The Portland Timbers may have come into Wednesday night’s match at Rio Tinto Stadium riding a five-game winning streak, but after ninety minutes that streak was broken. Despite a late fightback, the Timbers were unable to overcome conceding a pair of goals in the first half as they lost 2-1 to Real Salt Lake.
The Timbers could have had a chance to open the scoring in the fifth minute when RSL keeper Andrew Putna took Jeremy Ebobisse down in the box. Although replays showed that Putna made contact with Ebobisse and failed to touch the ball, referee Robert Sibiga swallowed his whistle, and VAR did not come to the Timbers’ rescue.
After the non-call went the way of RSL, the momentum of the match followed. The home side were quick to capitalize. In the 11th minute, a long ball over the top for the run of Damir Kreilach forced Aljaž Ivačič into action. The Timbers keeper rushed off his line and got to the ball first, but could not control it and simply knocked it into space outside the Timbers box. Douglas Martínez was the first player to the ball and, with Ivačič on the ground and the Timbers defense out of the picture, it was a simple matter for him to slot the ball home into the open net.
The home side struck again in the 26th minute off a designed corner kick play. As Pablo Ruíz served the ball in, Kreilach peeled into space, aided by a pick from center back Marcelo Silva that took both Larrys Mabiala and Bill Tuiloma out of the play. As the ball fell to him, Kreilach took it on the volley, sending a fizzing ball toward goal that blew past Ivačič for RSL’s second.
The pressure on the Timbers continued to mount as the first half continued and the home side forced several saves from Ivačič . The Timbers keeper did well to push a Kreilach free-kick over the bar in the 30th minute. Then, in the 32nd minute, he made a close-range save on Martínez, getting two strong hands on a shot that was hammered high at the near post.
In the final minutes of the half, the Timbers seemed to find some sense of equilibrium, halting the RSL counter that had been causing them difficulties earlier in the match and having some luck at moving the ball around the pitch.
That equilibrium continued in the second half with both sides probing in the attack but neither able to find an opening. Near-misses from RSL in the opening minutes of the half were paired with long stretches of possession in the attacking end from the Timbers.
After half an hour of back and forth, the Timbers managed to grab a goal of their own in the 76th minute. A Diego Valeri corner kick into the center of the box found Tuiloma rising up above the crowd for a thumping header that Putna could not get a hand to before it flew just under the bar and into the net.
Galvanized, the Timbers continued to push for a second and came close on several occasions, but RSL were repeatedly able to scramble the ball away and hold on to their lead until the final whistle.