Match Recap & Highlights: Portland Timbers 3 - 1 Orange County SC
A heavily-rotated Timbers team take care of business in the Open Cup's opening round.
The Portland Timbers entered the US Open Cup fray with a 3-1 midweek victory over USL Championship side Orange County SC.
Recap
With the match sandwiched between games against FC Cincinnati and St. Louis City SC, the Timbers opted to hand starting debuts to Timbers 2 loanees Noel Caliskan and Tyler Clegg for the match, as well as Sebastian Blanco for the first time this season. With David Bingham still recovering from a hamstring injury, Hunter Sulte got the nod between the sticks for Portland.
After threatening on a couple occasions prior Marvin Loria opened the scoring for the Timbers in the 37th minute, and debutant Clegg doubled the lead three minutes into the second half with a powerful downward header. The visitors would respond six minutes later through Milan Iloski after some sloppy Portland defending, but Jaroslaw Niezgoda would make it 3-1 in stoppage time after a blunder from Orange County’s goalie.
Highlights
4’ Some excellent link-up play between Blanco and Loria on Portland’s left wing set up a great chance for Ikoba in the box, but the young striker couldn’t make solid contact with Seba’s cross.
8’ Hunter Sulte was forced into action with a scrambling tip over the bar from a cross-turned-shot from Orange County.
13’ Loria hit the side-netting with a left-footed free kick that half of Providence Park thought was inside the post, but a deflection off of the wall sent the shot out for a Timbers corner.
17’ Sulte reacted well to parry a volleyed shot through traffic from the edge of the box out for a corner to Orange County.
23’ Orange County ‘keeper Cody Cropper conceded a free kick after claiming a cross and rolling outside of the box with it in his hands. Loria again stepped up to take, but fired his shot into the wall.
30’ Blanco received a yellow in typical Blanco fashion: a full-blooded sliding tackle at full speed.
34’ SUBSTITUTION In his first appearance following a lengthy injury layoff, Blanco was brought off the pitch just after the half-hour mark for Jaroslaw Niezgoda.
37’ GOAL TIMBERS, 1-0 Marvin Loria opened the scoring for the Timbers with a well-placed left-footed strike from the top of the box. Niezgoda made the assist with one of his first actions on the pitch. You can watch the goal here.
45’ Two minutes of stoppage time were added at the end of the first half.
HALFTIME: The Timbers led 1-0 at the break thanks to Loria’s strike.
46’ SUBSTITUTIONS At the start of the second half, Santiago Moreno and T2 captain Victor Griffith replaced Cristhian Paredes and Marvin Loria.
48’ GOAL TIMBERS, 2-0 Tyler Clegg scored on his debut after signing a short-term contact with the first team from T2 prior to the match — a well-taken header from a wonderful Bonilla cross, that you can watch here.
54’ GOAL ORANGE COUNTY, 2-1 The visitors quickly halved the deficit through Milan Iloski to make things interesting for the Timbers. Mabiala was caught in no-man’s land, leaving space in the box for Iloski to rifle a shot past a helpless Sulte.
65’ SUBSTITUTION Eric Miller entered the match for Diego Gutierrez
69’ Poor defending from the Timbers allowed Orange County two close-range shots on target in quick succession, but Hunter Sulte did well to thwart the danger on both occasions.
73’ SUBSTITUTION Nathan Fogaca replaced Tega Ikoba
85’ POST Justin Rasmussen caught every bit of a left-footed strike from range that grazed off the outside of the post.
89’ DISALLOWED GOAL, ORANGE COUNTY Former Timbers homegrown player Brent Richards forced a sprawling save from Sulte just before full time with a strike on the half-volley. From the resulting corner Orange County had the ball in the back of the net, but the goal was disallowed for offside.
90+1’ GOAL TIMBERS, 3-1 Jaroslaw Niezgoda was the beneficiary of an absolute howler from Cropper, who completely whiffed on a straightforward catch under pressure from Fogaca. You can watch the incredible moment — and yeah, you’ll want to — here.
Final Thoughts
A solid performance and win from the Timbers, who were able to integrate some Timbers 2 players and give valuable minutes to rotational guys like Tega Ikoba and Diego Gutierrez. I thought Pablo Bonilla had a very solid game from right back, getting the assist on Tyler Clegg’s second half goal.
Sebastian Blanco also looked very sharp in his return from injury, which bodes well for Portland’s attacking depth as the season progresses. His postgame quotes cemented that sentiment: “I had to do something spicy, or else it wouldn’t be me.”
Next up for the Timbers is a trip to St. Louis, with kickoff scheduled for 5:30 p.m. PT on Saturday, April 29.
Looks like it's at home against RSL in the next round:
https://twitter.com/opencup/status/1651649595871469585
Sulte had a nice save on… Brent Richards (wtf?). But I was not impressed. Looks really shaky coming off his line.
It was bold to leave the central midfield to two T2 guys in the second half. Game may have looked a little different/better if we had Ayala in one spot or left Paredes on. But nice to give those guys some run.