Troy Perkins turned in a man of the match performance for Portland. (Getty Images)
At first glance this match looked like a real albatross on the MLS schedule. A Tuesday night duel in Houston after the Dynamo had just played an emotional and draining match on Saturday, as well as another midweek match last week. Meanwhile, Portland didn't play this last weekend, in theory giving them an edge. It didn't turn out at that way at all. In the end, the match ended up being one of the most forgettable of the the MLS campaign so far.
Portland came out of the gates looking totally lethargic on offense. Darlington Nagbe really looked like he was the only one who really came to play. Kris Boyd grew increasingly frustrated as service into the Dynamo penalty area was non existent. There was absolutely zero creativity from anyone in a green shirt.
It wasn't quite the same for Houston though. They certainly outworked Portland despite their obviously tired legs. The Dynamo ended up taking 17 shots in the match but they ran into a couple of problems. One, they rarely hit the target. Two, when they did, Troy Perkins was an absolute brick wall.
Houston captain Brian Ching checked in later in the second half to try and provide the Dynamo offense with the little extra they needed to get over the hump. One would figure he'd get at least one big chance, and he did. Late on he got the ball right in front of the Portland goal, but sent his shot flying horribly over the crossbar. In the 87th minute Calen Carr got 1v1 with Perkins, but the Portland keeper came up huge and smotherd the shot to preserve the 0-0 draw.
Sure, Portland will take the point on the road. However this team has issues. First off, they have nothing going on offense. They invested heavily in Kris Boyd as a DP, but it's not working all that well. Yes, he has a couple of goals, but he doesn't really create much. He's a target man and when he doesn't get the service, he doesn't get much going. Everyone talks about how wonderful Boyd was with Rangers, however taking a look at his stats after leaving Scotland, I'm not sure why anyone is really surprised at the results thus far. In the end, the Timbers still can't win on the road, and whatever advantage they had at Jeld-Wen Field has seemingly evaporated. This is not a good recipe for climbing the table in MLS. They need some help.
For Houston, it was disappointing that they didn't get the win, but they'll chalk it up to being their 3rd match in seven days and take solace in the fact that they really did outplay the struggling Portland side.
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