Portland Timbers 1-1 Chivas USA
Timbers head coach Caleb Porter
Overall thoughts on the draw:
“We want to win. We are used to winning. So I think anything that is not a win, especially at home, is going to feel like a loss. When you’re on the road, you’ll swallow a draw. You’re not playing for a draw, but if you get one, it’s not a bad result at all, but at home it’s important to get three points as much as possible. We’re behind the eight ball, obviously. There are plenty of examples of teams that started slow that have won it all. I believe Houston started eight games without a win and ended up winning MLS Cup, and the LA Galaxy started slow when they won it one year as well. But, in the end we’re not where we wanted to be at this point, and we have to step it up. There is nothing we can do other than get back to work and keep fighting and keep pushing and improve in the areas we need to. We have 28 games left, so there are plenty of points, but it is a shame to give away a 1-0 lead tonight. One of two things has to happen – we need to get the second goal or manage the game and win 1-0. We were able to, last year, win a lot of games 1-0. We won a few games where it was more than that, but the majority of games in this sport are 1-0 – one way or the other. Sometimes you don’t find the second goal; and we didn’t, but we still need to win that game 1-0 if we don’t find another goal.”
On the team’s recent possession against opponents:
“It’s a big part of our philosophy, to control as much of the game as possible, dictate the flow with possession of the ball. I’m not sure why we gave the ball away so much tonight. That was one of my main points I made at halftime is that we have to do better with the ball. Maybe it’s because we are trying to score, forcing things a bit. We train every day to keep the ball, it’s a big part of our philosophy that we have. After we got the goal, I thought we made it far more difficult on ourselves than it needed to be. We defended more than we needed to because we kept giving the ball away.”
On defending Chivas USA’s set pieces, crosses:
“I know my team, I know what’s right, what’s wrong way more than I allude to in the press. [The players] know it and we talk about it. Set-piece defending has been something that we’ve wanted to address so we made some tweaks this week. I thought it was much better. I thought the back four was also much better, much tighter. I thought they did a great job, actually, over the course of the game with their box defending; they cut out a lot of crosses. It’s just unfortunate that [Erick Torres] got loose for the one, because we got punished. I thought overall the defending was much better, the box defending, on set pieces and on crosses was much better. But we still have to, like I said at 1-0, keep a clean sheet so we win that game.”
On changes to the backline against Chivas USA:
“I thought we needed a move, to get the chemistry sorted, get that tightened up, and I thought it was better. Overall, I thought Futty had a good game. I thought Mikey [Harrington] and [Pa Modou] Kah had a good game. It’s just, like I said, a shame, because we gave up the one goal and that’s their job, to stop those plays. But I thought overall that those four guys had a very good game.”
Chivas USA head coach Wilmer Cabrera
Overall reaction to the result:
“More than the result is the performance from the team. They are believing in what we’ve been working on. Today we have rebounded from a performance that didn’t belong to us last weekend. So that is very positive, especially here, away, against a very good team, a very talented team. We outplayed them. We showed personality. We came from the back, losing and we showed character, possession and that’s important for what is coming for us.”
On allowing Portland’s goal:
“We didn’t pick the right shoes. Sadly, Carlos [Bocanegra] slipped and he realized he needed to change his cleats and then he was on the sideline in the moment we conceded that goal. They were playing with 11, we were playing with 10. In that moment they took advantage and they scored the goal. But after that, we started to play. We started to move the ball, we started to administrate the ball better, create options moving forward – moving on the left, moving on the right. The whole team had a great approach to the game with a good mentality and in the second half we had the chance to create options and score the equalizer, which was a good reward for them.”
On improvements in the second half:
“The same mentality. Just keep possession, move the ball and let’s attack. Let’s continue being organized, but also, when we have the ball, attack and let’s try to find their goal. That’s a good mentality. Even though everyone is thinking, maybe, Chivas is always going to defend and defend. No. Today we showed good personality, good discipline and good administration of the ball, which is important to continue believing in what we do.”
On Chivas USA’s defensive organization:
“To be honest with you, that’s how we’ve been working throughout the year. As I’ve said, we didn’t have this performance only once and that was eight days ago against LA Galaxy. Today, we rebounded and we came back from what we were doing [against the Galaxy] and from what we would like to do. It’s being like that. Disciplined, intense and when we have the ball, try to play and try to play against anyone else in front of us.”
