The Portland Timbers turn playoffs into nightmare
A 5-0 loss had Phil Neville saying his players quit and Evander firing off tweets.
It’s hard to stink up the place worse than the Portland Trail Blazers did Wednesday night in their season opener, but consider the 19,480 who sat through Portland’s 35-point loss to Golden State didn’t have to sit outside on a cold night.
Sympathies to those at Providence Park, who began the evening optimistic a home Wild Card game could spark a meaningful postseason run, and ended it deciphering tweets from Evander and listening to Phil Neville accuse his roster of quitting.
Said Neville at 9:45 p.m.:
“I'm more determined now than I've ever been and tonight I'm going to bottle the feeling of how it felt and that is the motivation when work starts tomorrow — building a roster that can compete, building a roster with players that don't quit, building a roster with players that want to and can play in this type of game.”
Tweeted Evander at 11:12 p.m.:
“First, I want to apologize to all the fans who, on a Wednesday night, dropped everything to support us. It’s really hard to lose the way we did. The truth is, losing is not in our plans, but we have to deal with it.
“I want to say that we, the players and the entire staff, did everything we could to take Portland as far as possible. However, sometimes we have no control over what happens, and what happens off the field reflects on the field.
“Portland fans do not deserve the people who have power over this club. People who say they are men but do not keep their word. People who are only there when the team wins. Unfortunately, these are things we have no control over.”
Portland lost 5-0 on Wednesday, and that was only the beginning.