Timbers Impress With Quality Win at Sporting

Portland play-maker Diego Valeri in the first half.  Photo: Orlin Wagner

I'll admit it, I've been pretty critical of the Portland Timbers.  I've leveled the "style over substance" argument.  I was also highly critical of the hiring of Caleb Porter after his failed stint with the USA U-23s.  However, I must admit that the Timbers really showed me something last night against Sporting KC, and they should get the credit that is due for their performance.

Of course, the evening started horribly for the Timbers as their defense was exposed early on.  Despite their obvious improvement overall, I still think that defense is going to be a problem for them going forward in the campaign, and KC took advantage of that almost immediately.  With only 40 seconds gone from the clock, Chance Myers slipped through the Timbers and got on the end of long throw in, heading it past Donovan Ricketts to make it 1-0 to the home side.  More than a few folks, myself included, thought it was going to be a long night for the Timbers at that juncture.

Portland responded well though, as they have done on a number of occasions so far this season.  They stuck to their game plan despite conceding the early goal.  What was that game plan?  Well, they decided that they weren't just going to let Sporting have the ball and boss the game and the tempo.  They decided that they were going to have the ball as much as possible and go toe to toe with Sporting's high powered offense.  Sporting was obviously unprepared for that approach and it didn't take long for it to yield dividends for Portland.

The visitors found themselves with a corner kick in the 24th minute after 'keeper Jimmy Nielsen made a nice save on Rodney Wallace.  Diego Valeri sent the corner into the box where Ryan Johnson was waiting for it.  Johnson headed it pretty much right at Benny Feilhaber, who was guarding Nielsen's far post, but the former Revs man could only manage to head the ball into the roof his own net and the score was equalized at 1-1.

Sporting wasn't done with the Chance Myers show though, and he found himself with another opportunity to hurt the Timbers in the 29th minute.  Aurelien Collin found himself up pitch with a ball from Feilhaber, and he dropped it off to Myers, who knocked in his second of the match to make it 2-1 to Sporting Kansas City.  The goals were the first two regular season tallies of Myers' career.

Portland was unimpressed though, and the in the 33rd minute they took heavy advantage of Sporting's desire to have defenders like Myers and Collin up and playing in the attack.  Ryan Johnson took the ball and blazed up the pitch, finding Darlington Nagbe nearly alone in Sporting penalty area for a tap in goal that made it 2-2, which was still the score when the teams hit the locker rooms for halftime.

The Timbers mostly owned the second half, which is a rarity for anyone at Sporting Park other than the hosts.  Thirteen minutes after halftime, the Sporting midfield bumbled the ball away and their defense was somewhat caught out yet again.  Diego Charra hit Rodney Wallace, who had evaded the aformentioned Chance Myers, with a gorgeous through ball playing him in on goal.  Wallace easily slotted into the back of the net to make it 2-3 to Portland.

Sporting looked puzzled for much of the second half, but did manage a couple of quality chances late on.  However, their midfield and attacking corps seemed absent as the best chances fell to defenders.  Myers nearly grabbed a hat-trick in the 82nd minute, but his header went wide.  In stoppage time Collin managed to direct a nice header on target, but Ricketts was up to the task, making the save and preserving the 2-3 win for the Timbers.

Historically the Timbers have not done well on the road in MLS, and this was what made this performance stand out so much.  They have really taken on the never say die attitude of new Captain Will Johnson, something that I think RSL has lacked this year by the way, and they really exposed Sporting quite a bit.  In the end, they went man to man with one of the league favorites and got a big road result in a tough environment.  If they can keep doing that, watch out, MLS.