For the third match in a row, the Portland Timbers played in an empty Providence Park, and for the third match in a row the Timbers gave up at least three goals, losing 3-2 to the LA Galaxy.
For the Timbers’ second of three matches in eight days, Giovanni Savarese went with an all-new starting XI, fully rotating his squad from the group that lined up against Real Salt Lake on Sunday. The Timbers reserves started the match looking out of sync and stayed that way as the quick, high press from the Galaxy disrupted their attempts to move the ball around the pitch.
Fifteen minutes into the match, the Galaxy opened the scoring. Working the ball down the Timbers’ left, the Galaxy pinged a series of one-touch passes between defenders before a cut back ball from Sebastian Lleget found Galaxy homegrown Efrain Alvarez at the penalty spot. With the Timbers defenders looking stunned around him, Alvarez placed a curling shot past Jeff Attinella to grab the 1-0 lead.
Attinella kept the deficit at one with a key save in the 35th minute. After receiving a ball from Cristian Pavon at the top of the Timbers box, Lletget let fly with a powerful strike that was destined to clip off the underside of the bar before Attinella got a touch to it, forcing the chance up and out for the Galaxy’s seventh corner kick of the night.
The scoreline would not last, however, as the Galaxy grabbed their second shortly after the half. In the 50th minute, Nicholas DePuy played a ball into space down the Timbers’ right, putting Pablo Bonilla into a footrace with the fleet-footed Pavon. Edging out Bonilla, Pavon burst toward the goal, cut around Julio Cascante, and slipped a low shot past Attinella for the score.
The Galaxy came close to extending their lead yet again in the 57th minute, but Attinella again came up big for the Timbers with a pair of saves. Off a corner kick headed to the back post, Galaxy midfielder Joe Corona got a head to the ball and looked to nod it over the end line from just feet away only to find that Attinella was in the right place to make himself big and stop the shot with his chest. As the ball dropped to the ground in front of the Timbers keeper, Lletget was there for a follow-up shot, but again Attinella was able to stand his ground and make the point-blank save and give his teammates a chance to clear.
Finally, after the introduction of a trio of substitutes, the Timbers were able to assert themselves on the match and pull one back. After a forceful push into the attacking end, Renzo Zambrano dribbled his way to the end line and cut a chipped ball back into the box that deflected off a defender’s leg and spun toward goal, forcing David Bingham to lep and push it away from goal. The ball spun away and dropped at the six-yard box where Felipe Mora was lurking. As the ball hit the turf it took a bounce and Mora struck, volleying a close-in finish into the back of the net to pull the Timbers back within one.
Just as it looked like the Timbers were clawing their way back into the game, the Galaxy scored again. A scramble in the Timbers box, enabled by a series of misplays from the Timbers’ back line, coughed the ball up at the top of the box where Corona was lurking. The Galaxy midfielder took the measure of the ball as it fell to him and absolutely crushed it, sending the ball flying past Attinella and into the back of the net.
The Timbers came close to answering in the minutes following the goal with finishes from Yimmi Chara and Jeremy Ebobisse that ended up in the back of the net but were both judged to be offside. Ebobisse’s finish, a back-post header past Bingham in the 80th minute, appeared to be onside despite the raised flag from the assistant referee and was given an extended review, but ultimately was judged close enough that referee Joseph Dickerson could not override the ruling on the field.
In the second minute of stoppage time, the Timbers got a brief moment of hope when Y. Chara got on the ball in space wide on the right and hit a curling ball into the box. The ball floated over the swarm of players crashing the Galaxy net and was corralled by Diego Valeri at the back post. With Bingham sliding across the face of goal, Valeri picked out the near post and squeezed a shot past the keeper for his 80th career goal.
The finish brought the Timbers back within one, but it was not enough to earn a point from the game as the remainder of stoppage time wound down without an equalizer.