Kamal Miller. Kamal, thanks for joining us just to start us
off. Talk a little bit about how you're feeling with
a clean sheet against Seattle and at home. Yeah, it feels really good.
Um, clean sheets are something we've been really trying to achieve as a back line and
find the right balance to get those because when we get those, it's pretty much guaranteed.
Now, we know the front guys are going to get a goal.
So it's on us to sharp, sharpen up back there and uh get the clean sheets and it, it's huge
for Max's confidence, my confidence.
Um and it seems like great timing leading into the, into the playoffs and into this
international break, we can carry this momentum into the next coming
games and hopefully a lot more clean sheets to come.
Come on, congrats on your first win against the Sounders as a Timbers player. Um, after the first game this season, uh, Phil
said that the results are the only thing that matter in these type of games and that if he
was a supporter that day, he would have been disappointed. Um Can you just talk about the difference
result aside in the mentality of the squad showed from then to tonight. Yeah, it was a lot more of a mature performance
tonight. Definitely. Um, I think in the first game in these Derry
games as well, they're usually so equal and it's like, feel
sad. It's just the little things that are going to
get you the result. And last time we didn't do the little things
properly, but today we, I don't even know how many corners we defended,
but we did very well with that. Um, Max was aggressive off the line and helped
us a lot. We were blocking shots, um, slide tackles from
Evander. It was just incredible shifts from everyone and
that's what you need to win these type of games. They 1021 kind of games.
You never blow out at every game. Really?
So, yeah, Mason doing all right after that collision with Max there. Yeah, definitely, Max got a little too excited. Yeah, actually, I just wanna wanna comment on
the last few minutes of the game. You had a couple fantastic slides that really
kept the momentum going on the defense and, and saved us.
And so I just wanna ask you what that defensive line mentality was that last maybe 15 minutes
knowing that you guys have the potential for a clean sheet.
Yeah, it feels good. I feel like that's a huge part of my game to
always come up with those big tackles and I've been disappointed with myself throughout the
year that I haven't really been able to do it consistently.
There's been glimpses but, uh, starting tonight and going forward, I wanna
make that the standard, not only for myself but for the rest of the
back line because when we have that intensity, the clean sheets, um, come much easier and
we're able to, uh, play together and in those last 15 minutes,
um, it was just a mentality that we weren't going to concede.
Um We had Timor's armies there behind us and everyone putting in a shift.
Um Anthony Santi, um Eric came in and was putting a lot of
pressure on the ball and fighting trying to win headers, uh Diego while it was everywhere
tonight. And yeah, that's what it's gonna take to, to
win these games against these, all these good teams.
Come on over here. How you doing tonight?
Congratulations on the win. I was able to ask, um, your national, um Coach
Mr Jesse about Max Kural, how important he is for the national team.
Then I was able to ask coach Phil about him and I want to ask you, how does it feel to have a
figure like Kurt Paul behind you? What does he, what does he transmit to you as a
defender? Thank you.
Yeah, just the confidence. Knowing that you have a guy behind you that's
known to just come up with the big play. So if you make a mistake and as a defender,
usually you get punished, but, you know, Max has a great chance of
keeping the ball at the net back there. Um He's a calming presence. Um his energy on the field, he saw he had
budded Mason today almost broke his nose. But yeah, that, that's just Max.
Um and he deserves it. He's been a solid keeper for so long, but never
really got his, his praise.
And now since coming back from that injury, he's hands down one of the best goalies in, in
MLS and pushing to be one of the best keepers, uh, in the world at
the national team level. He, that's his ability.
So it's amazing to play with him and he gives me a lot of confidence.
I can play a lot more aggressive knowing that if the ball goes over my head, he's standing 30
yards off his line ready to head the ball or clear the ball and help us out.
So it's a good relationship. Thank you.
Come on, we'll wrap it there.