Leagues Cup Match Recap & Highlights: Portland Timbers 2 - 0 San Jose Earthquakes
Two stunning goals saw the Timbers shoot to the top of group A with a win in their inaugural Leagues Cup match.
A first-half stunner from Evander and Felipe Mora’s first goal since returning from knee surgery saw the Portland Timbers (1-0-0) dispatch the San Jose Earthquakes 2-0.
Recap
Much of the social media discourse prior to the Leagues Cup was centered around “How seriously will teams take this new competition?” Well, if the opening lineup is anything to go off of, the Timbers will be taking Leagues Cup as seriously as they did the MLS is Back tournament.
David Bingham was once again preferred to Aljaž Ivačič in goal.
The same back-four that beat the Columbus Crew 3-2 last weekend retained their places in the starting XI.
Diego Chara and Cristhian Paredes - somewhat surprisingly - also kept their spots in midfield despite heavy minutes in recent weeks.
Jarosław Niezgoda replaced the injured Franck Boli up top, starting ahead of Yimmi Chará, Dairon Asprilla, and Evander.
Newest signing Miguel Araujo made the bench for the second match in a row, as did Santiago Moreno, who returned to the matchday squad after a contract dispute saw him dropped from the team last week.
Evander opened the scoring with an absolute thunderbolt in the 33rd minute, picking out the top corner with a magnificent right-footed strike off of a Niezgoda layoff. Felipe Mora put the game to bed in the 86th minute, running onto a beautiful through ball from Marvin Loria before shrugging off the defender and tucking the ball into the back of the net.
Highlights
16’ The Earthquakes went close to scoring through Trauco, whose left-footed strike from outside the box whistled past the post with Bingham scrambling.
33’ GOAL TIMBERS, 1-0 Evander. Oh. My. Word. A stunning strike from Portland’s DP #20 flew into the top left corner of the net to open the scoring, and Evander doesn’t even celebrate. Cold blooded.
45+2’ YELLOW CARD Cristhian Paredes was booked for a foul.
HALFTIME: Portland Timbers 1 - 0 San Jose Earthquakes
48’ POST Cristhian Paredes rattles the woodwork, sending a half-volley from distance crashing off of the crossbar. It would have been some goal if the shot was just a few inches lower.
57’ Niezgoda was found expertly by Yimmi Chará after the latter won the ball back inside the box, but with nearly the entire goal to aim at, Niezgoda puts his shot directly into the defender on the line. No excuses not to score there.
58’ SUBS Marvin Loría and Felipe Mora entered the match for Yimmi Chará and Niezgoda.
62’ A nice sequence from the Timbers eventually saw the ball fall into the path of Mora in the box, but his first-time strike didn’t have the placement and sailed past the right post.
67’ A coming together between Juan Mosquera and Cade Cowell in the box had the Earthquakes convinced they’d earned a penalty, but after a long delay, one wasn’t called. It looked as though Cowell and co. may have had a case —Mosquera clearly made contact with his leg from behind.
78’ SUB Santiago Moreno replaced Dairon Asprilla.
85’ SUB Sebastián Blanco subbed in for Evander for Portland’s final substitution of the match.
86’ GOAL TIMBERS, 2-0 After Blanco’s emotional game-winner last weekend, Felipe Mora doubled-down with one of his own to extend the Timbers’ lead and put the game to bed. A fantastic counter saw Loría send a perfect through-ball into the path of Mora, who shielded the defender and slotted a shot into the bottom right corner. You could see just how much the goal meant to Mora and his teammates in the celebrations.
90+3’ The Earthquakes had a case for another penalty deep into second half stoppage time when Claudio Bravo handled the ball just on the edge of the box. It was called a free-kick in real time, but on replay it sure did look like his hand was inside the line. Another let-off for the Timbers.
FULL TIME: Portland Timbers 2 - 0 San Jose Earthquakes
Final Thoughts
I thought it was an excellent display from the Timbers - particularly in the second half - to take care of business and pick up an important three points in a tough group, especially with Tigres on the way in midweek. Evander looked really good, as did Zac McGraw, who didn’t put a foot wrong in another MotM-worthy performance.
It was also incredible to see Mora get that goal. It has been an extremely difficult time for him since his MLS Cup 2021 goal, so to see him score on his return and get swarmed by his delighted teammates was really wholesome. Don’t look now, but the Timbers are healthy, scoring, and starting to put consecutive wins together.
UP NEXT: The Timbers continue their Leagues Cup Campaign against LIGA MX powerhouse Tigres UANL on Wednesday, July 26, with kickoff scheduled for 8 p.m. PT.
After the insane negativity in the game thread, I hope there are at least some positive replies here. There was something to be excited about nearly everywhere.
There are things to be happy about after this. If nothing else, the look of absolute joy on Mora's face after he scored, the look of absolute joy on his teammates' faces after Mora scored... The entire sequence leading up to that goal from Moreno (played well), then Paredes (who apparently now just runs all over the pitch doing whatever he wants, and I like it), the Loria (what a pass), to Mora who looked HEALTHY.
I hope there are other happy people out there.
The passing sequence leading to Mora's goal has to be best of the season. Very encouraging.