Timbers Talk: Quotes from the team about their 4-1 loss to FC Dallas

It was a tough night in Frisco for the Portland Timbers, as they fell to FC Dallas 4-1. But it’s also a loss that was somewhat expected. Instead of seeking revenge for last year’s opening round loss in the MLS Cup Playoffs, the Timbers went with a heavily rotated lineup that featured numerous youngsters. In the end, it wasn’t a game that Portland particularly cared about winning.

Here’s what the Timbers had to say about last night’s loss.

Portland Timbers head coach Giovanni Savarese

On lineup rotations...

“We have a limited roster right now, we have a lot of injuries and our main focus right now is Club América. We want to fight our way through to make sure that we can continue to compete in the CCL. With the amount of matches that we have consecutively, we have to make some decisions and today we made some decisions to make sure that we still use the group with a few minutes. Also, we had to give a lot of opportunities to players that needed to fill a spot in order for us to be able to play this match. Unfortunately, things didn’t go the best way for us. I take full responsibility for everything we did today because it’s not the fault of the players. Having to make these rotations and focusing on America as a match that we want to qualify, we want to represent the MLS, and today we tried to manage it. Dallas had a good first half and we had a very good second half, maybe we were a little unlucky in some situations but I feel that out of the four goals, we gave away three of them in an easy way that could have been better.”

On Hunter Sulte’s performance...

“When you have the chance to be able to have an academy play with the first team, that player is already a better player because he already had the experience of playing in these types of matches. Of course it’s not easy when it doesn’t go the best way for us, especially with all our rotations we had to make so usually you want to put that player (Sulte) in a better scenario. I think today Hunter is a better player than he was yesterday because of what he experienced.”

On Zac McGraw and Andy Polo’s play...

“Polo gave me more than what he could give because he’s still getting back into form, we were hoping he would give us forty-five (minutes) and he was able to do it. He’s a phenomenal player, now what he needs to do is get fit, continues to get minutes, and with his body type he is going to continue to do very well for us. McGraw had a phenomenal match for this being his first match in the MLS. It was a great game, it was not easy because of some of the spaces that were open in the first half that he had to defend but he had a great game. Unfortunately, towards the end of the game he started cramping and it became a little bit more difficult for him to move but he gave everything he had.”

Portland Timbers midfielder Eyrk Williamson

On the message at halftime that sparked the team...

“Well I just think that the first half wasn’t good enough. The team knew that and we had to lift the spirits. In the second half we came out and did what we needed to do and I think the job came down to starting with a little more energy. As a team our half team message was to keep fighting and be competitive in all competitions. This game was kind of a wakeup call for us.”

On post-game reflections and thoughts moving forward...

“We had a lot of focus on this game. They kind of surprised us by the way they came out and switched things up, as the weeks looking up to FC Dallas we were preparing for five in the back. It was just one that slipped away from us but one we got to move on from and take away the positives and focus on the negatives. Now we have to focus on the next game. We’re always focused on the game in front of us which will be this Wednesday.”