Tag: Cascadia Cup

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Soccer Timbers

Takeaways: Portland Timbers 3, Vancouver Whitecaps 1

Photo Credit: Kris Lattimore

After losing to the Whitecaps 0-1 in Vancouver in April, the Portland Timbers had revenge on their mind when they hosted one of their Cascadia rivals Saturday.

In the previous matchup, the Timbers were outmatched, overwhelmed, and shorthanded. But this time, Portland got their sweet revenge, with a 3-1 win in their most complete performance of the year.

Timbers head coach Gio Savarese was very pleased with his team’s performance.

“Very important win for many, many reasons,” said Savarese. “Three points. Cascadia Cup. Home game. Then we performed very well.”

Still, he said, “I think we can still progress, we can still get better. There’s areas that we have to continue to work, but I think the first 20 minutes and the entire second half, I thought we were very, very good.”

In the second minute, Franck Boli broke out of his scoring drought to put Portland on the board first.

The Timbers continued to create chances after the opening goal, with combination play between Juan David Mosquera, Santi Moreno, and Evander putting another one away in the 18th minute.

This was some of their finest work all year.

This team has been clicking offensively for weeks, and it showed off big time. Portland outshot and had more shots on target than Vancouver, putting up 13 and seven to the Whitecaps’ seven and four, respectively.

Unfortunately in the 24th minute, Zac McGraw went for a clearance that turned into an own goal.

In the 54th minute, Evander put on a insane move to freeze his defender and then ripped a shot for Portland’s third goal for the final score.

This was his best game as a Timber, and he has let the entire MLS know, too.

The Evander Show
Photo Credit: Kris Lattimore

After early struggles with form and injury, Evander has played his best ball the past few weeks. He is playing with tons of confidence, his decision making is so much quicker, and his passing has been very crisp. This is the exact player general manager Ned Grabavoy and  Savarese wanted to sign.

Evander is one of the most in form players in MLS right now, and the Timbers are steadily climbing the table thanks to his contributions.

The Portland Timbers are playing their best football of the season, which happens to coincide with his best run of play.

Is that a coincidence? Absolutely not.

“I was going for the hat trick,” said Evander. “Of course, not doing crazy things, but I wanted one more opportunity for a goal. I knew that nobody [on the Timbers] has scored a hat trick in an MLS competition, and I wanted to be the first, but I’ll have to wait till the next opportunity.

Still, he was pleased with his team’s performance. “I think this shows us how good we are” he said, “how good we are when we play together and as a team… When we play together, when we are compact and play soccer and enjoy the game, things become much easier. The win today gives us more confidence for the rest of the season.”

All You Gotta Do is BOLIeve
Photo Credit: Kris Lattimore

Boli scored his first goal for Portland in his Timbers debut. Since then, he has been hungry for his second.

His work rate and comfort level has been steadily climbing in the past couple weeks.

“I am a striker. I create goals. Last game I wanted to score so bad, I missed some goals and got angry,” said Boli. “But you’ve got to try again.

“I’m very happy to score today and also that the team won,” he said. “That’s even more important than my goal. As a striker, you want to score every time and I’m happy about that.”

Boli has continued to be get more comfortable with the team and league.

“He’s getting to understand the league,” said Savarese. “He’s getting to feel more chemistry, and he’s getting fitter as well.

“You saw his movements today,” Savarese said. “Now he knows how to move around the defenders because they’re physical here in MLS. He needs to understand how to find good areas in order to make sure to be in good places to get the ball. He created some very good moments, attacking-wise.”

Fun stats
  • xG: Portland 1.15, Vancouver 0.59
  • Evander led the team in shots, shots on goal, and goals.
  • Santiago Moreno paced the team in chances created, successful dribbles, and completed passes in the final third.
  • Juan David Mosquera had the most touches, crosses attempted, completed passes on the team.
  • Dario Zuparic was stout in defense with 10 recoveries and seven aerial duels won.
  • Diego Chará made his 350th MLS appearance.

 

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Soccer Timbers

Takeaways: Portland 4, Seattle 1

Dairon Asprilla's bicycle kick goal in the 71st minute is a candidate for MLS goal of the year. Elite Photo Credit: Matthew Wolfe
Dairon Asprilla's bicycle kick goal in the 71st minute is a candidate for MLS goal of the year. Elite Photo Credit: Matthew Wolfe

Heading into Saturday’s game, the Seattle Sounders were first in the table and were the top scoring team in the West. The Portland Timbers, meanwhile, were 12th in the table and had not won a game since their regular season opener against Sporting KC on February 27. The Timbers were winless in their last six matches.

After losing Eryk Williamson to season ending injury, this team could of continued their downward spiral.

After playing one of their best halves of football, the Portland Timbers looked down and out.

In the 58th minute Sounders superstar Raúl Ruidíaz scored to put the visitors up 1-0.

But all it takes is one moment to change all the momentum. In the 71st minute, Dairon Asprilla scored the MLS goal of the year to tie it at 1-1 with a brilliant bicycle kick.

That goal gave the Portland Timbers a sense of belief and ignited the attack for the first time all season.

Nathan Fogaça gave Portland the 2-1 lead with a beautiful dribble and two touches to get around Sounders defender Yeimar. Seattle Goalkeeper Stefan Frei managed to get a hand on Fogaça’s shot, but it wasn’t enough to stop the ball from going into the back of the net.

Jarosław Niezgoda has struggled to find his form all season and was subbed in the 72nd minute for Franck Boli. Less than 10 minutes later, he put away a rebound to score his first goal of the season.

Juan David Mosquera put the game away in the 89th minute, with a rocket on a quick counter.

The Portland Timbers completed the comeback to win 4-1, with all of their goals scored in the last 20 minutes.

These are the games where we are reminded why we love this game and these players.

Best lineup of the season

Since the season started, Portland has not had their strongest XI. Although Williamson is out for the year, the Timbers had a majority of their first choice squad for the first time.

This starting XI came out on the front foot and outshot Seattle 7-4 in the first half. Unfortunately, they lost control of the game early in the second half.

Once Portland head coach Gio Savarese made substitutions, they regained the upper hand. Many of the Timbers starters for the game are still coming back to full fitness.

When Yimmi Chará returns, they will have all of their first choice starters except Williamson.

The starters played well in the first half, and the substitutes’ fresh legs will give this team a lot of positives moving forward.

Franck Boli starts
Franck Boli made his first start for Portland as they took down Seattle 4-1.Credit: Matthew Wolfe
Franck Boli made his first start for Portland as they took down Seattle 4-1.
Credit: Matthew Wolfe

The Timbers signed Ivorian forward Franck Boli from Hungarian top-flight side Ferencvárosi on March 13.

Boli has been getting up to speed, learning the system, and building a rapport with his new teammates over the past month.

In two sub appearances, he had played 28 total minutes before the Seattle game—including time in which he scored the game tying goal at FC Dallas.

Boli made his first start against the Seattle Sounders.

After the match, Savarese said he was impressed with Boli’s performance and extremely excited to see him with more opportunities. “He started to figure things out,” Savarese said. “You can see the special things that he has. In some moments, you saw how quick he was to get in front of the Seattle defender… He can get in good areas.”

The Timbers head coach believes Boli’s only going to get better with more time to learn the system.

“He has a good understanding of the way we want to play,” said Savarese. “Now it’s about generating the chemistry with the guys. He just arrived. Evander just started to play with him. Some of the guys started to get to know the two of them more and more.”

Forwards can score, too!
Nathan Fogaça scored his first goal of the 2023 season against the Seattle Sounders.Credit: Matthew Wolfe
Nathan scored his first goal of the 2023 season against the Seattle Sounders.
Credit: Matthew Wolfe

The Timbers had only scored six goals in their first seven games. Out of those, each line had contributed two each. The only forwards who had scored prior to the Seattle game were Boli and Tega Ikoba.

That all changed in this game.

Asprilla, Fogaça, and Niezgoda all opened their scoring accounts for the season. If their frontline can continue to produce, this team is going to be scary the rest of the way.

David vs. Goliath

The first place team facing off against the 12th place team. The Sounders went into the game with a +12 goal differential, while Portland was at -6.

Still, the Timbers started off the game on the front foot, outshooting the Sounders in the first half.

At the start of the second half, Seattle could not have started much better. They found the opening goal in the 58th minute and nearly scored again on several occasions.

Seattle’s attacking soccer and ruthless barrages continued, and they kept chasing a second goal.

The Timbers being down a goal with 20 minutes left in the game, things were not looking good to even get a result.

Portland has been beat up all season, but they got up and fought like heck the rest of the way.

Thanks to their forwards, Santi Moreno’s assists, and the return of their dangerous counterattack, Portland was able to take down Goliath.

Shoutouts
JDM celebrates his second goal of the season versus the Seattle Sounders. He continues cement himself as one of the best right backs in MLS. Credit: Matthew Wolfe
JDM celebrates his second goal of the season versus the Seattle Sounders. He continues cement himself as one of the best right backs in MLS.
Credit: Matthew Wolfe

Juan David Mosquera scored his second goal of the season and continues to put in the effort on the defensive end. He led the team in touches, shots, shots on goal, crosses, and possessions won.

Claudio Bravo made a goal-saving intervention in the 39th minute before Jordan Morris could put it in the back of the net. Bravo was near the team lead in a bunch of stats.

The first three goals had Santi Moreno‘s signature all over them. He assisted on the first two goals to Asprilla and Fogaça. On the third goal, he followed up Fogaça’s shot, which allowed Niezgoda to finish it.

Fun stats
  • Portland has now beaten Seattle four consecutive times
  • Portland Timbers xG: 1.38 – Seattle Sounders xG: 1.33
  • Portland had more total shots and shots on goal
    • Portland: 17/8 – Seattle 15/5
  • Diego Chará completed  97.2% of his passes
  • Dario Zuparic led the team with seven aerial duels won
  • Dairon Asprilla also had eight dribbles and six successful dribbles to lead the team.
Coaches’ corner

Savarese on the win: “When you don’t get too many good results, and you’re putting in a lot of work, and you’re trying to manage a lot of things in a difficult way, the way we started—a win like today’s is incredible. It’s amazing, because we needed it. We needed it. We needed the three points; we needed a win like this to feel that we’re capable of competing at the highest level. And we still have some players that need to come back.

“I think with that said, I felt tonight the guys wanted to win. You felt it. And I think, as I said, a goal like Asprilla’s just gives that energy at the end to make sure that the guys just felt that we can win this game.

“Now we have to continue to work. It’s not staying on one game and that’s it. It’s about all the games that are coming, and we need to prepare very well, because now we have Cincinnati. We have the U.S. Open Cup. Then we have to go to St. Louis. We have a difficult schedule, but now with players coming back and finally getting a bench that is full, we can compete to a better level.”

Sounders head coach Brian Schmetzer on his postgame message to the team: “I told them I don’t feel that it’s a rivalry. That’s my initial gut thought. At 1-0, we have to have that killer instinct against a team that has beat us three games in a row, that’s had our number. At their place, stick the knife in, kill the game. I don’t give a shit if it was the second goal or extending possession. After the game, some of our staff members, everybody talking, laughing. It’s like another loss. It’s not another loss; it’s against the Timbers.

“We have to get back to understanding that this is a rivalry. And that’s what I said to everybody. That’s the reflection that I have. It’s not good, it’s not good. We don’t have the killer instinct to put them away. We gave them life; we talked about it, messaged it before the game. They were using this game as a springboard. They have to go to Cincinnati next week. They get a bad result here and have to go to Cincinnati, that could doom them. But we give them life.”

Quote of the night

Asprilla, on if practicing bicycle kicks during practice attributed to his goal: “Yes. I talked to [David] Ayala before the game. ‘You wait for [the] bicycle’. It’s my confidence.”

Categories
Soccer Timbers

Strong Defense and Yimmi Chará see Timbers through 1-0 win over Seattle Sounders

Photo by Matthew Wolfe

The Portland Timbers came into Wednesday night’s match against the Seattle Sounders just three points behind the Western Conference leaders, but left it in joint first place after a stout defensive performance and an opportunistic goal saw them win out 1-0 at Providence Park.

The Timbers started the match on the back foot, absorbing pressure from the Sounders in the opening minutes and fending off a series of corner kicks from the visitors.

As has often been the case in this fixture, however, the team that started the match on defense was able to get forward in transition. After keeping the Sounders from any clear chances for 13 minutes, the Timbers pushed forward and snagged the opening goal on the counter.

A long ball from Dario Župarić, knocked down by a Seattle defender, fell to Jeremy Ebobisse in the attacking half. In the gap between the Sounders midfield and backline, Ebobisse played a weighted pass through the defense for a cutting run from Yimmi Chará into the box. Arriving at the ball ten yards from goal, Y. Chará was able to get a touch to it as Sounders keeper Stefan Frei rushed off his line, poking the ball forward and into the net for the 1-0 lead.

The Sounders came close to finding the equalizer in the 21st minute when a deflected ball fell to striker Raúl Ruidíaz in space in the attacking end. Looking up, Ruidíaz picked out Steve Clark well off his line and, with the Timbers keeper back-peddling, went for a chipped shot into the open goal. The ball arched past the desperate waving of Clark, but was not on target and bounced just wide of the frame.

Chances continued to come for the Sounders as the half progressed, with a number of dangerous balls into the Timbers box forcing the Timbers to scramble in order to maintain their lead. But, despite 11 first-half shots from the visitors, the Timbers were able to go into the half still up 1-0.

The second half continued with a physical tone as both teams looked to disrupt the attacking flow of their opposition. The testiness was typified by a 55th-minute flashpoint when Pablo Bonilla dragged Ruidíaz to the ground by his shorts in the Sounders end and the Seattle designated player responded by lashing out and kicking Bonilla in the leg, resulting in yellow cards for both players.

Chances continued to come for the Sounders through the second half, but few were clear-cut as they faced a packed-in Timbers defense. Despite regular forays forward, the Timbers were able to consistently return to their defensive shape and avoid giving the Sounders any good looks.

As the match ground on and the Timbers maintained their lead, Seattle increasingly through numbers forward and left gaps at the back, inviting the Timbers to break out in dangerous fashion. Although the Timbers were able to get forward regularly in the final minutes of the match, no more goals were on offer for either side.

The Timbers are away against the Vancouver Whitecaps on Sunday at Providence Park. Wait. What?

 

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Soccer Timbers

A North End without Noise

Photo by Kris Lattimore
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