Leagues Cup Match Recap & Highlights: Portland Timbers 1 - 2 Tigres

Despite a promising first half, the Timbers let the result slip away and the Mexican champions got the three points at Providence Park.

Credit: Portland Timbers / Craig Mitchelldyer

Portland suffered its first loss in the Leagues Cup. Although it looked like the Timbers were going to get another win thanks to Evander’s world-class free kick, Tigres turned things around in the second half.

Coach Giovanni Savarese made some changes in the starting XI compared to the one that obtained the three points against San Jose Earthquakes. He decided to start Aljaž Ivačič instead of David Bingham in goal and also put Marvin Loría and Felipe Mora in the front line instead of Yimmi Chará and Jaroslaw Niezgoda.

What started as a fun and auspicious game for the Timbers slowly started to be inclined to the Mexican side and they found three points away from home.

Highlights

8’ Felipe Mora had a shot get blocked.

21’ Mosquera with a dummy serves the ball to Evander who can’t hit the ball properly.

22’ CHAOS ENSUES! Evander sends the ball to Asprilla. Tigres’ keeper tries to sweep it away it but leaves his goal open. Mosquera recovers the ball and sends it immediately to the far post. Tigres’ defense clears it but not that far and the Timbers recover it again. In the end, a foul on Cristhian Paredes gives Portland a free kick near the box.

23’ GOAL TIMBERS! Evander scores with a world-class free kick.

26’ André-Pierre Gignac hits a low curled ball and Ivacic saves it!

32’ Evander carries the ball through the middle and then passes to Asprilla and then he crosses to the center where Paredes is. The shot is blocked, but it was a nice build-up.

39’ Evander is shown a yellow card and this was going to prove to be a pivotal moment of the game.

42’ Goal Tigres 1-1. The Timbers lose the ball in the midfield and the counter finishes with a Tigres’ equalizer, courtesy if Gignac

43’ Evander is sent off after being shown a controversial second yellow card.

After a very promising start, with not only Evander’s amazing golazo but also fluidity in the game that we haven’t seen much this season from the Timbers, everything went south in a matter of two minutes. With the game level and one man down, Portland went to the locker room to prepare for the second half.

The Timbers started the next forty-five minutes playing well but little by little the visitors started to take control and send dangerous crosses into Portland’s box.

61’ Tigres chance. A corner played short connected with Jesús Angulo, completely unmarked, who headed from the right side of the six-yard box, missing to the right.

62’ Substitution: Santiago Moreno enters for Loría.

65’ Ozziel Herrera header hits the crossbar! Portland is still in the game.

76’ Claudio Bravo commits a foul inside the box but the referee lets it go.

80’ Goal Tigres 1-2 Tigres comes back and takes the lead with a header by Jesús Angulo that finds the back of the net.

84’ Jaroslaw Niezgoda’s left-footed shot from the left side of the box is blocked.

88’ Triple substitution: Franck Boli, Miguel Araujo and Sebastián Blanco replace Claudio Bravo, Dairon Asprilla and Juan Mosquera.

Full-time: Tigres 2, Portland Timbers 1.

Final thoughts

In the last three matches, the Timbers have shown that they can do fun and amazing stuff on the field again. Of course, this is not happening by accident since players such as Mora, Blanco and Evander are contributing more since they are slowly coming back from injury as is the case of the first two or suspension when referring to the latter.

Undoubtedly, being a man down for more than one half harmed the team and despite Evander’s golazo what he did to earn the red card was childish and can’t happen again, because things like these are making Portland lose points no matter the competition they play in. It was a shame to have lost this game because they played well overall, but I guess these are the cards the Timbers have to deal with nowadays.