The Portland Timbers are back home training at the Adidas Timbers Training Center in neighboring Beaverton, OR. After the complicated match in the snow against the Colorado Rapids on Saturday March 2 for their 2019 Season Opener that ended tied 3-3 with a second half played in heavy snow and a MLS record-breaking 18 degrees. The game itself was labeled as “the coldest match in MLS history”.
After their session, we chatted with Timber’s defensive midfielder Diego Chara to discuss the messy snow match, their upcoming visit at LA FC, and Chara’s own expectations and views on this new 2019 season.
Diego Chara, highlighted the difficulties of playing in such challenging weather, “in such conditions the ball is different”, he said, but the team was satisfied with the result. Colorado took advantage of its chances, and the Timber’s midfielder lamented loss of concentration at the end, which ended with giving up a goal to the home side in the final minutes.
After the Rockies mountain chill, The Portland Timbers, will be heading to a more template weather zone to face LAFC next week at the Bank of California Stadium in Los Angeles, CA. Chara acknowledged the quality of the team and the players they will be facing, but was confident in the Timbers chances of earning a victory.
After the loss to Atlanta in last year’s MLS Cup Final, the group appears to want more and aspires to be more polished and improve over last season’s performance. Chara pointed out that “This is Gio’s (Giovanni Savarese) second season with the team”, and they are all getting better at working with each other in this new campaign. He complimented the head coach’s work ethic and his winning spirit as a consequence of Savarese’s excellent record as a manager with the New York Cosmos, even erasing a spot on the MLS final on his first season on the US top club soccer tier as a reflection of his work.
On the team’s 2018 performance, Chara followed up saying “He (Giovanni Savarese) is a person who came to work, to impose his own style, he encountered an existing important group already in place who also did thing well, with the addition of a few new players. I believe it was a combination of all those things that took us to play the final”.
As Diego Chara personal ambitions for the new season, after playing two MLS Cup finals in 2015, and 2018, Chara is very ambitions and sets bar high, his sights are on winning it all, the Open Cup, the Supporters Shield, and of course the MLS Cup.
“Personally, I have a score to settle with the team [Atlanta], to win the Supporters Shield, Open Cup, and logically, to be again MLS Champions”
We finished our conversation with a bit about defense, and the transformation with the departure of Liam Ridgwell and Julio Cascante being promoted to the starting role on the back four. From Liam’s ability to playing the ball out of defense, to Julio’s strength, more power in aerial game, however, with only one game on the belt, and after a messy bout on the snow, there hasn’t been enough time yet to arrive to any conclusions.
Watch below, the whole interview here (In Spanish).
Portland Timbers
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