Houston Dynamo 1-1 Portland Timbers
Timbers head coach Caleb Porter
General thoughts on strong first half, overall game:
“The first half was strong overall, came out with energy and confidence. We knew they would be a bit wounded, we knew they would come out flying. They typically want to play a very fast-paced, up-tempo game. We didn’t allow them to do that the entire game. That’s a real positive, and to come from behind and get the goal is a huge positive. You see teams around the league, they get down a goal on the road in these type of situations, and they unravel, 3-0, 4-0, even 5-0 sometimes. You saw in this group that they aren’t going to quit. We’re not happy with a draw, but we can build on this result. You saw today that we’re a team that’s going to push the game, home or away. That’s going to be an advantage of our team as it gets hotter and hotter in the summer months. The last two road games we’ve put in a very good performance overall, and we’ve defended extremely well. Gastón Fernández showing a bit of quality in that moment of scoring that goal is a big positive for us. The one piece we need to continue to do better is in the final third. For me, I would have liked to see a bit more aggressiveness at times. As much as we had the ball we have to turn that possession into penetration. For me, it’s about individuals taking responsibility at times to step up and shoot, and drive. We’re getting closer. I think it’s the final piece that we have to get right on this team, because mentally you can see we’re a very tough team, we’re in every game. Organizationally we’re there, possession-wise we’re there. We had almost 500 passes today, and 58 percent possession on the road. I don’t think that happens very often honestly. I would like to see a goal at the end to win the game, and that’s the piece I want to get right.”
On being more selfish in the final third:
“Yeah, I think we need a little bit of that. We create good chances on team play and combination play, but we need guys to be a little bit more selfish for the team. Just like Gastón in that moment, he got the ball in the box, you could tell he was ready for that moment, and he jumped the defender, and put it in the upper corner. We need that ruthlessness in our team. You can see we play positive soccer, we’re organized, we’re right there in every game. Our locker room’s extremely tight, if it wasn’t we would’ve unraveled after that first goal and lost that game. Our chemistry is great, but we need to create more goals and score more goals if we want to win games.”
Drawing positives from the result:
“I think it’s good when you get through a game like that, they’re at home, and they feel pressure to win, and they score the first goal, but you come back to tie it. We had been conceding late, but we didn’t today. It’s a real positive that the defenders were making plays late in the game, when a lot of times you get nervous in those moments. They looked composed in the latter stages today, and in some games this year we didn’t look completely composed. I’m just disappointed that we don’t find a notch more to win the game. That’s the final piece we have to dig into.”
Dynamo head coach Dominic Kinnear
Thoughts on the match:
“It was a tough afternoon, really hot, really humid but the guys really worked hard by creating some good chances. They were a little lucky on their goal, a little bit of a deflection fell in their favor, and it was a game of possession. I thought we had some very good chances and some good saves but unfortunately we didn’t come out with the three points but the effort was still wonderful, we defended very intelligently and it was good for us.”
On Brad Davis’ impact:
“He’s a good player, during the run of play he wants the ball, he makes the right passes, obviously his cross to Will [Bruin] was very well taken. So he was good, it’s an easy question to answer. All of a sudden we’re a better team when he’s available for us.”
