Tag: PTFC
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Interim head coach Miles Joseph earned his first win as the leader of the Portland Timbers with a 2-1 win over Real Salt Lake in front the Providence Park home crowd.
The Portland Timbers snapped a four-match losing streak across all competitions—and a three match losing streak in MLS regular season play.
Portland came out on the front foot and with a ton of energy.
Back in the starting XI was Zac McGraw, who has been absolutely superb this season. His partnership with Dario Župarić has been one of the few bright spots for the Timbers this year.
Starting in his first MLS regular season game in 2023 was Timbers legend Sebastián Blanco.
In the 13th minute, the home side worked the ball beautifully down near the box. Franck Boli slipped a pass to Evander out wide. Evander played a well-placed ball to Juan David Mosquera, who looped a high cross in the top of the box. Real Salt Lake refused to make any effort to the ball, and Santiago Moreno made them pay with a headed goal to open the scoring.
Felipe Mora subbed on for Boli in the 57th minute. After scoring in the match against Vancouver Whitecaps, he would make it a second consecutive game. In the 64th minute, he doubled the lead for the Portland Timbers, thanks to a well-played assist from Moreno.
Felipe Mora gets a crucial goal to give @TimbersFC some breathing room.
2-0. #RCTID pic.twitter.com/15CwHF01qY
— Major League Soccer (@MLS) August 31, 2023
Real Salt Lake did not go down quietly. In the 82nd minute, Cristian Arango would cut the lead back down to one with a deflected goal past David Bingham.
Mora’s continued comfort and ascension is the extra boost the Portland Timbers need to possibly make a late playoff push.
First win
Joseph led the Portland Timbers to a 2-1 win over Real Salt Lake for his first ever head coaching win.
After praising the team’s second half efforts against Vancouver, he was proud of how his team came out for this game.
“I thought it was a good continuation from our last game in the second half,” Joseph said. “So that was kind of the message going into the game to continue on from the second half of the last game and the guys really put a great effort in the first half to start off on the right foot.”
The Santi Moreno Show
Don’t look now, but Moreno has put up consecutive fabulous performances.
“He did what was asked of him,” Joseph said. “On the attacking half of the field, he stayed wide, and I think his opportunities came pretty frequently.
“I think the important thing is for Santi to get his confidence, and I think tonight was a really, really good start for him,” he said.
Moreno scored his first goal of the season and tallied an assist for a goal contribution brace. The best part? His mom was in attendance to see him play his best football of the season.
“A very special moment for myself to score a goal and also do it in front of my mom,” Moreno said. “I haven’t been able to score this season, so it has been rough. But in front of my mom, it makes it very special and also, for me, to be able to score when we get the three points makes it even better.”
Officiating
The referees have been a bit inconsistent in their officiating against the Timbers for the last few weeks.
Diego Chará mentioned it in the post-game presser, and Joseph seem to agree with his captain’s sentiment about how games are being called for the team.
Next: Seattle
The Timbers make the trip up to Lumen Field to face their rivals, the Seattle Sounders today.
Joseph and the team will be ready.
“This is a great win for us to build momentum,” he said after the RSL victory. “I think every game against Seattle is important.”
Kris Lattimore
A week ago today, the Portland Timbers fired the winningest coach in the history of the franchise.
Gio Savarese gave everything he had to the club, fans, and city for over six seasons as head coach. He and his family will be missed for everything they did in the community.
There will never be anyone else like him. We, at the Rose City Review, wish Gio and his family all the best.
Former assistant Miles Joseph was asked to take over as the interim head coach in this final stretch, starting at home against the Vancouver Whitecaps.
Even with the incredible effort the Timbers showed in the second half, it was not meant to be. They fell to Vancouver 2-3.
The loss was the Timbers’ lost their fourth straight defeat in all competitions.
Our Cascadia Rivalry XI 📝
▪️ The Godfather returns ©️
▪️ Mora leads the attack 💥
▪️ Antony in support off the bench 🇧🇷#RCTID pic.twitter.com/peiFsmcQlE— Portland Timbers (@TimbersFC) August 27, 2023
In the 13th minute, the Whitecaps’ Ryan Gauld got the road team on the board, when a deflection fell perfectly to him. In the 36th minute, Gauld placed a brilliant cross and found the head of Brian White to double Vancouver’s lead.
The Timbers would not go down without a fight.
In the 53rd minute, Darion Asprilla hit a perfectly pinpointed cross to find the head of Felipe Mora, who scored his first regular season goal of the year.
In the 60th minute, Evander recklessly tackled Richie Laryea in the box and gave up a penalty kick. Gauld would finish past David Bingham for his goal contribution hat trick (two goals and one assist).
In the 84th minute, the home team would respond once again. Sebastián Blanco, who came on as a second half sub, played a low driven ball near the top of the box to Evander, who made no mistake with it to cut Vancouver’s lead back to a one-goal difference.
During the final moments of the game, the Portland Timbers gave it all they had, but they couldn’t find the equalizer.
Interim
Taking over for someone as successful and beloved as Gio Savarese is a tall task.
Joseph has an uphill climb to bring Portland to the playoffs.
Still, his energy is fantastic and on display constantly. The players seem to be responding positively to it, both at training and during the game.
And he seems to have a game plan for the team.
“We trained this week on the wide triangles and trying to open up the field, especially against Vancouver,” Joseph said after the match. “The first half we were getting a little bit too narrow. So, we presented some video at halftime, and they corrected it. We needed to get to the end-line more, and we did. We got a goal out of it.
“I think as we stick to the process and move forward, we’re gonna create a lot of scoring chances.”
No Bash Bros
Although star center back Zac McGraw returned to training this week, he was not ready to start. Miguel Araujo took his place once again. Unfortunately, any pairing outside of Dario Župarić and McGraw has been unsuccessful for the Timbers this season.
Each time one of the stud centerback duo is not available, it is a struggle for the team.
Without McGraw starting the last two games, the Portland Timbers have surrendered eight goals.
This shows the lack of depth the team has, Araujo’s need for more time to get used to the pairings and system, and the importance of the Zs duo.
Cascadia Cup
Coming into the game, the Portland Timbers could have controlled their own destiny with a win or a draw at home against Vancouver Whitecaps.
With the loss, they now need to win next weekend in Seattle and for Vancouver to lose to Seattle in their Cascadia Cup finale.
With this result, Vancouver takes the top spot in the Cascadia Cup standings. The Timbers can retake first next week with a win in Seattle, but retaining the Cup is now out of their hands. #RCTID
— Stumptown Footy (@StumptownFooty) August 27, 2023
Photo of the Match
12-year old Anderson Mathews is like any other middle-school kid. He plays FIFA, enjoys collecting stickers and scarves, and secretly hopes that school will not return before his birthday. More than anything, he loves patches, soccer, and the Portland Timbers.
Mathews is a well-known member of the Timbers community, and his white Jeanderson jersey is often easy to spot in the stadium. Yet while his name may be Anderson, many fans know him by a different moniker: Ghost of Jeanderson, or GOJ for short. The nickname was given to him at a 2016 game in Seattle, when two members of the Soccer Touchdown Podcast mistook his name for Jeanderson, a former Timber who only played in three matches for the club. Both Mathews and Jeanderson were happy-go-lucky people, so the nickname ultimately stuck.
While Mathews may be young, he is a Timbers Army veteran. He attended his first Timbers game in 2012, when the team hosted Valencia in a friendly, a match he still has the scarf from. In 2016, he and his father traveled to the aforementioned Seattle game on the Timbers Army charter bus, where they made new friends and ultimately became dedicated fans. Now, his family is a staple among the thousands of supporters who fill the North End of Providence Park every home game.
It was a year after that first trip to Seattle that Mathews became intrigued by the patches that many Timbers Army supporters wore and collected. By 2017, that budding curiosity quickly became a hobby for both him and his family. After attending an away game at Cincinnati last season, Mathews came up with an idea. Collecting and trading patches was cool, but what if he could make some of his own?
When he returned home, he began to brainstorm an idea for his first away days patch.
“We lost terribly, but it was on St. Patrick’s day, so we made this patch that was Portland versus FC Cincinnati,” Mathews said. “It was in the shape of a shamrock, and it said PTFC versus FCC. We put a lot of detail into it. Last year I handed them out to all the people that went to Cincinnati.”
That patch became a hit, and sparked the idea to create a new and unique one for each time a new opponent plays the Portland Timbers. For the game against Nashville SC, Mathews and his family designed a patch in the shape of a guitar bearing the names of both teams, along with the phrase “Inaugural Game.” When the season resumes, the Timbers are scheduled to host Inter Miami. Right now, Mathews is thinking about shaping the patch like the Miami Vice logo with the words “PTFC versus Inter Miami,” but the concept is still being brainstormed.
While these patches may sound simple, it takes months to see an idea through to its final stages.
The first step is coming up with an idea. Then, Matthews’ dad takes colored pencils and sketches out the design. From there, he and his family make small corrections before sending them into the factory that will produce the patches in bulk. The factory makes one copy of the patch and sends an image back to the Mathews family for approval before producing roughly 100 patches to ship to Oregon.
Last year, Mathews and his family created his favorite patch yet: an old-fashioned travel suitcase that sported mini pennants representing different MLS franchises. The patch was nominated for an award at last year’s Patch Palooza Pizza Party, an annual gathering for patch collectors and traders in the Portland community.
Oftentimes, these patches sell out quickly, but no single patch received more positive feedback than one designed as a pair of car keys that read “Go home you bums.” This patch, representing a Timbers Army tradition, sold out within 15 minutes. The family hurriedly placed a second order.
“People are nuts for patches,” Mathews said. “If a patch sells out in 15 minutes, people get mad at you.”
The thing about patches is that they are popular among fans and players alike. For example, if you take a close look at the right sleeve of Zarek Valentin’s jean jacket that he wore before a home game against Seattle last season, you may notice a small, circular patch depicting a ghost with a soccer ball. That is the “Ghost of Jeanderson Patch,” one that Mathews’ family created back in 2016.
That particular picture was a surprise to Mathews, but he did know that Valentin was a fan of his patches. The two were first introduced to one another through the Soccer Touchdown Podcast. From there, they started to talk after games. In 2018, Mathews gifted Valentin his green jersey. Valentin kept that jersey with him, and during each game of the Timbers’ 2018 MLS Cup run he would send Mathews a picture of it.
“When Zarek was a Timber, him and I hit it off,” Mathews said. “He would want to talk to me, and wanted to get some of the patches.
“Last year we made a mini patch jacket for his new baby which was a big hit,” Mathews added.
Over the years, Mathews and his family found success in creating these unique patches—even making some profits, which are ultimately redistributed.
“Any money left over from the patches we donate to charity, Mathews said. “Towards diabetes, cancer, just donating the money.”
When it comes time to finally deliver these patches at games, it is Mathews who makes the trip from section 102 to the top corner of 223 to personally deliver them. It allows him to meet new fans and potentially trade scarves. Even when there are no patches to deliver, he tries to carve out time to interact with visiting supporters before each home game. Well, most visiting supporters; there are some caveats.
“Here’s where I lay down the line,” Mathews started. “Seattle, I only go over to take pictures. Sometimes [I also don’t interact with] San Jose fans because they get a little too riled up.”
Those little moments of trading scarves and interacting with other soccer fans are what Mathews sorely misses right now. These days, most nights are spent anxiously thinking about and awaiting the return of MLS. When that happens, he will be ready to continue making and trading patches while supporting his favorite club. But, until then, Mathews will be at home doing what any other middle-school kid would be doing during this time of social distancing: playing FIFA, brainstorming new ideas for patches, and holding out hope that, for the first time, he won’t have to worry about school on his birthday.