I can say that where there's smoke, there's fire. However, that doesn't change what I said earlier about the group we have right now. We analysed many players during this offseason. There were several very interesting and high-level profiles. But the reality is that we wanted to prioritise bringing the group together as soon as possible and having the full squad as soon as possible.
I think we gave a really good performance. A very attractive and willing-to-go-forward type of performance. I think we saw a team with more quality, cleaner in the way we built our attacks, and also in the final third. I still think we have to improve some of the movements and decisions we make, but I think we saw a more vertical team, that went forward every time they could.
Hopefully, he's going to make our team better. We'll continue to try to improve our roster. The reason we didn't do much in the offseason was because we felt that this group of players that we have has great potential. In time, they'll be very good players. I think you saw some of that tonight.
The home opener is special every year. Just kind of like setting a tone at home, what the fans can expect of us this year. It's a very important game for us. You can probably say even more, now that we didn't get the result we wanted in the first game, I think it's very important that we step on the pitch looking for three points at home and also offering something good for the fans.
I'm happy for the guys. I feel like we're trying to learn some things while we're playing games. Playing three games really quickly in Coachella, to then very quickly jumping on a plane and going to Panama, to coming back and quickly playing New York and quickly turning this game around.
I thought it was important to give the new players their debuts at Providence Park because I think it's important for them to sample what it's like to be a Portland Timbers player. I've looked at Cole [Bassett] all pre-season and I think he's experienced now what this club's all about. I think that was really important for [Alex] Bonetig and Brandon Bye as well.