“To win by a two-goal margin puts us in a good spot. We know how explosive and dangerous Dallas are and what they’re capable of, so we’ll stay very humble and grounded and get back to work,” Timbers coach Caleb Porter said in the post match press conference following Portland’s dicisive 3-1 win over FC Dallas in the first leg of the home-and-home Western Conference Final series.
“We came out agressively. That was always going to be the play,” Timbers coach Caleb Porter said after the match. – photo by Diego Diaz
“I thought our guys really showed a lot of composure after giving up the goal. We’ve made a lot of progress since 2013,” he said. “If you remember that 2013 seris with RSL, we scored the first goal and then gave up four. This is a much different story.”
“The first half was pretty electric. I thought we looked more explosive. That’s exciting,” Porter continued.
“We talked about pragmatism, or you guys did, but that was never going to be what we were going to do. We came out aggressively. That was always going to be the plan.”
“We’ll approach it like we do every game. We’ll take some time and think about it,” Porter said about his plan for the second half of the series, to be played at Dallas Sunday, Nov. 29. “Now we’ll have Rodney (Wallace) and (Diego) Valeri back in. We’ve got to factor in this result and come up with a plan. We’ll make some adjustments, they’ll make some adjustments. We’ll figure it out.”
One concern is the fitness of defender Liam Ridgewell, who came off in the 61st minute. “He’s had some calf issues from time to time. Since he had the broken leg, every once in a while there’s a little bit of tightness in that calf. He’s pretty good at managing it and the medical team will hopefully have him ready next week,” Porter said. “But we also know Paparatto can go in and do the job. He set up that third goal with the header off the set piece.”
Midfielder Jack Jewsbury and defenders Liam Ridgewell and Nat Borchers celebrate Ridgewell’s goal. Coach Caleb Porter pointed to the experience brought by the three veterans as key to Portland’s win over FC Dallas Sunday night. – photo by Diego Diaz
Porter heaped praise on his central defenders. “They’re battle-tested, experienced. We did feel, going into this series that would be a strength of ours. Dallas is youthful and exciting, but we put in a few grizzly vets – Jack, Liam, Borchers, those three guys kind of in the back part of our team really did a nice job.”
Portland’s depth was tested in Sunday’s match with regular starters Diego Valeri and Rodney Wallace both out for yellow card accumulation. “It just tells you how special this group is,” defender Nat Borchers said. “For guys to be able to come in and start that maybe aren’t considered regulars. I thought Lucas did a great job tonight. We’re all so proud of how he played.”
Dairon Asprilla celebrates his 53rd minute goal. Asprilla finished the game with a goal and an assist. – photo by Diego Diaz
