our maturity, our experience, our mentality, our confidence and then for me the collective defending. Those are the things you have to have at this stage of the season if you want to be a team that gets in the postseason and makes some noise. These will continue to be important elements in our team. We are going to use those things to our advantage. Some teams they always seem to be able get it done every year. You watch certain teams you know even though it’s tight you just know they are going to punch through and get it done. A lot of it’s belief, a lot of it is confidence, experience and maturity and we looked like a team tonight that has ‘been there, done that’ like last year when we got the job done, but we’ve still got five games to go to do it again.”

On Fanendo Adi’s play:
“I told him before the game, ‘play like a man today’, was what I told him and he looked like a man. He was a beast. And he’s going against two of the strongest guys in the league [Andy] O’Brien and [Kendall] Waston. Those guys are tough matchup and I thought at times he manhandled them. A big part of our positive play in the attack was we were able to play through him and he was able to hold the ball up. It allowed us to get our midfielders into the game, it allowed us to get up the field. Then he obviously scored two great goals. People forget he’s still a young player, he’s only 23 years old and he’s still learning this league. He’s only been here a couple months. He’s only going to get better as he settles in. I thought he played like the true target, number nine that we want him to be, which is bang the center backs, hold the ball, get on the end of stuff and finish the couple plays you get, which is what he did.”

On Diego Valeri orchestrating the game:
“He’s been instrumental for us this year. Obviously, he tied the single-season assist record, took the first goal and that was what for me opened the game up. It was a great finish. And I don’t know if there is anything more I can say about him. He’s in my opinion one of the best players in the league, if not the best.”

On whether Valeri still surprises him:
“Yeah, he does. He’s special. He’s playing the best soccer of his career. It was funny I was walking through the locker room with him the other day when he was in there and I said to him, ‘you know you are playing the best football of your career right now’ and I wanted to see what he would say. And he said, ‘I think I am’. He’s had some good seasons. In the Argentine league and with Porto, but he is his prime right now and he is in a groove and that’s what you want out of your big time players at this stage in the season. You want an Adi to get a couple of goals. You want Darlington [Nagbe] to have a good game. He got an assist. You want Valeri to produce. He had a goal and an assist. This is what we need. Hopefully we will just continue to let this roll. I’ll stay out of those guys’ way and we will continue to produce. But again the thing that has been lacking at times wasn’t lacking today and that was the defending and for me that’s why we won the game.”

On whether he has settled on this lineup:
“Well, it wouldn’t be too smart to change it at this point. I think we’ve got some other guys that are always going to be sniffing around to start. Maxi’s [Urruti] shown he can produce, Gastón [Fernández] shown he can produce. We’ve got a deep team. This team, if you look at both Vancouver games, has felt like the type of team we need to be both sides of the ball and if you are looking at evidence those are probably our two best games of the year and we played the same lineup. The other thing is they have gained some confidence together. They’ve gained some chemistry. We haven’t been able to like I’ve said in the past get into a groove. So we are in a bit of groove with this lineup. This lineup does have the right dimensions in terms of team speed, enough technical ability, enough defensive organization and grit. It’s like pieces of the puzzles. I put my hand up there are a few games I haven’t put the puzzle together the right way, but I think we’ve certainly gotten it right recently with this group.”

On why this current defensive unit is successful:
“I think our wingers our defending. That’s huge. There have been some games when our wingers aren’t defending outside backs. Our holding mids, I felt today was their best defensive game of the year. Chara and Johnson being on the same page, connected, we spent time this week watching video those two guys and I thought that helped. I thought those two guys looked like they looked last year – where they are on the same page and reading each other. That is a big part of how we play. We need the holding mids to protect the center backs, to protect the hole. I thought today both of them were outstanding. Then I thought the center halfs, Kah and Ridgewell, It was probably the best performance out of our two center halfs in partnership. Our wingers chipped in and our outside backs did a nice job as well, individually and collectively. It’s a team and there have been some games where we could point our fingers at the backs, but probably they’re under so much pressure that it’s a bit unfair. I thought again today the balance was right. The outside backs got forward, but also got back. They weren’t both up the field at the same time. The d-mids got forward, but one was always sitting. The pulley system was working; the see-saw was working there. I thought the wingers chipped in to defend. A lot of times if they don’t we are defending with six guys versus seven or eight guys with the wingers getting tucked in. The other thing is overall we all were a bit more patient and in control. We weren’t flying out all the time trying to win the ball. We were disciplined and our team shape, our compactness was much improved. So hopefully we can build on that because clean sheets at this stage of the season means you’re going to be a team getting points, getting results because we will find goals.”

Portland Timbers forward Fanendo Adi
On his ability to hold up play and on Caleb Porter telling him to ‘play like a man’:
“Before the game that’s just what he told me. When the goals start coming, you’ll stop thinking. He’s been telling me all week long, ‘don’t think about it’. What he tells me helps me a lot as a striker, as a young player. It’s just what helps me in the game. I think today we did very well as a team. I think offensively for me to hold up the ball. I think today I did pretty well to hold up the ball for the team. That’s just what happens when you play for the team.”

On what happened on his goals:
“I was in the midfield and the first goal was Valeri, I saw him get the ball and it was a two-against-one and I used all the last energy in my body I had to try and sprint in front of the man who was with me. I worked with Sean [McAuley] in training on some of those chances. He told me, ‘don’t shoot until you see the goalkeeper make the first move’, so when I got the ball that’s what came into my head, ‘don’t shoot until he makes the first move’ and when he made the first move he was pretty close to me and the goal was open. For the second goal, it was the same, when I had the ball I saw the goalkeeper very close to me, so I just had to shoot.”

On getting confidence from scoring the first goal so he can score a second:
“Definitely. As a striker when you get it first it’s very important to you and you gain a lot of confidence and that’s just what happens.”

On the importance of jumping Vancouver in the standings and occupying that fifth and final playoff spot:
“It’s very, very important. It’s very crucial for this game. They knew coming into this game it was important to win and we knew that coming into this game as well. Being ahead of them is crucial and for us to take every game as serious as this one.”

Portland Timbers defender Pa Modou Kah
On the team’s defensive performance today:
“We knew the game would be crucial. It was an important game. It’s a rivalry, but the most important thing is if you defend as a team then it helps get clean sheets. It’s not only about defense. It’s about the whole team defense. It’s an easy job for the whole team to do as well. The team wins game. It’s not individual. It’s not only the defense, or the attackers or the midfielders. It’s a team sport and then you have the individual players like Darlington [Nagbe], [Diego] Valeri, like [Fanendo] Adi who score two goals. But if you work as a team, you win games.”

On his relationship with Liam Ridgewell:
“Both of us played in Europe and we know communication is the key in soccer, especially when you play on the backline. You need to have the communication, and the communication between us is clear. We both played at the highest level in Europe, so that makes it easier to understand each other.”

On Diego Chara and Will Johnson’s roll in front of the defense:
“That is massive because when you have attacking players like Darlington and Valeri, like Rodney [Wallace] and Adi, they do both do an amazing job. Chara never stops running. That man is a marathon man. It’s just amazing to have them both. They both do a great job.”

Portland Timbers midfielder Diego Valeri
On his opening goal:
“Jorge [Villafaña] had a great cross. We always talk about that, and we are glad because it was a good goal.”

On the importance of this win to put the Timbers back in fifth place:
“Important because we knew that we need points. Now we are glad about the result. We are very confident about playing the final five games.”

On Fanendo Adi scoring a brace whenever he scores in a game:
“It is strange, but the most important thing from Adi is his play and that he’s working hard for the team. He’s holding the ball and fighting the center backs and doing a great job. He deserves that.”

On whether he agrees with Caleb Porter that he’s playing the best soccer of his career:
“I’m feeling really good. It’s a good age, too. I’m very mature and I’m feeling really comfortable about Portland. It feels like my home. I’m happy and I’m enjoying soccer again.”

On whether he surprised himself with his goal:
“I just tried to get the goal because I didn’t have time to control it. Sometimes that ball goes to the fans. I was lucky.”

Portland Timbers defender Liam Ridgewell
On the continuity of the backline:
“It helps us getting to know each other. Being solid as a unit. I’m sure it helps the team as well. Sometimes you can’t help it with injuries and rotation of the team, but I think it’s certainly helped us over the last few weeks. I thought today we were very solid.”

On Adi’s performance:
“I think you saw what his performance meant today, what his two goals meant. Obviously we’ve been wanting that for him. Hopefully he gets on fire now in a run into the playoffs. It would be perfect timing.”

On the importance of the wingers playing defense:
“It certainly was a team effort. We looked at Vancouver and they like to be a bit narrow. We play quite open at times. Today we tried to look at trying to stay quite narrow and the wingers out from in, in from out. Darlington and Rodney were fantastic today. It gives us a solid base. I think it was a fantastic team performance on the defensive side. It pleases us very much to get a clean sheet.”

On how big this defensive performance is for confidence:
“Huge. It’s big. This is what we’ve been looking towards. We got a clean sheet a couple of weeks back and we wanted to build off that. I think this week we showed what we can do to build on that 1-0 lead in the first half.”

Vancouver Whitecaps FC Quotes

Vancouver Whitecaps FC head coach Carl Robinson
On Portland winning the midfield battle:
“I think they did. They got a good grip of the game after about 25 minutes when they scored their first goal. I thought the first 20 odd minutes, first 25 minutes, we were excellent. We weren’t able to capitalize on that, after a very good start and they have their first shot and score a goal. Goals change games as we all know. Then there wasn’t really much in the game. But one or two mistakes cost us in the end. Obviously the 3-0 score line is not great for us. Disappointed today for 750 ‘Caps fans that travelled because they were outstanding. Performance-wise it was good, but result-wise was awful.”

On the emotions following this defeat:
“Emotionally, the boys will be disappointed. I’m disappointed today. You’ve got to take things on the chin sometimes when you lose and today we lost. I’ll take it on the chin. We’ve got to rebound back. The beauty of the game is when you do lose, it feels like you’re at the bottom of a pit. But when you do win, it makes it all the more relevant. You take moments when you win and realize you’ve got to lose to win. You’ve got to take that on board today. We’ll take it on the chin. I’ll take it on the chin. It’s my responsibility. We didn’t score today. We conceded three goals, so I’m at fault. But we’ll go next week.”

On Diego Valeri’s performance:
“He had a big hand in the game. Obviously his first shot, I think their first shot, they scored with a fantastic volley. The second goal, he’s managed to rob one of our players and play [Fanendo] Adi through. He had a big impact on the game. You need your players to have big impacts on games in certain areas and today probably he was key for them winning the game.”

Vancouver Whitecaps FC defender Andy O’Brien
On if the team struggled after giving up the first goal:
“I thought for the first half hour we did OK. Then the goal took the wind out of our sails because it was their first attempt. It was a super finish though. You can’t take anything away from them. It was disappointing sort of how we reacted to the goal. It’s something we have to take on the chin and dust it off. Irrespective of this result, there’s still a lot of work to be done. If we won this game, there’s still a lot of points to play for. Now we’re chasing them, so we’ll see how they react to that.”

On the feeling of watching the Timbers break away for their third goal:
“I have to watch my language, but you need to get off your backside and get back as quick as you can. It was unfortunate. On another day that could end up dropping down to someone’s feet like it did to [Blas] Pérez last week for FC Dallas. It didn’t go our way. We have to dust ourselves and get on with it.”

Vancouver Whitecaps FC goalkeeper David Ousted
On how difficult it is to take a loss like this:
“I’m devastated right now. It’s not a fun way to lose. It’s not a fun place to lose, especially not with the fan support we had today. There are five games left and we can’t feel sorry for ourselves. We can’t get down. We need to continue to work. If this ends our season, that’s not okay. We need to get back to it. We have Salt Lake at home next week and that’s another big game.”

On the impact Fanendo Adi had on the match:
“He’s a big guy. There was some tugging and a little war going on with our two center backs and him. He did well today. Scored two goals and the Timbers Army is probably happy with him.”

On the margin of error defensively against Portland:
“The first one’s just an absolute great goal by [Diego] Valeri. I don’t think he could strike that better. The second one I feel was a little bit lucky. He dinks it off my foot and it still goes in. The third, he just puts away. It was little mistakes that did us in today.” 

Notes:

• With the win, the Timbers (39pts) move into playoff position ahead of Vancouver (37pts) for fifth place in the Western Conference standings with five game remaining in the regular season.
  
• Midfielder Diego Valeri has registered a goal or an assist in each of the last four regular-season matches and has tallied at least one point in nine of the last 12 games. Valeri also has scored a goal in consecutive matches.
  
• With his assist, Valeri tied the Timbers all-time (all eras) single-season mark for assists with his 14th of the season. Valeri’s 14 assists is a new Timbers MLS single-season club record and a new MLS career high for the midfielder.
  
• Valeri has logged three points in three straight games with three assists on Sept. 7 against San Jose and a goal and an assist in each of the last two matches (Sept. 13 at Colorado; Saturday vs. Vancouver).
  
• Forward Fanendo Adi netted his fourth brace of the season, setting a Timbers MLS record for braces in a single season. Adi ranks second in MLS in two-goal games, behind Sporting Kansas City forward Dom Dwyer (5).
  
• Defender Jorge Villafaña registered his second assist of the season, delivering a pinpoint cross to Diego Valeri on Portland’s opening goal.
  
• Saturday’s crowd of 20,814 marked the 66th consecutive sellout at Providence Park. The Timbers have sold out every regular-season match at Providence Park since their inaugural MLS season in 2011.
  
• Midfielder/forward Darlington Nagbe made the 122nd appearance of his Timbers MLS career, moving into a tie for eighth place on the all-time list across all eras with former NASL Timbers defender Graham Day.
  
• Nagbe tallied his sixth assist of the season on Saturday, setting a new personal MLS career high.
  
• The Timbers are unbeaten in four consecutive regular-season games and have earned at least one point in eight of the last 10 league matches.
  
• Goalkeeper Donovan Ricketts logged the 50th shutout of his MLS career and the 20th shutout of his Timbers MLS career on Saturday.
  
• Valeri made his 60th career MLS appearance on Saturday against Whitecaps FC.
  
• Portland and Vancouver accounted for 13 combined goals in three regular-season matches in 2014.
  
• With the win on Saturday, the Timbers improved their all-time MLS record against Whitecaps FC to 6-1-4, dating back to 2011. Portland is 3-1-2 against Vancouver at Providence Park.
  
• The Timbers lead MLS with 34 second-half goals this season.
  
• Portland has tallied two goals or more in five straight league games (six consecutive matches in all competitions).
  
• Portland’s 30 goals scored at Providence Park rank second in the league for home goals.
  
• With the win, the Timbers improved their record to 4-0-2 when leading at halftime and 5-2-3 when scoring the first goal. It was also Portland’s 30th all-time win over Vancouver across all eras, dating back to 1975.
  
• The Timbers have defeated Whitecaps FC 3-0 in consecutive league games over a span of three weeks (21 days).