Portland Timbers @ St. Louis City SC - Instant Reaction

The Timbers traveled to the land of arches and toasted raviolis looking to continue their upward trajectory.

The Portland Timbers earned their second consecutive road shutout in an action-packed 0-0 draw against St. Louis City SC. After a back-and-forth first half the Timbers weathered a St. Louis storm in the second, holding on to extend their unbeaten streak to four games.

Photo Credit: Craig Mitchelldyer/Portland Timbers

Due to injury, suspension, personal absence, and international call-ups, Phil Neville was forced into making a host of changes to his matchday squad:

Max Crepeau (Canada), Kamal Miller (Canada), and Miguel Araujo (Peru) were all away from the team representing their respective nations, which meant a return to the starting XI for James Pantemis, who saved a penalty in the Timbers’ 2-0 win in Austin the last time the team played away from home, and Zac McGraw, whose last minutes prior to the match came in a 2-0 loss to Charlotte all the way back on May 4th.

Diego Chara was serving a yellow card accumulation suspension, so David Ayala was deployed at the base of a three-man midfield behind Evander and Santi Moreno. And after picking up a slight injury against Houston last weekend, Felipe Mora was only fit enough to make the bench, giving Nathan Fogaca a chance to replicate his late game-tying heroics.

Dairon Asprilla was unavailable for personal reasons for the match, this coming after reports of a potential transfer back to Colombia surfaced online earlier in the week.

With all of the absences, T2 players Sawyer Jura and Kyle Linhares were called up to the first team for the match.

Image credit: Portland Timbers

Despite a Timbers game finishing scoreless for the first time this season, it was filled with excitement from the opening whistle. In fact, Portland could have opened the scoring through Jonathan Rodriguez in just the third minute had Antony’s cross to him been a better one. Instead his ball was a bit too heavy, forcing Rodriguez to take a touch back onto his right foot before ultimately forcing a good save from Roman Burki.

Then the Timbers were nearly punished at the other end 10 minutes later after a terrible giveaway from Evander near his own 18-yard box allowed Eduard Lowen to slip Joao Klauss in on goal and finish the ball past James Pantemis. Luckily for Evander and Portland Klauss had strayed offside in the process, but it was the start of a long night of the Timbers struggling to play the ball out from the back.

Tim Parker probably should have scored the game’s first goal in the 15th minute from a St. Louis corner, but put his header wide of goal from close range. One he’ll certainly want back.

Evander would force Burki into another fantastic save in the 18th minute when his left-footed shot from the edge of the box took a deflection off of a defender and tipped agonizingly wide of the far post. One of several excellent attacking moves from the Timbers on the night which saw Evander, Antony, and Moreno link up with speed and precision.

Klauss went close again in the 35th minute, again played into the box with a wonderful pass from Lowen, but scuffed his shot giving Zac McGraw enough time to get back and prevent the ball from rolling over the goal line.

All things considered it was a relatively even first 45’, but In the second half the hosts really started to pile on the pressure both physically and with possession. St. Louis would finish the match with six yellow cards, all shown between first half stoppage-time and the 82nd minute.

Their best chance came in the 74th minute when Lowen struck the post with a free-kick that cannoned back to Tim Parker in the box. Parker had the entire goal to aim at, but Claudio Bravo was alert to the danger and cleared his shot off the line spectacularly.

Aside from a mazy Evander run that finished with him blasting a shot from outside the box over the bar, the Timbers didn’t really threaten in the second half despite Mora entering at the hour mark. Antony’s end-product left a lot to be desired, Santi Moreno was decent but not dangerous enough, and Rodriguez seemed to only get the ball when it was hoofed up to him from Zuparic or Pantemis.

To me this game was all about Zac McGraw and the rest of the backline stepping up in a major way to claim the team’s second clean sheet of the season. After falling out of the lineup earlier in the year, McGraw stepped back into the starting XI for the first time in over a month and put in a monster performance:

If the Timbers can maintain these defensive performances on the road and start to pick up wins at home against teams around them in the standings, I think that’s a recipe for making the playoffs. That’s a huge “if,” but we know the team can score goals, it’s just about doing that when the team does play well defensively.

Scoring Summary:

Portland: (n/a)

St. Louis: (n/a)

Next Up:

The Timbers get a bit of a much-needed break before their next match — Away to San Jose on Wednesday June 19, with kickoff scheduled for 7:30 p.m. PT.