Match Recap & Highlights: Portland Timbers 0 - 1 CF Monterrey
Finishing a problem, fighting spirit not as the Timbers bow out of the Leagues Cup
The Portland Timbers lost 1-0 to CF Monterrey of Liga MX on a balmy Friday night in Portland, exiting the inaugural Leagues Cup at the round of 32 stage.
Recap
The Timbers rolled out an unchanged defense and midfield from their 2-1 loss to Tigres UANL in the group stage, but made some changes to the front four with Evander suspended - deploying Franck Boli, Marvin Loría, Santiago Moreno, and Dairon Asprilla in the attacking roles.
Portland started the match very well thanks to some superb linkup play driven largely by Boli and Moreno, with the former narrowly missing the goal on three separate occasions in the opening half hour. But the visitors sucker punched the Timbers right before halftime with a goal stemming from a defensive error, which allowed Monterrey’s Maximiliano Meza the freedom of Providence Park to smash the ball past Aljaž Ivačič.
The second half was largely the same as the first - Portland failing to capitalize on the great chances they created, and giving up dangerous opportunities on counterattacks to a team that’s elite at them. Dario Zuparic had a chance to send the match to a penalty shootout with just second remaining in stoppage time, but his powerful shot from inside the box was met with a better save from Monterrey goalkeeper Esteban Andrada.
Tempers flared as the final whistle blew, with both teams clearing their benches after an altercation between Diego Chara and Luis Romo at midfield lit the fuse on what was a powder keg of a match. Surprisingly no red cards were brandished.
Highlights
9’ A first touch from Santi Moreno appeared to bounce up onto his arm inside his own penalty area, but the official didn’t award a penalty despite appeals from CF Monterrey players and their fans.
13’ Franck Boli sent a low, curling shot just wide of the far post after latching onto a flicked-on header from Dairon Asprilla and maneuvering past Monterrey defenders into the box.
19’ Another golden opportunity for Boli whistled agonizingly past the opposite post as his previous chance after another brilliantly worked move set up by Santiago Moreno.
27’ YELLOW CARD Monterrey’s Jesús Gallardo was given a card for an aggressive forearm to Asprilla’s neck/face - On another day that card could have been a different color and I don’t think anybody would have been able to complain.
34’ Germán Berterame missed an absolute sitter all alone inside the box that would have opened the scoring for the visitors - blazing a strike over the bar under no pressure at all from the Timbers.
45’ GOAL CF MONTERREY, 1-0 Two defensive errors - a whiffed header by Zac McGraw and missed tackle from Diego Chará - were ruthlessly punished by Maximiliano Meza. Claudio Bravo was pulled centrally to make up for McGraw being out of position, which left Meza all the time in the world on the right wing to absolutely leather a strike beyond Ivačič.
HALFTIME: Portland Timbers 0 - 1 CF Monterrey
62’ SUBS Felipe Mora and Yimmi Chará - who were both on minutes restrictions according to Giovanni Savarese - entered the match for Franck Boli and Marvin Loría.
66’ POST Meza once again found himself in acres of space behind the Timbers backline, chipping a ball over Ivačič 1v1 that came back off the post before Claudio Bravo nearly turned it into his own net on the rebound. A massive let-off for the Timbers.
73’ Felipe Mora nearly scored the second overhead kick of the season in the bike city, but couldn’t connect on a perfect header back across the goal from Asprilla.
73’ SUB Sebastián Blanco replaced Santi Moreno
85’ SUBS Jarosław Niezgoda and Miguel Araujo were the final substitutions for the Timbers, replacing Juan Mosquera and Dairon Asprilla.
90+5’ Dario Župarić was very nearly the stoppage time hero for the Timbers, connecting on a failed clearance with a right-footed strike that forced a vital save out of Andrada.
FULL TIME: Portland Timbers 0 - 1 CF Monterrey
Final Thoughts
Back to back performances for the Timbers that showed fight, solidarity, and signs of the team finally starting to gel in the final third that unfortunately ended in frustration. The lack of finishing killed Portland in this game: 17 shots for the Timbers, only three of which were on-target. And when you’re playing against an elite team like Monterrey one lapse in concentration is sometimes the difference between progressing in the cup or being knocked out.
Despite losing to both Tigres and Monterrey, the Timbers didn’t go out without a fight. In fact the two games were probably the best the team has played all season - certainly defensively. Don’t believe me? Take it from Dario Župarić after the Tigres game - “I said to Zac at halftime ‘This is gonna be a war, but we’re going to die like heroes’ and it *was* like that. I would like to lose every game like this.”
Franck Boli’s comments after the Monterrey match also reflected the mentality the squad are approaching the rest of the season with - “We’re not going to let anybody bully us.”
On the Leagues Cup in general - I really enjoyed the competition. It felt refreshing, and I was glad to see the Timbers and their opponents take it so seriously. “It’s unfortunate we’re out of this tournament. I enjoyed very much the Leagues Cup,” said Giovanni Savarese. “I think joining with the Liga MX teams made it more interesting. It allows us to see where we are at, it allows us to be able to continue to compete and make us better. So for me I think it’s been a great idea,” Savarese continued.
UP NEXT: The Timbers now have just over two weeks off from any games as the Leagues Cup moves on without them. MLS play resumes for the Timbers on Aug. 20 against the Houston Dynamo, with kickoff at PNC Stadium scheduled for 5:30 p.m. PT.
What a game! This was the most invested I was into a game all year, I was pulling my hair out when Zuparic and Blanco missed their shots. It was very refreshing. We didn’t just keep up with Monterrey, we were doing very well against them! Again, we looked well coached, which has been the norm all tournament. It’s shocking. We lost a bit of discipline for twenty minutes in the second half there when the game opened up and Monterrey found a lot of opportunities like the one that went off the post, but I think that was more due to the players, not the coach. Players started getting excited and went forward without thinking about the space they were leaving and things got stretched. But it was fun!
Something I never in my entire life thought I’d say... Niezgoda provided a spark off the bench. Feels weird saying that. While it doesn’t change my opinion of him (as the past three games haven’t changed my opinion of Gio), it was really great to see! He was really good! Blanco and Yimmi were not though, especially Blanco. The guy doesn’t provide much, he just sits on the sideline until he gets the ball, and then he bombs it into the box or plays a simple pass. He does pop up into some good spots and has some good plays but overall it’s really rough to see. Same can be said with Loria, he was really bad. I can’t wait for Antony to get here and for Evander to get back so Moreno and Antony can play over him.
Asprilla played his best game of the season I thought. He worked his ass off every minute and actually made a lot of good plays down the sideline. Boli was good as usual, though Mora wasn’t nearly as good off the bench as he was previously. We definitely missed Evander, we needed someone -- anyone -- on the field who could put the ball in the back of the net. Evander is the only guy who can do that. Moreno was phenomenal for the first 15 minutes but then disappeared a bit. But for those 15 minutes... goddamn. He looked better than Evander has, and I’m a fan of Evander. I’d still like to see a 3-5-2 with Moreno in the middle and Evander in a free role next to Boli up top.
Overall a fantastic game, it was so much fun to watch. We’ve played much better in Leagues Cup than we have all year, but I hope it continues for the rest of the season. Because as Gio said, if we play like we did this game vs most MLS teams, we will be hard to stop.
Oh and we got extremely lucky with the Moreno hand ball. That was blatant as hell, I have no clue how that wasn’t called a pk. And fuck the guy who elbowed Chara in the back of the head. Damn that’s another thing I forgot, I thought Chara was amazing, he was my MOTM. Besides getting nutmegged for the goal, he was spotless. Tons of great tackles, good passing, and had some good runs. Love seeing him beat out Father Time once again
I watched the replay of this match this morning and the Timbers get a lot of credit. This is a Monterrey team that steamrolled the Sounders last week, and that is widely regarded as one of, if not the, best teams in CONCACAF, and the Timbers were up for the challenge. If Boli's finishing is just a bit better, they're two up after 25 min and we're having an entirely different discussion.
But the Timbers being the Timbers, their one complete defensive brainfart moment cost them a goal as usual, and after that Monterrey did a good job of containing the Timbers, even though Portland looked decent. Monterrey were just generally one step quicker over most of the pitch, and, in a common theme for Timbers opponents, looked a lot more organized and purposeful in their movements than did the Timbers.
All that said, though, the Timbers didn't look all that bad! No shame in losing to a team like Monterrey, and they didn't embarrass themselves in the process. Kind of a low bar, but I'll take it.
Now I hope they get a few days off before getting back to work, fully integrating the new guys, and finishing the season as strong as they can.