Tag: Seattle Sounders

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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.”

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Soccer Timbers

Timbers Wilt Under Pressure, Draw Seattle Sounders 1-1

After leading their match against the Seattle Sounders for 83 minutes and not giving up a single shot on goal in regulation time, the Portland Timbers once again fell apart in the final minutes of Thursday night’s Cascadia rivalry match. Despite a flying start, the Timbers left Seattle with only a single point after drawing 1-1.

The Timbers started the match strong, playing through the Seattle press with short, quick touches and runs that pulled their opponents out of position.

In the 10th minute, the Timbers made their early success in moving the ball count. After breaking out of their own end, the Timbers found Jorge Villafana out wide on the left flank. Villafana curled a ball into the box, finding the chest of Felipe Mora who, with a defender on his back, controlled the ball and laid it off for Yimmi Chara, making the trailing run. Yimmi received the ball and shot from the top of the Sounders box, forcing Stefan Frei into his first save of the match. Off The ensuing rebound fell to Andres Flores and the Timbers utility man took it first-time, crushing a return ball back on goal, past Frei, and into the back of the net.

The Timbers had a chance to extend their lead in the 16th minute when they opened the sounders up with another series of quick passes through the heart of the Seattle defense. After finding Villfana on the wing with a short pass, Yimmi made a darting run forward through the Sounders back line and was rewarded with a return pass from the fullback. Carrying the ball to the end line, Yimmi cut a pass back into the path of Diego Valeri who was crashing toward the near post. Valeri got a boot to the ball, but could not steer it on goal and instead put it out for a goal kick.

Late in the first half, the home side was able to wrest control of the game from the Timbers and put their visitors under pressure. Sending in cross after cross, the Sounders held the ball in the Timbers end for much of the final fifteen minutes of the half but could not find a shot on target.

The Sounders continued their push into the second half, but remained stymied by the Timbers stout defending and ability to work the ball out of danger.

After struggling to find chances throughout the match, Seattle came close to equalizing in the 76th minute. A rare midfield missed touch from Diego Chara off a Timbers corner led to a break for the Sounders with Jordan Morris streaking down the pitch. As Morris rushed toward goal, youngster Marco Farfan made a heroic effort to run him down, doing just enough to steer the USMNT star away from goal. Pulling up, Morris squeezed a cross around Farfan and found the run of Nico Lodeiro. As he arrived in the box, Lodeiro took the ball on the bounce and fired off a shot, but once again the effort was not on target and flew out for a goal kick.

Finally, in the 4th minute of second-half stoppage time, the Sounders got their first shot on goal; naturally, it ended up in the net. On a mystifying corner kick given up by Dario Zuparic, who fell on the ball while trying to shield it out for a goal kick, Lodeiro served in an in-swinging ball that found the head of Yeimar Gomez for a flick on to the back post where Will Bruin was lurking. Bruin peeled off the back of his defender, Zuparic, and got into space for the easy finish as Gomez’s header fell to him, snatching back a point for his team and leaving the Timbers wondering what had gone wrong.

 

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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

Day after thoughts: Eryk Williamson stands out as Timbers exact revenge on Sounders

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Soccer Timbers

Portland Timbers Leave Providence Park, Beat Seattle Sounders 2-1

The Portland Timbers travelled north on Sunday night to take on the Seattle Sounders at CenturyLink Field, their first match played away from the confines of Providence Park since returning from the MLS is Back Tournament. Coming off a three-game winless streak, the Timbers needed a result to break out of their post-tournament funk and they got one, beating the Sounders 2-1 in a performance that looked like a return to the form that carried them through the knockout rounds in Orlando.

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