Match Recap & Highlights: Portland Timbers 3 - 1 Vancouver Whitecaps
Timbers take second Cascadia Cup win of the season, down Whitecaps 3-1 at home.
The Portland Timbers (4-3-5) continued their uptick in form with a 3-1 win against the Vancouver Whitecaps (3-5-3) at Providence Park on a balmy Saturday night in Portland.
Recap
Giovanni Saverese deployed arguably the strongest lineup of the season (injuries in-mind) against the Whitecaps, with Yimmi Chara making hist first start since the opening match of the season.
Franck Boli flew out of the blocks to open the scoring in the second minute, before Evander’s second goal of the year doubled Portland’s lead in the 20th. A Zac McGraw own goal cut the deficit for Vancouver six minutes later, but Evander restored the Timbers’ two-goal cushion with a beautiful strike in the 54th minute.
Highlights
2’ GOAL TIMBERS, 1-0 Franck ‘the tank’ Boli got the Timbers off to the perfect start in the second minute, thumping a left-footed strike home from inside the box on the assist from Claudio Bravo. Boli had a decisive shot saved by Takaoka moments earlier.
Watch Boli’s goal here.
11’ Dario Zuparic had a chance to double the lead from an Evander corner, but the center back’s header was comfortably held by Takaoka.
14’ An Alessandro Schöpf strike from outside the box took a wicked deflection, but Aljaz Ivacic somehow reacted to get a strong hand on the shot.
18’ GOAL TIMBERS, 2-0 Evander scored his first Providence Park goal just before the 20th minute, sweeping home a well-worked move from the Timbers that involved Santiago Moreno and Juan Mosquera. The strike is Evander’s fourth goal involvement in his first eight matches with the club.
Watch Evander’s goal here.
24’ GOAL WHITECAPS, 2-1 An unfortunate moment for Zac McGraw, whose outstretched boot redirected an awkward cross from Gressel into his own net. Sergio Córdova was waiting for the tap-in at the back post, so McGraw had to attempt a play on the ball.
42’ Santi Moreno drew a fantastic save out of Takaoka after latching on to a loose touch from Felipe Martins. Moreno drove forward, and unloaded a right-footed strike from range that needed to be pushed wide.
HALFTIME: At the break, the Timbers led 2-1
54’ GOAL TIMBERS, 3-1 Evander at the double! The Timbers’ DP scored his second of the night with a stunning effort, spinning around his defender before curling a right-footed beauty past Takaoka at the near post. Special goal from a special player.
Watch Evander’s second here.
64’ SUBSTITUTIONS Yimmi Chara, who assisted Evander’s second goal, was replaced by Dairon Asprilla, and Jaroslaw Niezgoda entered the match for Franck Boli.
70’ Evander very nearly got that oh-so-elusive Timbers hat trick with an olimpico, but Takoaka was able to tip the ball out for a corner.
83’ SUBSTITUTIONS Eric Miller entered for Juan Mosquera, who had an excellent match, and Marvin Loria replaced Santi Moreno, who took a couple knocks in the second half.
90+1’ SUBSTITUTION Larrys Mabiala, to the dismay of Evander hat trick enthusiasts, was brought on for the Brazilian in stoppage time.
FULL TIME: Timbers 3 - 1 Whitecaps.
Final Thoughts
All told, this was an excellent win for the Timbers, possibly their best of the season barring their victory in St. Louis. The attack got off to a flying start through Boli, but the story of the match was Evander doing DP things. His first goal was great, but his second was sublime and likely another GOTW contender for the Timbers after Claudio Bravo’s winner last weekend.
And the backline, while shaky at times, made the Whitecaps look very pedestrian going forward. Aside from the deflected Ivacic save and McGraw own goal, I can’t remember any major chances that Vancouver had in the match.
The midfield duo of Diego Chara and Cristhian Paredes was excellent for Portland as well. In particular, Paredes seemed like he was everywhere all night, cutting out Vancouver passes and linking play for the Timbers moving forward.
Up next: The Timbers travel to Utah for a midweek fixture against the RSL team who bounced them from the US Open Cup, with kickoff scheduled for 6:30 p.m. PT at the stadium formerly known as Rio Tinto.
We were at the game and it was great to see the boys show so much aggression. They were the better team all night and it's great to see Evander start to come into his own.
First game I’ve been to since probably last summer and the first time I’ve sat up in the top of the newly created stands (also got front row seats because some other people took ours, it was a whole thing), and man what a view! Just stunning. And despite the fact that I felt like I could see the entire game from up there better than any other seat in the house, it still felt like Evander could see everything far better than me. His vision is incredible. He still had some sloppy moments and sometimes I think he tries to do too much, but when he’s on the ball in space you just know something magical will happen. I think we can do a better job of getting him more consistently involved, I think our central midfield has been lacking just a little in possession without Ayala or Williamson (I thought Paredes and Chara were both the two weakest starters on the field) and that has meant Evander can’t get on the ball as much since everything we do goes wide. But it’s only been two games and I trust that midfield on the road a bit more when we’re playing against the ball more.
Moreno was awesome, probably his best game of the year so far, I’ll probably do highlights for him. I thought Zuparic was an underrated hero for this game, he was amazing. Great to have McGraw back, OG and all (hell of a finish, really). Bravo was hot and cold but got us started with a great step and assist to Boli. Having Yimmi back is huge, he showed what a great player he is and how maybe while he isn’t worth the DP tag, he’s still a very valuable player for the team. The whole offense worked so well, I’m stoked to see what the Evander - Moreno combo can do, they play so well together. The second goal is the best team goal from the Timbers in a long time
Now for some negatives, Asprilla looked pretty bad when he came on. Not too worried about it but man it was tough to watch. Niezgoda had a few good touches when he came on but then disappeared (he only had 8 touches in 30 minutes!), though I don’t think most of it was his fault. Once we brought him on, we conceded much more possession. That’s not where he’s going to succeed. I actually think Niezgoda is someone who could benefit greatly from how we were playing in the first 25 minutes. However we seem to bring him on in game states that don’t play to his strengths at all. We should be bringing Nathan off the bench if that’s how we’re going to play in that time because he can cause havoc, press the opposition, stretch the defense, etc. Usually I’m the guy to get on Jaro’s case but I don’t think this was his fault (I still think he can do better of course)
Just a little afterthought, I noticed while watching back Evander’s second goal that Boli does very well do open up the shooting lane. There’s a defender coming in to try and block the shot (not sure if he would’ve actually gotten there) but Boli intentionally shields the defender and stops him, opening up a wide open space to shoot. Beautiful pick, I think Boli is turning out alright