Caleb Porter, the man in charge of Portland Timbers, doesn’t think the scorecard of last weekend’s Cascadia match between his team and the Seattle Sounders is telling the real story.
He reckons his boys were better than what the eventual numbers suggest.
The game which had taken place at the Timbers’ home ground was dominated entirely by the visitors before the half time break as they struck twice to race to a lead of 2-0, but, once the players are back after the break, the spectators got to see great resilience from the hosts.
The Timbers still ended on the wrong side though as the score line was favouring Seattle by 4-2 when the final whistle was blown.
According to Porter, his side didn’t play badly enough in the first half to be trailing by 0-2 at the end of it.
In the words of the 39-year old American, “People would obviously see the score and say that we were poor, but, I don’t think we were that poor. Yes, we could have been better, but, I am not sure we should have lost by 2-goal margin.”
“Especially in the first half, we were decent enough, but, we just didn’t have any luck going our way. It was one of those days when almost every attempt by the opposition was going into the net.”
Porter’s frustration about the first half can be understood by the fact that his boys had more possession than the opposition in that half. They played more shots as well than Seattle, but, still, they conceded a couple which would disappoint any manager.
The scorers for the Seattle Sounders in the first half were Obafemi Martins (set up by Brad Evans) and Clint Dempsey (set up by Martins).