Harsh times call for harsh words, I suppose.
Portland Timbers manager Gavin Wilkinson wasn’t beating around the hot Texas bush last night after his team capitulated to FC Dallas:
I feel humiliated. I feel terrible for the organization. We talk about how great our fan support is. We had a group of fans that traveled tonight, and I apologize to them. And that’s me and the organization apologizing. It’s important that we readdress the situation.”
Addressing the situation is tough, of course. Just days before the transfer window closes, there’s only so much “addressing” that can happen at this point.
They have a chance to put things temporarily into a better place, at least, as Chivas USA visits Portland in a week. The Goats are only doing a little better than Portland.
(MORE: a very difficult spot for Timbers owner Merritt Paulson)
Meanwhile, Wilkinson wasn’t finished:
I don’t think tactics lost us the game. It’s not me isolating the players. I’m in it with them, so I’m very careful about what I say there. But we are embarrassed tonight. We found a way to lose the game, scored an own goal, and then dug a deeper hole and didn’t track runners. You can’t tactically allow for players to not track runners. They’ve got a job to do. It’s up to us collectively to get the jobs done. But this is unacceptable, completely unacceptable.”