Tag: Houston Dynamo

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Soccer Timbers

Takeaways: Portland Timbers 0, Houston Dynamo 5

Credit: Matthew Wolfe
Credit: Matthew Wolfe

The Timbers traveled to Houston with the goal to do something different in this last part of the season and, hopefully, get some points.

Nonetheless, the game turned out to be a nightmare only 15 minutes into it.

Starting XI. Credit: Timbers FC
Starting XI. Credit: Timbers FC

The Portland Timbers went back to regular season action after playing in the Leagues Cup. Despite the results, the way they performed in the tournament gave fans hope again that they could have a better end of the season, and maybe push for a playoff spot.

Important absences contributed to the disaster

Without Diego Chará due to yellow card, suspension and without Zac McGraw due to an unspecified illness, Portland suffered defensively once again. Not only were they absent, but also Santiago Moreno and Marvin Loría. The defense looked sloppy, to say the least, and in some parts of the match, it looked nonexistent.

Only five minutes into the game, Claudio Bravo fouled Griffin Dorsey inside the box and Amine Bassi scored from the penalty spot.

After that, Houston kept sending through balls to their forwards that could’ve pretty much ended up in more goals. Not much time passed until the Dynamo scored its second of the night through Nelson Quiñones.

Houston’s third goal was unbelievable with Corey Baird going on a 1v1 with Ivačič after Adalberto Carrasquilla destabilized Portland’s defense with a backheel to Baird. Three goals in 14 minutes.

Things could’ve gotten so much worse at the 37th minute but the wood played for the Timbers when the ball hit the crossbar. But another goal was bound to happen and the Dynamo scored one more before halftime.

After the disaster that was the first half, Giovanni Savaresse changed almost 30% of the team at the start of the second half. One might say it worked because the Timbers stopped leaking so many goals but they didn’t improve enough to be near to scoring, let alone equalize this match.

Houston still had something left in the tank and after 60 minutes of soccer, they scored their fifth tally of the match through Brad Smith. 

Portland couldn’t catch a break in the entire game. The injuries ghost that has haunted the Timbers during the entire season appeared again. Jeroslaw Niezgoda entered the game in the 69th minute but he wasn’t going to stay on the field long. Only six minutes later he had to leave on a stretcher. This meant that the visitors played with one man down for the remainder of the match.

Claudio Bravo, we need to talk mister

Not to point fingers and look for a scapegoat but the performance of some of the Timbers in this game was truly disappointing. How did Claudio Bravo, as a fullback, manage to have zero tackles, zero clearances, zero blocked shots and zero interceptions? 

What is more, he looked as if he was bolted to the floor while Houston was attacking Aljaž Ivačič without merci. It is true that the entire backline did a lazy defending the entire night but Bravo’s attitude and the way he was – or wasn’t – doing his job are unacceptable.

No wonder why he was one of the four players the coach subbed off at halftime.

Bravo is just one example, but there are a lot of players that need to examine themselves and wonder if they’re giving their best to this team.

Who are the Timbers?

After this game it is fair to ask about the identity of this team. That question must be in every single fan’s mind, because Portland has shown multiple personalities this year.

Are they the fun team we saw in the Leagues Cup? Or are they the team that always can’t find the final pass? Are they the promising team that fights the entire match but ends up losing in the end? Or are they this pale version with no defensive skills whatsoever and no attack?

We don’t have the answer but one thing is sure: They’re not a reliable team and cannot score consistently even if their lives would depend on it.

“It was definitely a hard match. We need to be realistic: we played a horrible game tonight, and now we just need to look forward and focus on the next match,” said Cristhian Paredes after the game. He couldn’t have put it in better words.

The team had a lot of time to prepare for this match. This road game was supposed to be the Timbers’ final push to get into the playoffs. Fans were even a little hopeful after what they saw in the Leagues Cup, but the Timbers failed them again.

Now a playoff spot looks farther and farther away, and the end of their season looks nearer than before.

Categories
Soccer Timbers

Timbers Win Third Game in Four Months, Third Game in a Row

Courtesy of MLS

In a battle between two teams looking to outlast their opponent, wear them down, and catch them off balance, the Portland Timbers were the team still standing after 90 grueling minutes against the Houston Dynamo on Saturday night. In their second game of the MLS is Back Tournament group stage, the Timbers looked in control for most of the match as they fought their way to a 2-1 victory.

Although the Dynamo went down a man in the final minutes of the match after Alberth Elis picked up his second yellow card of the night, it was the Timbers’ ability to take their chances that played a deciding role in the match. Inch-perfect finishes from Jeremy Ebobisse in the 35th minute and Diego Valeri in the 61st minute put the Timbers up 2-0, giving the side the breathing room needed to see out the match.

Before his sending off, Elis did manage to pull one back for the Dynamo, earning a penalty kick in the 86th minute after putting a header off the hand of Jorge Villafana — who had an otherwise excellent game — and then stepping up to convert the spot-kick past Steve Clark to pull the Dynamo back within one with minutes left in the match.

In the heat and humidity of the Orlando summer, a major factor in the match against the Dynamo seemed to be the fresh legs of the Timbers’ substitutes.

Giovanni Savarese went to his bench early on Saturday, bringing on Andy Polo for Yimmi Chara in the 60th minute. He then made two more subs in the 69th minute, bringing on Marvin Loria and Jaroslaw Niezgoda for Eryk Williamson and Jeremy Ebobisse. Finally, Savarese capped off the night by bringing on Chris Duvall for Pablo Bonilla in the 82nd minute after the youngster absorbed his third hard foul of the night.

The Dynamo, on the other hand, made one sub in the 62nd minute, one in the 87th, and two in the 88th.

As a result of Savarese’s aggressive use of subs, the Timbers looked markedly fresher than their opponents during the second half even after having played with a man down for a big chunk of last Friday’s win over the LA Galaxy. With the Dynamo flagging, the Timbers subs were able to make a real impact on the match, quickly breaking up Dynamo attempts to get forward and winning the fifty-fifty balls that might otherwise have given Houston a chance to get back in the game.

Despite being subbed off late in the match, Saturday was a successful first-team debut for Bonilla who got the start over Chris Duvall at right-back, being granted the privilege of matching up against the Dynamo’s vaunted attacking trio: Alberth Elis, Darwin Quintero, and Mauro Manotas. Bonilla, a Venezuelan youth international signed from T2 exactly one month ago, was introduced to the MLS life by the Dynamo when in just the 7th minute he took a cleat to the thigh from Houston midfielder Maynor Figueroa.

Despite the rough treatment by the opposition, Bonilla acquitted himself well in the first half, providing solid coverage down the right flank and acting as an outlet for Yimmi Chara on his regular runs forward. In the second half the youngster continued his strong outing, getting further forward down the pitch as well as providing several clutch tackles when the Dynamo got forward on the Timbers’ right.

Most interesting was Bonilla’s play with Marvin Loria after the Costa Rican 23-year-old came on as a substitute early in the second half. After spending the pre-suspension preseason together with T2, Bonilla and Loria had clear chemistry playing together on the wing and combined for a strong chance on goal that Loria ultimately had blocked by a defender as he got his shot away.

The win against the Dynamo guarantees that the Timbers will reach the knockout rounds of the MLSIBT and leaves the Timbers with a final group match against LAFC next Thursday that will at most affect the Timbers’ seed coming out of the group stage.

How the Timbers treat this match will tell us much about how they view this tournament and how they view the possibility of playing out the remainder of the season. These group stage games count as part of the 2020 MLS regular season, so it will be interesting to see if the Timbers view this last group stage match as a chance to get minutes to players that have mostly served as subs like Niezgoda or Andy Polo, to bring in some youngsters like Blake Bodily or Marco Farfan who have yet to see the pitch, or just another game to run out the regular starting XI, tournament be damned.