WEN : Troy Perkins said Friday he doesn’t want to think too much about personal motivations he has for playing well against D.C. United on Sunday (5 pm ET; Direct Kick, MatchDay Live) at JELD-WEN Field.
The Timbers goalkeeper would rather not dwell on the 3-15-4 record he had minding the D.C. United net last year, or the 1.68 goals-against average.
It was an unpleasant experience for the 2006 MLS Goalkeeper of the Year. He shouldered the blame for a bad season and felt, at the end, like he had been made the scapegoat.
Then, with a fresh start Portland, he got hurt during preseason training and watched a 20-year-old third-stringer take the starting job for the franchise’s historic first games. When Perkins did finally get in — on the road at the LA Galaxy — he was bombarded by two goals in the first eight minutes of a 3-0 loss.
Through it all, Perkins persevered. No player has done more for the Timbers during the four-game unbeaten streak since the Los Angeles trip. Perkins even won Save of the Week honors for tipping away a Columbus Crew scoring chance last week.
“Just keeping a positive attitude,” Perkins said of his revival. “There’s days where you come in and you don’t want to train, and you kind of feel tired. Those are the days you’ve got to say, ‘Hey, we’re not going to [be negative], we’re going to put ourselves out. We’re going to fight and push for it.’”
Perkins does not mince words about his DC experience.
“When you have a winning mentality around a team, it’s easy to come in every day and do your job instead of doing the same thing over and over again,” he said. “It was redundant [in DC]. It was one of those things where it wasn’t a good atmosphere or a good environment.”
Source: http://www.mlssoccer.com/news/article/2011/05/27/perkins-has-gotten-his-groove-back-portland
The Timbers goalkeeper would rather not dwell on the 3-15-4 record he had minding the D.C. United net last year, or the 1.68 goals-against average.
It was an unpleasant experience for the 2006 MLS Goalkeeper of the Year. He shouldered the blame for a bad season and felt, at the end, like he had been made the scapegoat.
Then, with a fresh start Portland, he got hurt during preseason training and watched a 20-year-old third-stringer take the starting job for the franchise’s historic first games. When Perkins did finally get in — on the road at the LA Galaxy — he was bombarded by two goals in the first eight minutes of a 3-0 loss.
Through it all, Perkins persevered. No player has done more for the Timbers during the four-game unbeaten streak since the Los Angeles trip. Perkins even won Save of the Week honors for tipping away a Columbus Crew scoring chance last week.
“Just keeping a positive attitude,” Perkins said of his revival. “There’s days where you come in and you don’t want to train, and you kind of feel tired. Those are the days you’ve got to say, ‘Hey, we’re not going to [be negative], we’re going to put ourselves out. We’re going to fight and push for it.’”
Perkins does not mince words about his DC experience.
“When you have a winning mentality around a team, it’s easy to come in every day and do your job instead of doing the same thing over and over again,” he said. “It was redundant [in DC]. It was one of those things where it wasn’t a good atmosphere or a good environment.”
Source: http://www.mlssoccer.com/news/article/2011/05/27/perkins-has-gotten-his-groove-back-portland
No comments:
Post a Comment