It's Dairon Asprilla Appreciation Day! For the last time in his career, he suited up for the Portland Timbers. Like a fairytale, he provided the game-winning assist to Jona to complete the comeback.
One of those games that I am just so happy that I got to witness in person. The stadium in that 2nd half felt like Portland again, hugely engaged crowd almost willing the team to keep up the crushing attack. The Asprilla love. Snatching victory from the jaws of defeat.
Great result! Awesome 2H comeback! Keep moving up the table; on a great trajectory- gotta keep it up. Gotta work on improving finishing chances though. Fantastic match by Asprilla and a high note to finish his Timbers career.
Even apart from the Dairon of it all, this game was wild. everyone in the first half was just, like, 10% off, and at half time it just felt like the April Timbers were back again - all effort and no end result. When it all clicked into place in the second half, though, they started looking like a well-oiled machine, and a lot of the misfires early on didn't come back to haunt the Timbers as much as I thought they might. The second half was an entirely different team - they were more cohesive, they played with more intention, and they looked way more up for it than they did in the first. Last I looked at the scoreboard, Timbers outshot MNU 25 to 6, and it felt like even more than that.
I definitely think it was time for Dairon to go, I wasn't really a fan of keeping him around at this point in his and the Timbers' evolution, but I am very glad he got the sendoff he did. He deserved every giant cheer he got every time he touched the ball last night, and watching him and the sendoff he got post-game was really lovely.
I was at the game so I didn’t hear the commentary of course, but not gonna lie, that call makes me tear up whenever I watch it (and I’ve watched it a LOT). Dairon did it, and he did it for a decade here. What a player, what a man, what a story. Legend, without a doubt.
Okay, enough with the mushy stuff, HOLY FREAKING HELL WHAT A GAME OH MY GOD!!!! I’m sorry I still haven’t come down, that was an absolutely incredible experience to be at last night, I’m so happy I decided to go, gotta be a top three stadium experience I’ve had after the Double Post and MLS Cup 2021. Just insane. I was literally pulling my hair out in section 216 as we missed chance after chance after chance, and that just made the moment of pure euphoria for the winner that much better. What an experience.
This was a trap game. Minnesota missing so many pieces and in poor form, they sat back with 5 and put the speedy Bongi and Sang-bin up top to hit on the counter, and it worked in the first half. They bent but didn’t break, and got two goals by being clinical. And if we hadn’t scored in the first half, who knows what would’ve happened. That PK was a lifeline. In the second half we just walked all over them, it was utterly dominant. They barely got into our half. We weren’t just creating half chances from crosses, we were consistently creating high quality chances, which made me very happy to see. We didn’t have that much of a problem breaking down their block, but to be fair that should be expected against their backups and such a thin bench.
I got frustrated with Evander a lot, not because he played bad (he was very good as usual), but because there were so many moments when he was in the middle of the field, driving at goal about 25 yards out, and instead of shooting he laid it off. And sometimes it created a better chance, but often it didn’t. With his quality, I trust him to not only get those shots on target, but to score them at a good rate. That being said, I loved the little hand signal he gave when he had a give and go with Asprilla on the Rodriguez miss from a yard out. It was awesome.
Asprilla was awesome at right back, he understood the moment and the assignment and did so well. So was Antony! Finally, instead of trying to cut in and combine, he was taking players on and beating them with his speed! Dribbling vertical, not horizontal. That’s the player he should be, he has the ability to beat players in space, the problem is he comes inside and tries to navigate through tight spaces, and he doesn’t have the ability for that. Bravo and Mosquera were both really good again, especially Bravo. Ayala and Chara are such a great partnership. We talk about Ayala a lot (as we should), but he’s really helped Chara as well. Because Ayala is comfortable as a 6, it allows Chara to sometimes go up and join in the attack and find the game. They balance each other out so well, and it allows Evander to float around. And Chara put that amazing ball over the top to Asprilla for the winning goal.
Phil said after the game that he believes soccer is 20% tactics and 80% mentality. I’m not sure I agree with those percentages, but he’s definitely instilled the right mentality in this team. Rodriguez missed two sitters and he goes on to get the winner. This team attacks and it’s so fun to watch. Despite being down by 2, it felt like we were still going to win. Damn, Phil even got me in the right mentality! Again, this is against a largely depleted team at home, so we really should’ve won easily, but credit to them they created two chances and scored two goals. I wouldn’t even say it was defensive mistakes, just unlucky. What a game, now hopefully there isn’t too much a hangover because we are still three points out from 10th, and the three teams behind us have 1 or 2 games in hand. We need to keep going
One of those games that I am just so happy that I got to witness in person. The stadium in that 2nd half felt like Portland again, hugely engaged crowd almost willing the team to keep up the crushing attack. The Asprilla love. Snatching victory from the jaws of defeat.
It was poetry.
It was beautiful.
Thank you Dairon! Always a Timber.
One of the best games at Providence Park....up there with the double post game!
Great result! Awesome 2H comeback! Keep moving up the table; on a great trajectory- gotta keep it up. Gotta work on improving finishing chances though. Fantastic match by Asprilla and a high note to finish his Timbers career.
I don't know if, until the past week, Dairon understood just how much he is loved here.
Even apart from the Dairon of it all, this game was wild. everyone in the first half was just, like, 10% off, and at half time it just felt like the April Timbers were back again - all effort and no end result. When it all clicked into place in the second half, though, they started looking like a well-oiled machine, and a lot of the misfires early on didn't come back to haunt the Timbers as much as I thought they might. The second half was an entirely different team - they were more cohesive, they played with more intention, and they looked way more up for it than they did in the first. Last I looked at the scoreboard, Timbers outshot MNU 25 to 6, and it felt like even more than that.
I definitely think it was time for Dairon to go, I wasn't really a fan of keeping him around at this point in his and the Timbers' evolution, but I am very glad he got the sendoff he did. He deserved every giant cheer he got every time he touched the ball last night, and watching him and the sendoff he got post-game was really lovely.
“He’s done it! Dairon’s done it!”
I was at the game so I didn’t hear the commentary of course, but not gonna lie, that call makes me tear up whenever I watch it (and I’ve watched it a LOT). Dairon did it, and he did it for a decade here. What a player, what a man, what a story. Legend, without a doubt.
Okay, enough with the mushy stuff, HOLY FREAKING HELL WHAT A GAME OH MY GOD!!!! I’m sorry I still haven’t come down, that was an absolutely incredible experience to be at last night, I’m so happy I decided to go, gotta be a top three stadium experience I’ve had after the Double Post and MLS Cup 2021. Just insane. I was literally pulling my hair out in section 216 as we missed chance after chance after chance, and that just made the moment of pure euphoria for the winner that much better. What an experience.
This was a trap game. Minnesota missing so many pieces and in poor form, they sat back with 5 and put the speedy Bongi and Sang-bin up top to hit on the counter, and it worked in the first half. They bent but didn’t break, and got two goals by being clinical. And if we hadn’t scored in the first half, who knows what would’ve happened. That PK was a lifeline. In the second half we just walked all over them, it was utterly dominant. They barely got into our half. We weren’t just creating half chances from crosses, we were consistently creating high quality chances, which made me very happy to see. We didn’t have that much of a problem breaking down their block, but to be fair that should be expected against their backups and such a thin bench.
I got frustrated with Evander a lot, not because he played bad (he was very good as usual), but because there were so many moments when he was in the middle of the field, driving at goal about 25 yards out, and instead of shooting he laid it off. And sometimes it created a better chance, but often it didn’t. With his quality, I trust him to not only get those shots on target, but to score them at a good rate. That being said, I loved the little hand signal he gave when he had a give and go with Asprilla on the Rodriguez miss from a yard out. It was awesome.
Asprilla was awesome at right back, he understood the moment and the assignment and did so well. So was Antony! Finally, instead of trying to cut in and combine, he was taking players on and beating them with his speed! Dribbling vertical, not horizontal. That’s the player he should be, he has the ability to beat players in space, the problem is he comes inside and tries to navigate through tight spaces, and he doesn’t have the ability for that. Bravo and Mosquera were both really good again, especially Bravo. Ayala and Chara are such a great partnership. We talk about Ayala a lot (as we should), but he’s really helped Chara as well. Because Ayala is comfortable as a 6, it allows Chara to sometimes go up and join in the attack and find the game. They balance each other out so well, and it allows Evander to float around. And Chara put that amazing ball over the top to Asprilla for the winning goal.
Phil said after the game that he believes soccer is 20% tactics and 80% mentality. I’m not sure I agree with those percentages, but he’s definitely instilled the right mentality in this team. Rodriguez missed two sitters and he goes on to get the winner. This team attacks and it’s so fun to watch. Despite being down by 2, it felt like we were still going to win. Damn, Phil even got me in the right mentality! Again, this is against a largely depleted team at home, so we really should’ve won easily, but credit to them they created two chances and scored two goals. I wouldn’t even say it was defensive mistakes, just unlucky. What a game, now hopefully there isn’t too much a hangover because we are still three points out from 10th, and the three teams behind us have 1 or 2 games in hand. We need to keep going
Reminded me of Adi’s send off game in which he scored, as well. Both were magical endings to very popular players.