The Portland Timbers drew in enemy territory Saturday and are the kings of the Cascadia Cup! What’s more, they get to host a playoff game!
The XI
It was surprising to see head coach Phil Neville put James Pantemis in goal for Decision Day instead of Maxime Crépeau. Kamal Miller was suspended due to yellow card accumulation, hence we saw the debut of Finn Surman.
Santiago Moreno was out due to injury, while David Ayala was on the bench.
Although this was an important game behind enemy lines, the Timbers had the odds in their favor; Seattle hadn’t won against their rivals at home since May 2017.
Encouraged by their fans at home and by what was at stake, Seattle took the driver’s seat. But in the first 15 minutes, the Timbers were defending well. As you can see in the video below, they were applying a high press, to force the Sounders to play the ball back.
However, the home team started to tip the scales in their favor, and Portland had to hold on. Dropping back gave some of the players such as Surman the opportunity to make some amazing defensive actions.
Despite the defensive efforts, the Sounders were getting closer and closer to opening their tab. Portland endured 20 minutes under siege (as you can see in the excitement index below), which ended only after the hosts found the opening goal they were looking for. They did so through a set piece, which wasn’t a surprise, since Seattle has found the back of the net 13 times in that way this year.
A corner on the left, while nobody was marking Yéimar Gómez, was the recipe for disaster. The Seattle centerback only had to take two steps back to connect with the ball and score with his head.
The second half was another kind of game
Although the Timbers started the second half in a better way, their midfield started to disappear little-by-little. That’s why after the hour mark, Neville made the first substitutions for Portland. Diego Chará and Cristhian Paredes went out, while Ayala and Eryk Williamson were subbed in.
After that, Portland found it easier to disrupt Seattle’s play, but they still couldn’t gain enough control. However, not even 10 minutes after the subs came in, the Timbers found the equalizer.
Up until then, Jonathan Rodríguez hadn’t been able to impact the game much. But in the 68th minute, Williamson made a tackle. Then the Uruguayan recovered the ball and passed it immediately to Evander, who, in turn, sent it to Antony. Antony put his ability to drive past defenders into action to find the back of the net.
The goal was a bad omen for the home team, who had a player sent off literally one minute after Portland scored. Added to that, Albert Rusnák saw a yellow for dissent.
Of course, with Seattle being down to 10 men, the Timbers felt more at ease and started to create more chances. Nonetheless, their expected goals for this match was low (only 0.6). Good thing they could beat that stat once again, huh?
Evander
The Brazilian couldn’t do much in the first half. As we can see in the graphic below, most of his touches were in the middle of the park, not close enough to a place where he could hurt Seattle.
His distribution map from the first half shows most of his passes directed toward the back line, and the rest of them were horizontal. Through passes and key passes to advance the ball were pretty much nonexistent. The few Evander attempted weren’t successful.
The second half was different, since the midfielder could get closer to Seattle’s box and be more dangerous. He was credited the assist for Antony’s goal, and with that, he reached 15 assists this season. (He’s now second in MLS in assists after Cincinnati’s Luciano Acosta, who has 16.
Final thoughts
The Timbers’ stats are not the best. Just seeing they had two shots on target says a lot, but props to them. They did what they had to do to claim the Cascadia Cup, and for this reason, the draw feels like a win. The draw tastes even sweeter because Seattle thought for some minutes that they could take it away from their rivals’ hands, but Portland’s designated players showed up when needed and helped to get the result.
And not only the designated players but the whole team. This result was indeed a team effort, and a valiant one, from the Timbers. The effort is important, but so is the fact that they’re honest and know their limitations and strengths.
“I feel like we don’t deserve a home game, to be honest,” centerback Dario Župarić said after the game. “There were a lot of times when we didn’t play as a team that deserved playoffs, but in the end, we have points. We deserve that. Now is the time to bring something more because I think we could be much better. We didn’t play as we know we could play.”
Besides that, this team has lady luck on their side. And now they’re hosting the wild card game today, due to a conflicting event at BC Place. Since there are no other venues available in the Vancouver market, fans will head to Providence Park to see if this team can pull another result.
This will be a single-elimination game, and the winner advances to a best-of-three series against top-seeded Los Angeles FC.
Do not miss the action. The match starts at 7:30 p.m. PT.
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