Tag: Minnesota United

It was apparent from the very early stages of Sunday afternoon that Sebastian Blanco was going to have an outsize impact on the Portland Timbers’ 2021 playoff opener.

In the end, we got the full Blanco experience. He blasted a clean look inside the box and a free kick just outside of it towards the south end scoreboard in the first half. He was booked for a brutal late challenge on Franco Fragapane. He hurt his back at the end of the half and limped off the side of the field with the stretcher poised.

Santiago Moreno warmed up on the field during the intermission after Blanco limped to the locker room, but when the bell tolled, the Argentine was right back out there — and two minutes later, his expertly-taken goal had lifted the Timbers into the lead for good.

For years now, despite his advancing age and despite the catastrophic knee injury that sidelined him for nearly 12 months, there have been precious few players in MLS so impossible to defend, so capable of single-handedly deciding games. We saw it in 2018, when Blanco scored jaw-dropping goals to help carry the Timbers past the Sounders in Seattle and Sporting KC in Kansas. And we might just be seeing it this year two — Blanco Superman-ing a good if not great Timbers team into a memorable playoff run.

It was obvious on Sunday afternoon, as it has been all season, how the Timbers feed on Blanco’s energy. By the end of the day, it was his two goals and his spitfire, no holds barred, relentlessness that Minnesota United couldn’t match.

The Timbers came from behind on Sunday afternoon at Providence Park to dump the Loons out of the postseason 3-1 and book a Thanksgiving Day showdown with the first seed Rapids in Colorado. If they survive and advance on Thursday, it will no doubt be due to a player signed as a complimentary piece who has long since taken the mantle as the Timbers’ primary, irreplaceable instigator.

The regular season numbers were crystal clear: the Timbers averaged 1.9 points-per-game with Blanco in the lineup, and just 0.9 without him. Without Blanco’s inspiration, Sunday’s first round match against Minnesota — the postseason match in front of fans at Providence Park in three years — could have gone very differently.

Minnesota arrived in Portland on the back of a challenging, uneven year in which they very rarely resembled the swashbuckling side that so nearly advanced to MLS Cup last season.

But Adrian Heath’s team entered the playoffs with no small measure of confidence regardless. With a veteran group of players, and a sterling recent record against the Timbers, regular season behind them, perhaps this would be the moment this year’s Loons stepped into their own.

It started well enough. After absorbing an early spell of Portland pressure, Minnesota broke forward with a sumptuously smooth move back-to-front move and took the lead. Old Timbers enemy Osvaldo Alonso picked the ball up deep in the Loons half and broke the Timbers’ midfield line with a forward pass for Emanuel Reynoso. The Argentinian playmaker got the ball wide to Robin Lod, who easily cut inside of Claudio Bravo and hit Romain Métanire on the overlap. Fragapane arrived unmarked on the back post to turn in Métanire’s cross, and it was 1-0.

As lovely a team goal as it was from Minnesota, it was a reminder of all that has gone wrong all season for Portland defensively: they allowed the Loons to play through their midfield with astounding ease, their fullbacks were both caught out, and the result was a tap in.

That Fragapane, who was accused of racially abusing Diego Chará on his last visit to Portland over the summer, was the player to finish the move was an especially bitter pill to swallow.

But unlike earlier in the year, the concession didn’t knock the Timbers off course. Instead, they continued to buzz and press forward — playing with the clear confidence of a team that finished the regular season as the hottest in MLS. It was a sign of things to come. Minnesota was up a goal, but was increasingly struggling to break the Timbers’ pressure and possess the ball. It felt like a matter of time before the one of the Timbers’ energetic front four broke through.

In the end, though, it wasn’t one of the front four who hauled Portland level — it was center back Larrys Mabiala, who first had a spectacular bicycle kick attempt cleared off the line from a free kick, and then, minutes later, sent a towering header from a short corner past Minnesota’s backup goalkeeper Dwayne St. Clair to tie the game.

Blanco went down injured shortly thereafter. But just following the restart, he made his biggest contribution yet. Chase Gasper and Bakaye Dibassy got crossed up trying to deal with a deep Claudio Bravo cross, and Blanco smashed the resulting half-clearance on the volley past St. Clair. He wheeled away in celebration clutching his back, likely in pain, but also perhaps making clear that even when hobbled, he was the most dangerous player on the field.

It was a hammer blow. Minnesota simply didn’t have the gear required to match the Timbers’ attacking intensity and movement, and as their own attacking players failed to get in rhythm, they became increasingly frustrated and impotent.

The game state had turned; now the Timbers, with all that pace, would have the opportunity to sit back and break forward at a Minnesota back six not blessed with any great amount of speed.

After 20 minutes, the Timbers’ third goal came from very little. Blanco picked up the ball from Felipe Mora some 25 yards from goal, took two steps forward, and smashed it in again off the inside of the post and into the back of the net.

The Loons were still up for a fight — they finished the match with six players having received yellow cards and the ill-tempered Fragapane lucky in the waning minutes to escape without a red — but they couldn’t hang with their hosts. Heath now has the offseason to figure out with his front office how to rejuvenate this Minnesota team.

The Timbers, as it turned out, didn’t need an offseason. Blanco’s return and a few tactical adjustments brought this team roaring back to life after its summer swoon.

It’s not just Blanco. Dairon Asprilla was a menace. Yimmi Chara was similarly active. Despite their ongoing defensively shortcomings, the fullbacks got forward effectively. And Mabiala, another old campaigner, came up with a signature moment in his very fine Timbers career.

A trip to the altitude of Dick’s Sporting Goods Park on short rest will be a stiffer test than this ultimately was. But you wouldn’t comfortably bet against the Timbers right now — not in the kind of form they’re in, and certainly not with the player they have leading the way.