Timbers Talk: Quotes after Sunday’s 2-1 loss to the Sounders

It’s never fun to lose to a rival. It’s also not fun when that match drops you to three losses in MLS play. But that’s exactly where the Portland Timbers find themselves after their 2-1 loss to the Seattle Sounders. Here’s what Giovanni Savarese and company had to say about yesterday’s loss.

Portland Timbers head coach Giovanni Savarese

On Steve Clark’s return and Jeff Attinella’s injury...

“Not ready yet. Not ready Nick. Getting day-by-day healthier. [Aljaz] Ivacic as well. Unfortunately, the third goalkeeper goes down with [Jeff] Attinella and now Hunter [Sulte] came into the game and played very well. It was great to see him with the confidence he came in and didn’t disappoint. He was there to make sure he supported us and he did a fantastic job in his second match. But little-by-little we hope that we can have now the goalkeepers healthy. Now we have to see how the week goes and see who we’re going to have for next week, but it’s unfortunate that… how many times do you see three goalkeepers going down in the beginning of one season? This is because of so many matches we have to play and now little-by-little hopefully they get back.”

On Jeremy Ebobisse’s performance...

“He looked great. Coming back from his injury, he played a few minutes as we saw against Club América and then we knew that today we couldn’t pass from 30-45 minutes. He gave us just a little bit more and overall his play was very good. He created chances, he had opportunities, he linked up very well holding the ball. That’s great. For a coach to be able to have another important piece available is huge and I’m glad to have [Ebobisse] available for us going forward. He played a very good game today.”

On Larrys Mabiala’s injury...

“Right now, not much. I will find out a little bit more. We tried to protect also [Diego] Valeri to make sure he didn’t get injured as well. So we had to just make sure that we keep protecting our players. Diego was playing a great game as well and unfortunately all these matches… we have to be very smart in how we go about it. Mabiala I will find out more after the press conference.”

On how the team will move forward after a compact run of games...

“No, I don’t think I have to reset the team. We just need to stay positive because it can get in your head a little bit when you see some results not going your way, but we have to see the big picture in what we accomplished today and the way we played. How we battled with a Club América team. How we had to make rotations against FC Dallas and played very well in the second half. So we have to see the positives that are many and more than a reset, I think what we need is getting everybody back in freshness. Being able to get help in all the areas they need in order to make sure we have a good week of training and that we can get to next weekend as fresh as we can to be able to perform. Because today was a great performance. Today was a high-intensity match and we saw towards the end of the game, some of the guys… it’s just been a lot of matches and the guys that came in tried to give some energy, but it wasn’t easy. Even though I still believe there were things in the game that unfortunately didn’t go our way that were out of our control.”

Portland Timbers defender Bill Tuiloma

On scoring on the free-kick...

“I walked up there and told Eryk, ‘Hey let me take this shot.’ And I had belief and confidence that I could finish it in the back of the net. Losing 2-1 after that, we just got to move on and watch the tape to see what we can improve on. We’ll move on forward to our next game and we didn’t put our heads down, I felt like everybody battled to the end. We gave it our all and we are going to move forward and keep our heads up and do scouting on the next to be prepared for that as well.”

On helping Hunter Sulte going forward...

“It’s the game and every player has to be ready. I hope for a speedy recovery for Larrys [Mabiala] and also Jeff [Attinella] but these are the times you have to be ready off the bench. You got to come in with the right mindset and follow through with the game plan.”

On upcoming rest...

“We had five games in two and a half weeks so it was tough but we battled through knowing that we’ve got a decent amount of time until the next game. Now we can reset mentally, get our bodies right, and get healthy and strong to be ready to go again. It’s always a good thing to have a few days off before our next game.”