Portland Timbers quotes
Portland Timbers head coach Caleb Porter
On his message to the team after the game…
“It’s difficult to win games when you make the defensive mistakes, the individual errors, that we’ve made the last two games. When you look at the three goals they scored, those are routine situations. First one is an own goal off a cross, second one is one pass, a central pass that gets right through our back four, and the third one was another routine cross. We’re not getting guys making plays at the back and when you don’t get guys making plays at the back you fall short and that’s what has happened the last two games. The difficult thing is we scored two goals, and when you score two goals on the road you should get something out of the game. You can accept maybe one mistake, but we made three very poor mistakes and my message is we have three days to recover, mentally and physically to get ready for Seattle, and we need guys at the back that are in the lineup, and who knows there may be changes again because we’re not getting guys that are making plays, but in this next game whoever we choose they need to start making those routine plays otherwise we’ll continue to fall short.”
On potential changes to the lineup for Sunday’s game against Seattle Sounders FC…
“Obviously Blanco will be out. Miller will be out with yellows. We can slot (Dairon) Asprilla in no problem. We’ll be fine. Obviously at the back we’ve got Lawrence Olum, so we have to pick the outside backs. Other than that it will be Lawrence and Amobi (Okugo) we have no other healthy center backs to play. So, we will play the only two that we have healthy and hope Lawrence and Amobi make plays and the outside backs that we choose, the entire back four and the goalkeeper, make plays that they need to make to win the next game.”
Portland Timbers midfielder Diego Valeri
On the result…
“It was an even game. I thought that we got a little bit lucky on our mistakes. It’s tough because we scored two goals on the road. So we have to rest well because we have a very important game on Sunday.”
On preparing for Seattle Sounders FC on Sunday…
“We have to rest well, and use the time we have to prepare for the game and try to get a good performance.”
Portland Timbers midfielder Diego Chara
On his thoughts on the game…
“I think it was a tough game for us. We tried to create some opportunities to score, but we weren’t able to tonight.”
On what the team needs to do to get a result on Sunday…
“I think we need to avoid making mistakes. That was the difference in tonight’s game. Against Seattle, we’ll be at home and we need to get three points.”
Notes:
· Diego Valeri scored his ninth goal of the season, tying him for the fourth-most goals in MLS this season.
· The goal was the 46th of Valeri's MLS career with Portland, which is second-most in the club's history across all eras (since 1975).
· The 17 combined goals for Valeri and Fanendo Adi, who has eight goals this season, are the most by any pair of MLS Western Conference teammates.
· TCF Bank Stadium is the 102nd stadium the Timbers have played a regular-season match in all eras of the club (since 1975).
