New England Revolution Head Coach Jay Heaps
I thought the game was a little bit of a tale of two halves. I thought we were there in the first half with the right way we played. Then the second half we let them back and that’s disappointing because when you have a team you think you can put away, we’ve got to start putting them away and we had the chance in the first half.

I think Charlie (Davies) has done an excellent job. Tonight again, he was spritely, he was moving well off the ball, holding it up and scored a great goal.

I think (the team’s second half issues) are a little bit we stop playing. We’re not opening up wide enough and starting to play a little bit when the game is there. To be honest with you, it wasn’t anything as much what they did as much as what we did. We gave them the ball back. We had turnovers and I’m going to look on film, but I look down here and we’ve got 67 percent accuracy, it felt like 37 percent. We were giving the ball away unforced and that’s not good enough.

I haven’t seen (the Portland goal) yet on film, I’m going to go back and watch it, but live it was a center back beating two or three guys. We have three points on the line, we have to be better there.

I think Lee (Nguyen) was getting absolutely just kicked all over the place and actually, I thought Daigo (Kobayashi) went in and did a nice job and the space opened up. And the game actually started to flow and we had a couple chances right after that. You don’t like taking Lee off the field, but at the same time it was 1-0, we needed to change up just one little dynamic. I felt like we weren’t playing well enough and I wanted to just open the space a little bit and I thought Daigo did a nice job sliding in there. You don’t like taking Lee off. It’s not routine that we take Lee off but we just wanted to shake it up a little bit.

(Charlie Davies) is still coming along, that was the longest he went. We had him at probably 55 then 65 in New York now 75 tonight. I also think the combination of the two, I like to keep (Patrick) Mullins in there. He’s a little bit different dynamic to defend. I actually thought Mullins went in and had some chances. I think he did a good job battling and created a little bit from turnovers there and we’ve got to be better.

New England Revolution midfielder Kelyn Rowe
I think we created some good chances in both halves; yet we didn’t finish the final ball. As an attacking player – it’s my responsibility, as well, to put the ball in the back of the net, and I couldn’t perform tonight. At the end of the day, even though guys made some good runs; the final ball didn’t go through.

Absolutely, Charlie (Davies) has been playing really well. He’s holding the ball well, winning balls, working hard, and he’s in the right spot at the right time. All of these positive attributes are helping him finish balls.

I think we just have to keep playing our game. I think we’re good in the midfield and holding possession. Usually when we play our game, things fall through for us. However, that final ball wasn’t there today. Lee (Nguyen) played a couple of great balls out of the midfield tonight, and we couldn’t finish them. With that being said, I take some responsibility, as well, because I wasn’t there to play good balls and finish my chances. Although the team was making good runs all game, we still have to finish our chances.

I think it was a weird play. (Liam Ridgewell) won the ball out of the box, and we all dove in simultaneously. When this happened, he was able to beat all of us fairly easy. After he beat three or four guys, he ripped it far post; which we didn’t expect to go in.

New England Revolution forward Charlie Davies
It’s always great to score. Diego (Fagundez) played a great ball and I just got to try and make the most of my opportunities as a striker and obviously you take so much joy and pride in scoring goals. It’s just unfortunate we didn’t get the result we were hoping for.

A goal is a goal. It’s good to get the lead and get the first goal. I think that’s really important for us as a team. I think we started slow in the second half and teams have been able to capitalize and we let Portland get a result today. I think we had a lot of chances. We had the space; we had the time, but we just didn’t capitalize in the final third. This is definitely progress because we ended up getting a point today. Hopefully versus Chivas we can finally put it all together and come away with three points.

I think Jay (Heaps) has been extremely smart. You don’t just want to throw me in there and play 90 minutes after 90 minutes and then end up getting injured. I think it’s been great. I definitely feel like I’ve built up my match fitness. I feel like I can go 90. It’s obviously a work in progress with me, but I think I’ve definitely gotten over the hump of feeling like, “Ooh, I might be on the verge of another little tweak or a little injury.” I’m starting to feel fit and hopefully I can continue with this goal-scoring form. Like I said, we just need to win and hopefully we can take that next step against Chivas.

It’s natural to me. I’ve played forward since I was six years old. Whether you’re playing with two or one, it’s kind of still the same responsibility. You’ve got to score and you’ve got to hold up the ball. For me, it’s been natural. It’s been an easy transition. On the wing it’s a little bit different and once I was able to get the chance to play in the center, things have been much easier for me. It’s been an easier transition with the guys. I think most of the team knows the way I like to play and where I’m most dangerous and playing that center position—it’s easier for me to be in those positions; and I think it’s easier for the guys to get me those balls in the positions that I’m most dangerous in.

We just have to stay turned on and sharp and continue to play the way we had in the first half. I don’t want to say we get complacent, but we kind of take the foot off the gas. I think it’s just very important for the next games that we continue to keep the ball and keep probing their back line. I think we’ll see a big difference with our second half performance.

Practice. I’ve been making that run for years. It feels natural and Diego (Fagundez) played a great ball and when I’m in that position, I’ve got to put a shot on frame. I was able to get a hold of it with a left foot. Yeah, definitely.

New England Revolution defender Darrius Barnes
This game was completely different than the last game. This game, the second half we just weren’t able to make the ball stick. We weren’t able to connect passes like we wanted to. The first half we came out, I thought we could have scored a couple more goals and gone into halftime with a bigger lead, but that wasn’t the case; and the second half just wasn’t good enough. We didn’t connect the passes and we weren’t playing together and moving up the ball. There just weren’t enough options out there.

Lackluster. The all around team effort—it was weak. The center back shouldn’t be able to pick up the ball in midfield and just slice through the defense like that and get a clear shot. It was just a very, very amateur goal and something that shouldn’t happen at this level.

As a field player, you don’t want to come in off warm ups. In the first half, you’re just trying to get moving and do all the simple things well and kind of mix in as best you can.  As the second half goes on, you start to get warmed up and get your legs a little bit. It’s definitely a difficult spot to come in, but you have to do the best you can given the circumstances.

I think (Charlie Davies) just brought that edge. He has a chip on his shoulder.  He’s been itching to get his chance and he’s finally gotten it and he’s done well with it. He’s come in with two goals in two games and we try to do a little bit better as a team to get the results as he’s putting them in the net.

We just have to pick up that sense of urgency. It’s coming on here until the last stretch.  We have to know that losses and ties aren’t going to be good enough. We got to start getting three points. We have to start playing like Charlie (Davies) has with a chip on his shoulder like all around the pitch; just get better all across, take a look in the mirror, come into training sessions and get better day by day.

Portland Timbers head coach Caleb Porter
I think it is what it is. We can’t do anything about what just happened, we need to move on. So I don’t think we’re happy with a point, but I don’t think we’re disappointed either because at the end of the day, we came back from behind. I think our effort in the second half was very good, we had chances to win the game - that’s probably the biggest disappointment. With chances to win, I thought we got the wrong end of the call – that’s reality. I’ve just seen it, it’s a goal. It’s a goal.  That’s fine, I’ll come off as the whiner, but the reality is, that’s a fair goal. We should have won the game so that’s frustrating. First half I thought we were a bit flat, dug a hole for whatever reason – that’s on me. Coaches are the one that get your team ready and for some reason, some guys weren’t ready, that’s disappointing. But I liked the comeback, liked the point, thought we did enough to win, but we didn’t. We’ll move on, shift gears, get ready for (CONCACAF) Champions League and get ready for a home game against Seattle.

It’s not tricky because we’ve had a long time to sort that out, so we’re not winging things, we know what we’re doing. We brought 28 guys, we’ll send 10 guys back, take 18. We had a plan of who was going to play this game, next game so it’s all sorted out.

I think they were slow, it’s pretty obvious. It’s very obvious when you watch. It wasn’t everybody, it was a few guys. At this stage, we can’t let that happen – we need to play with urgency. We ended up getting a point, but we play a little better in the second half and maybe we get three points.

I didn’t know, it was close. The tough thing is that it’s the same linesmen. He calls the one that’s tight and lets them get a goal and then the other one is tight and he calls it offsides. It is what it is. I’m not complaining, I’m not blaming the referee for anything. We ended up getting a point. It is what it is. It’s not what we wanted but we’re going to move on. We’ll focus our energy on the next game and then Seattle in the league game.

The biggest thing you can do as a coach or manger is being a decision maker. So there are a lot of decisions every day you make – what are you doing for training, how hard are you training, what are the tactics for the game, who or what lineup are you playing. For me, it’s nothing different, you’re just making different types of decisions in terms of how do you manage those three games in eight days and the travel and all that. So we came up with a plan of bringing everybody here because it is a closer distance from Boston to Guyana. We’ll send 10 guys back to train with a coach for three days while we’re gone so that those guys are getting ready and they’re fresh. Then we have a group that’s going to play that’s going to be, for the most part, fresh to hopefully get a result against Guyana and we’ll hopefully have a group that’s fresh and ready to beat Seattle. It’s just squad rotation, normal things that you have to manage in the season. It’s not easy, but you can’t kind of wing it like I said, you can’t just get caught trying to figure it out when it’s too late to figure it out.

We’ve lost one game since he’s been in the lineup – so three wins, a draw, and a loss... So [Liam Ridgewell’s] obviously made a huge impact obviously tonight. You don’t see central defenders score goals very often through the run of play so I think he showed not only his defensive quality, but he showed that when he does get forward at times, he can finish. I don’t expect him to be doing that a lot, but it worked out that way and he’s a big time player and I think he’s showing his spark.

Portland Timbers defender Liam Ridgewell
I stepped in front of the forward, and it just opened up. I saw the right back tucking in and I thought I better keep going. I wanted to pass to be honest but I couldn’t find anyone to pass to. I decided to shot and thankfully it went in.

We couldn’t get into the game. We kept losing possession in key areas, and it gave them a lot of momentum. We couldn’t get into our stride and sadly it cost us a goal. However like I said before it gave us the confidence going forward that we can come back from being down early.

It was good to come back; it showed our resilience and proved to us we can come back after giving up an early goal. We wanted the three points and in the end we might have deserved to get it, but sadly we couldn’t put away our chances.

I think there was a few we wanted to be offsides but didn’t get the call. There seemed to be 15 against us and only a couple against them but it’s something we need to work on back at the training pitch.

Portland Timbers goalkeeper Donovan Ricketts
We are on the road and after we scored we left gaps in the back. I was in the correct position to make the saves and luckily I did.

Yes, once you put a point on the board it puts you a little closer. We wanted three but New England came out to play today, so we are content with only one point.

It was tough, because they were all over us the first 15-20 minutes. They gave us a run for our money during that time. We battled back and overcame it. 

We need to focus on the South American game first and take it one game at a time. After our trip we will prepare for the Seattle game. I think if we just focus on one thing at a time it will help the entire team.