Portland Timbers Quotes
Portland Timbers head coach Caleb Porter
On Jack McInerney getting the start and the importance of his play setting the tone for the match …
“He’s gotten the job done. We brought him here to be the guy that we can rotate in for [Fanendo] Adi and we knew there would be these situations; in this case it was injury. Great out of him to get a goal and I thought, not just the goal, his work rate was outstanding, his pressure. I thought that was a big part of us playing so well again in this game. If you look at the last game and this game, even the first half at Dallas, it started with the pressure from the front. Then also when we won the ball I thought our passing game has been much better. There will be a lot of talk about the PKs and probably you can say maybe one of theirs is a little bit soft, but I think ours is soft, but ultimately we were the better team anyways. And easily at halftime we could have been up three or four to zero. So outside of the PKs, I thought we were the better team and I thought we were deserved winners today.”
On the response from the group and that performance after a three-game losing streak…
“I think I said it all week and it wasn’t fluff - these guys looked confident and they also looked like they had a bit of an edge. That edge comes from us not getting results. Sometimes with teams when you’re not getting results you lose confidence, but when you have a good group of guys, when you don’t win games you get a little pissed off. Our guys looked like they were confident this week but had that little bit of extra hunger to go into this game and prove that we are better than we’ve been. These guys know we’re a good team. They know we’ve had some unfortunate things happen. But I was really pleased to see what I saw this week out of the guys. That gave me a lot of confidence, because I saw they looked sharp and that gave me a lot of belief that we were going to have a similar performance and I felt like if we had a similar performance like the last game then we would get the result and we did. I believe in the process of when you play well eventually you get results. And we played well again and I thought we were deserved winners. There are a few things still to get better, no doubt. I thought we gave up another fluky goal and we all thought ‘here we go again’ when it goes 2-1, and I think that did change the game for about 10-15 minutes. But the nice thing is we weathered that and we broke the pattern and that’s a real key because now moving forward we have that experience, we have that confidence of managing games in the second half. Nice thing is we won this game with a good performance."
On Dairon Asprilla’s appearance and thoughts on his performance…
“Like I’ve been saying these are decisions you make and there’s a lot of things that go on behind-the-scenes, and in a team with players that change the dynamics of where a guy sits in the depth chart, in the pecking order. With Asprilla, there have been a couple situations that have meant I didn’t feel like he deserved to be in the 18. Those things were communicated with him and we had a good meeting this week. I felt his head was in a good spot and I told him I was going to put him on the bench and I told him to be ready because there’s a chance he gets back in. I’m not going to get into the details of what happened. But ultimately I have to lead a team with the right culture, and a culture is based on doing things the right way and making sure that performance but also overall behavior, attitude, those type of things are important. I do give players second chances as well. I’m not that stubborn. But I do have to manage this club in a way where I don’t sacrifice my principles or the culture of the club. To Asprilla’s credit, he stepped up today when he went in and now will continue to get more and more time and will no longer be in the doghouse as long as he continues down this path."
On the decision about who would take the second penalty kick…
“Not sure on that, I didn’t ask him [Diego Valeri]. Sometimes when you get two PKs and the guy makes the first one, someone else takes the second. We always have a couple guys we assign, Asprilla wasn’t one of them. Listen, if a guy steps up and wants it, that’s why as a coach you don’t want to assign guys too much because when you have a guy who wants it the psychology of a guy wanting a PK is big. I think maybe with Valeri because he had to come out of the game, he’s got a little bit of tight hamstring, or glute, Maybe he didn’t want to take it because of that or maybe he just gave it to Asprilla. But I didn’t ask the guys, but I’m glad they both made them."
Portland Timbers defender Liam Ridgewell
On building on the performance…
“We talked about it during the week and spoke about confidence. Coming off the Dallas game in the first half I thought we played really well and let it slip in the second half. Taking that into the New York game, I thought the boys looked very confident. I thought we played really well in today’s game. The week leading up to the match felt good and it certainly showed on the pitch today. It was a good win and a good performance. We have to carry on what we’re doing so we can climb up the table and get those points.”
On the team playing with an edge…
“I think coming off the last three results we were 1-0 up at halftime and that’s certainly something that annoys me and annoys everyone else when you’re leading and go on to lose the game. That’s something we usually don’t do, especially coming off of last year. We wanted to make it right. It certainly shows the character of the team. We’ve had to grow into new players that have come in and they have to learn the character of the team as well, so it was good to see that today and hopefully we can carry that into the next game.”
On the team keeping their composure in the second half…
“There wasn’t any conversation after their first goal. It was just me saying, ‘Come on boys, keep going.’ I don’t need to say much on the pitch besides trying to get people going and grinding out the result. Like I said before the game, we had to make sure we won the game no matter what. That was the main thing to do today and we did it. It wasn’t going to be pretty but I thought we played well today and grinded out the result in the second half.”
Portland Timbers midfielder Diego Valeri
On the result…
“It was a big win. It was a big game today for our fans, too. We knew that last week was bad for us. We had lost three games, but we knew that we deserved more last week, so we tried to play the same way. I think we did that in the first half. We scored two goals, we managed the ball and we had chances to score [more]. The second half was very different, but we meshed well and got the result.”
On scoring the penalty kick…
“[Fanendo] Adi usually takes the penalty kicks. For me, I like the strikers to score. I think it’s important for the team and I think it was important for us to score that PK. It was a goal that opened the game. I was happy to step up and take the kick.”
On Dairon Asprilla scoring the second penalty kick…
“He asked me for that PK. It was important for him to score and I think he was very confident. That’s important. When you have a player that wants to take the ball and kick it, he has a high percentage to score.”
On getting contributions from everyone on the pitch…
“It’s very important. Everyone is important on this team, and to me, that’s the secret in fighting until the end. The Western Conference is very tight and very competitive and we’ll need to fight until the very end with everyone involved.”
Portland Timbers defender Jermaine Taylor
On securing three points against Vancouver…
“For me personally, it’s all about your locker room. We have good guys that really want to do well. We had some good practices leading up to this game and we were confident that we were going to come out and get the three points. It’s always good to get a win. Winning is the key. It definitely puts the team on a high. From now on, going forward, getting as many wins as possible will only help us.”
Vancouver Whitecaps FC Quotes
Vancouver Whitecaps FC head coach Carl Robinson
General thoughts on the match…
“Great game. Good game to watch. Good game to be involved in. We gave them two goals. Credit to them in the first half they were better, a lot better than us. But we made two mistakes and when you make bad mistakes like that and you give a good team a 2-0 lead, it’s going to difficult. We responded in the second half. Great character in the second half. Thought we were the better team in the second half and then it was other gifts.”
On if the game was taken out of Vancouver’s hands after being back in the game with the score at 2-1…
“We were, yeah. Well I’ve got to be careful, probably, what I say. But 100% it was taken out of our hands. We didn’t play well. I can’t sit here and say we played well the first half. We were not at the races. Second half, we were at the races. We had good momentum, we were playing well, we were creating chances. Then a key decision at a key moment and if you’re not sure, I’ve been told a thousand times, if you’re not sure, you can’t give it. And it was given. I think our penalty at the end as well. Is that one? I don’t think so. Two wrongs don’t make a right I’ve been told, in life.”
Vancouver Whitecaps FC goalkeeper David Ousted
General thoughts on the match…
“We weren’t close to good enough in the first half. Second half was a lot better, especially up to their pk. I thought we showed a little bit of grit, we showed that we could play in that game and we were close to nicking the 2-2 goal. But at the end of the day, we give up two easy goals.”
On Portland’s danger on the counter attack and Darlington Nagbe’s free-kick goal…
“Quality. It was a quality free kick and a great goal from him. I told him afterwards as well. I think Portland tonight knew that they had to bring something. They’ve been on a bad run lately and they did. I thought they were offensively a threat, but I also think we gave them the game a little bit unfortunately. Not taking anything away from them. I thought they played a good game tonight.”
Vancouver Whitecaps FC forward Kekuta Manneh
General thoughts on the match…
“I thought it was a difficult one for sure. We gave them two goals. We shouldn’t have done that. You never want to be chasing the game. I thought we made mistakes and they punished us. They have a lot of players that can do that. We needed to be switched on the whole game. The whole team defensively needs to be better, everyone across the board. I thought we played well. Portland is a good team. They had their rhythm today. We let them play. I thought we gave everything to them today. We were not at the races today and that’s what happens. I thought we came in second half, got back in the game, but positives are we’re playing well. Keeping the ball, creating chances still. We just need to tie up a few things.”
On Portland’s danger on the counter attack…
“They’re very good. Quality players. [Darlington] Nagbe was fantastic. Diego Valeri, Jack McInerney, they understand their roles for the team. They’re a very, very good team. They were MLS champions last year and it’s always going to be hard, coming here, playing against Portland in a rivalry game like this. They’re a very good team. I thought they played well. They punished us when they needed to. That’s the way you’re supposed to play at home in MLS. When you get your chances, you take them. Give credit to them for sure.”
Vancouver Whitecaps FC defender Kendall Waston
General thoughts on the match tonight…
“We gave them the first half. Second half was completely different. We play the style we know. I think that was key.”
On whether it added to the frustration of the loss that Vancouver got back into the game with the score at 2-1…
“I don’t think it was a PK, because Pa [Modou Kah]’s hand was behind. I see that the referee, not even him, knew it was a PK, but whatever. After Jordan [Harvey]’s tackle, was a completely good tackle, he took the ball, I don’t know how Jordan was going to do something else that doesn’t touch the guy. But he touched the ball first, cleanly. But it’s okay. It was a good free kick. Nobody can say anything. That’s it. I think from the PK, everything changed because we were there, pressuring them. We almost scored and the PK changed everything.”
Notes:
- Sunday’s game marked the 92nd consecutive regular-season sellout for the Timbers at Providence Park. Throughout the weekend, 45,000 fans attended four different matches at Providence Park, including Portland Thorns FC, T2 and the Portland Timbers U-23s.
- With the win, Portland's record against Vancouver improved to 7-3-6 since both teams joined MLS in 2011.
- Timbers midfielder Darlington Nagbe attempted a career-high eight shots in Sunday’s game, joining midfielder Diego Valeri as the only Timbers players to attempt eight shots during a game in the team’s MLS era.
- Nagbe recorded his 24th career-goal with the Timbers on Sunday, moving into ninth place for goals scored across all eras in Portland history (since 1975). Additionally, Nagbe is the only Timbers player to score in each of the club’s six seasons in MLS.
- Portland midfielder Diego Valeri scored his 27th regular-season goal since joining the Timbers in 2013. With his next goal, Valeri will move into a tie for seventh place for goals scored across all eras in Timbers history (since 1975).
- Valeri's goal was the third penalty-kick goal of his Timbers career. Only Will Johnson and Fanendo Adi have converted more spot kicks for Portland in MLS play.
- Making his third start of the season, Timbers forward Jack McInerney scored his fourth goal of the season. In 2016, 31 MLS players have scored four or more goals, with LA Galaxy forward Robbie Keane ranking as the only player to play fewer minutes than McInerney, who has played 426 minutes.
- Timbers midfielder Dairon Asprilla scored his first goal of the season and his second regular-season goal since joining the Timbers. With the finish, Asprilla became the second Timbers player during their MLS era to score a penalty kick after entering the match as a substitute, joining forward Fanendo Adi, who accomplished the feat on July 26, 2015, against FC Dallas.
- Timbers midfielder Ben Zemanski was credited with an assist on McInerney's goal, marking his first assist since June 23, 2013.
- Neco Brett made his MLS debut, entering the match as a substitute in the second half. With the appearance, Brett became the first player from Robert Morris College to play for the Timbers in the club's 41-year history.
- Sunday’s match featured three successful penalty kicks by three different players (Valeri, Asprilla, and Whitecaps FC midfielder Pedro Morales), marking just the second time in MLS history that three different players have scored a penalty kick in the same match. The feat was previously accomplished on June 29, 2005, when Chicago Fire players Jesse Marsch and Ivan Guerrero scored from the penalty spot, along with D.C. United forward Jaime Moreno.
- The Timbers had four different players score goals in the match, marking the fourth time Portland has had four different players score in a single MLS match (Oct. 19, 2015, Oct. 27, 2013 and Sept. 9, 2013).
- Sunday’s win also marked the first time Portland has recorded four or more goals against Whitecaps FC since the team’s NASL era, with the Timbers previously defeating Vancouver 5-0 on May 2, 1982.
- For the first time during its MLS era, Portland scored direct from a free kick and a penalty kick in the same match. The Timbers also attempted two penalty kicks in the same match for the first time in their MLS era on Sunday.
- Portland has scored three goals from direct free kicks this season, which is the most by the club in a single MLS season, surpassing the 2012 (2) and 2013 (2) campaigns. In addition, Portland has scored the most goals from direct free kicks in MLS this season.
