Match Recap & Highlights: Sporting Kansas City 4 - 1 Portland Timbers
Match Recap & Highlights: Sporting Kansas City 4 - 1 Portland Timbers
Listless Timbers smoked 4-1 in Kansas City.
The Portland Timbers (4-4-7) were absolutely demolished by Sporting Kansas City (3-4-8) at Children’s Mercy Park, conceding four unanswered goals after opening the scoring in the eighth minute through Franck Boli.
Recap
Giovanni Savarese deployed a nearly full-strength lineup, with the lone exception being Larrys Mabiala starting in place of the suspended Dario Zuparic. Yimmi Chara and Sebastian Blanco were both available off the bench as well, alongside Jaroslaw Niezgoda, Marvin Loria, and Nathan Fogaca.
Portland led briefly after Franck Boli struck on the volley in the eighth minute, but a golazo from Erik Thommy in the 33rd gave SKC a deserved equalizer. Two goals - one from Daniel Salloi, the other an own goal from Larrys Mabiala - in as many minutes on the other side of halftime put SKC out of sight, before adding a fourth through Hernandez in stoppage time.
Highlights
8’ GOAL TIMBERS, 1-0 Franck Boli got the Timbers off to a perfect start away from home by tallying his third goal of the season. A prototypical poacher’s goal, Boli swept the ball into the net on the volley after contributions from Claudio Bravo and Santiago Moreno in the buildup.
28’ Evander looked to be clearly fouled inside the box by Fontas, but center official Rubiel Vazquez disagreed. On replay, its stunning he wasn’t called over to the monitor by the VAR crew.
33’ GOAL SKC, 1-1 Erik Thommy pulled the hosts level with a thunderous strike from distance that had been coming. Far too little pressure from an extremely deep Timbers backline allowed Thommy a free strike on goal, and he made them pay.
43’ DISALLOWED GOAL, SKC Salloi thought he had made it 2-1 just before halftime with a tap-in on the doorstep, but the goal was called off after a VAR review. There was both a foul and an offside in the buildup.
HALFTIME: Three minutes of stoppage time were added to the end of the first half, which finished 1-1.
46’ SUBSTITUTION Yimmi Chara was brought into the match at halftime, replacing Santiago Moreno.
53’ SUBSTITUTION After only eight minutes, Yimmi Chara was replaced by Marvin Loria. The former looked to have pulled something and immediately needed to be replaced.
66’ GOAL SKC, 2-1 Graham Zusi received the ball with nobody around him on the right wing, before sending a driven cross into the path of Salloi that the striker just needed to tap-in in front of the net. He’ll do well to score an easier goal than that over the rest of his career.
68’ GOAL SKC, 3-1 Just two minutes later the Timbers’ backline completely imploded and Sporting extended their lead to two goals. Zac McGraw mis-played a clearance, which allowed Alan Pulido to take the ball around Aljaz Ivacic before Larrys Mabiala put the ball into his own net attempting to make a tackle. Another comically bad goal for the Timbers to concede.
80’ SUBSTITUTIONS Nathan Fogaca, Jaroslaw Niezgoda, and Sebastian Blanco entered the match for Dairon Asprilla, Claudio Bravo, and Franck Boli.
90’ Six Minutes of stoppage time were added to the second half.
90+3’ GOAL SKC, 4-1 Hernandez completed the rout in stoppage time- poking the ball past Ivacic after making his way into the box uncontested by any Timbers defenders.
FULL TIME: The match finished 4-1 in favor of Sporting Kansas City
Final Thoughts
This was an abject disaster of a match for the Timbers, who were uninspired from the opening whistle to the closing one. Heads dropped and effort was non-existent, particularly in the second half, continuing a more-than-worrying trend that the team has exhibited as of late:
Right now it seems like when the going gets tough, the Timbers just give up - SKC’s second and third goals were the perfect example of that.
It’s not just one or two players either, the majority of the team looked uninterested for large parts of that match:
And, like many on Twitter have pointed out, the Timbers’ schedule only gets tougher from here. A home match against FC Dallas (4th in West) is sandwiched between trips to Seattle (1st in West) and San Jose (5th in West), meaning it’s not unreasonable to say the Timbers could be on the outside of the playoff spots looking in before we even reach the end of June.
What does it all mean for the Timbers? In short, nothing good. I think there’s a very real chance that the Timbers miss out on the playoffs again this year, even if they bring in starting-caliber players during the summer transfer window. Savarese’s tactics aren’t getting across to the players right now, that’s just the truth. So something has to change in that respect as well if the Timbers are going to salvage anything from this season.
What would I change in the immediate future?
Larrys Mabiala has well-exceeded his expiration date, and for my money, cannot start for the Timbers anymore. Eric Miller has to be the replacement for McGraw and Zuparic until a new centerback comes in.
Evander has to play closer to Diego Chara and Cristhian Paredes than he has in the last three matches. This might seem counter-intuitive, but hear me out: At times this season Evander has almost been deployed as a second striker next to whoever is playing #9 for the Timbers. Do you want him close to the goal? Yes. However, it’s happening at the expense of any real build-up play coming from the midfield because he’s so disconnected from the defensive midfielders and fullbacks. So what we’re seeing is a lot of long-balls up to Evander that are often misplaced or put him in isolated positions.
Marvin Loria and Nathan Fogaca need more minutes than they’re getting. Santi and Dairon, as talented as they are, are off the pace at the moment. Particularly since the win against Seattle. And although Loria/Fogaca may not be as talented, they work their socks off every time they get on the pitch, work-rate that is desperately needed by this Timbers team at the moment.
UP NEXT: The Timbers travel up I-5 for a match in Seattle against the Sounders. Kickoff at Lumen Field is scheduled for 1:30 p.m. PT on Saturday, June 3. Note: That game is the first of a Portland-Seattle double-header, with the Thorns set to battle the OL Reign directly after starting at 5 p.m. PT.
Match Recap & Highlights: Sporting Kansas City 4 - 1 Portland Timbers
Gio per the Oregonian, “I thought we managed the game very well in the first half,” Timbers coach Giovanni Savarese said. “I think at the end of the half we could’ve been up 3-1. We were in control even though we didn’t have a lot of the ball. We had organization in the back line. We just had to continue to carry on in the second half the same idea. Three minutes of distraction, and the game changed completely. ... We had control of the match for the majority of the game.”
Seriously, what game was he watching? Gio has to go.
I mean, what else is there to say that hasn't been said? Gio's past it. He needs to go. This team isn't playing with any spark, creativity, or energy - and the team has most of the starters back, so that's not an excuse any more.
This was always going to be a rough season, with the roster what it is and with very little ability to change it, but for the love of all that's holy Gio isn't helping things. The Gio era needs to end, tomorrow.