The Portland Timbers scored early and late in Thursday night’s 2-2 draw against Los Angeles FC, clinching the top spot in the Group F of the MLS is Back Tournament with the point over their recent rivals. Winning the group means that the Timbers will face off against the runners-up of Group E, FC Cincinnati next Tuesday, the 28th.
The Timbers opened the scoring in the 7th minute when a dummies ball down the Timbers’ right found Sebastian Blanco with room to turn upfield and pick out the bursting run of Jaroslaw Niezgoda down the center of the pitch and in on goal. When Niezgoda and the ball met at the top of the box LAFC keeper Pablo Sisniega rushed off his line, but it was already too late as the Polish striker hit the ball with his first touch, coolly slotting it home into the back of the net.
LAFC did not take long to rally, however, and managed to take hold of the game with a pair of goals in the 36th and 40th minutes. First came a Bradley Wright-Phillips thunderbolt when the ex-Red Bull got the ball in transition, took a touch around Bill Tuiloma, and hammered home a shot from 20 yards out. Four minutes later it was Tuiloma again on the end of some LAFC abuse as Mark-Anthony Kay spun away from him on a corner kick and put away a free header at the back post that had Giovanni Savarese yelling, “too easy!” from the bench.
With the humidity of Orlando and the tight schedule of the tournament wearing on both teams, the Timbers found themselves on the back foot for much of the second half, weathering a number of LAFC attacks as the Black and Gold looked to extend their lead.
Despite a significant possession advantage for LAFC, the Timbers were able to hold strong and even manage a handful of forays down the pitch of their own.
It was on one of those forays in the 81st minute that gave the Timbers their equalizer. Off a Diego Valeri cornerback, Bill Tuiloma put a strong header on the ball only to have it blocked back up into the air. As the ball dropped, Tuiloma again rose up and put a head on it, this time sending the ball across the face of goal and into the path of Jeremy Ebobisse. The Timbers striker reacted quickly, getting a snap header of his own to the ball, wrong-footing Sisniega, and sending the ball into the back of the net to draw the game even at 2-2.
Savarese made significant changes to his starting lineup against LAFC, bringing in Marco Farfan, Andy Polo, Cristhian Paredes, and Niezgoda for their first starts of the tournament, as well as rotating Dario Zuparic, Marvin Loria, and Chris Duvall back into the XI.
Of those players making their first start, few made a real case for another appearance in the XI.
Niezgoda and Farfan both were positives for the team, offering intriguing moments in the attack and covering well on defense, but ultimately not offering more than Ebobisse or Villafana have in previous matches. Niezgoda’s early goal was a textbook finish on the break and he put in some strong work to enable several other early counters from the Timbers, but as the Timbers control of the midfield faded early on so did Niezgoda’s influence on the game.
Paredes and Polo, on the other hand, were certainly a step down from Eryk Williamson and *shakes head* Diego Valeri. While the Timbers were able to put together one notable string of possession early in the match, it was not until Williamson came on to provide some precise passing late in the game that the Timbers were able to provide much of a threat to LAFC’s control of the center of the pitch. Similarly, Valeri’s arrival on the pitch as a second-half substitute gave the Timbers someone through whom they could run the break other than Sebastian Blanco, taking the pressure off the defense as the Timbers were able to work the ball out of their defensive end through the Maestro’s precise dribbling and passing.