Recap & Reaction: Portland Timbers vs. Nashville SC

All of the fans braved the heat and came to Providence Park for one reason

The Portland Timbers smashed Nashville SC 4-1 at Providence Park on Sunday night, scoring four goals in an eleven minute stretch in the first half. Felipe Mora and Eryk Williamson scored, while Jonathan Rodriguez tallied a brace. Nashville, who played the majority of the game down a man due to a red card, pulled one goal back in the second half via Sam Surridge.

Photo Credit: Craig Mitchelldyer/Portland Timbers

The Timbers went into the match missing two key figures, both suspended due to yellow card accumulation: All-Star midfielder Evander and head coach Phil Neville. In their absence, Eryk Williamson stepped into the number ten position while assistant coach Dave Van den Bergh took on interim head coach duties on the sideline.

Perhaps due to the rotation or due to the heat in Portland (it was right around pushing 100 degrees at kickoff), it was a choppy start to the game for both sides. Portland sought to try to build mostly down the wings, while Nashville sought to attack on the counter. The visitors looked the most likely to wrestle some sort of control, mostly through set pieces. Nashville earned the majority of free kicks in dangerous positions early on and looked poised to make something of them.

And that was my cursory mention of the last time Nashville had any kind of hope in the match.

What followed from the 18th to 35th minute was absolutely ruthless display of finishing and misery that the Timbers mercilessly administered upon their foes, which set Providence Park aflame and Timber Joey’s chainsaw into overdrive.

It all started in the 18th minute, when Jonathan Rodriguez forced a turnover by taking the ball after a loose touch. The Uruguayan drove forward and found his strike partner Felipe Mora at the top of the box, and Pipe punished his defender for taking a poor angle by pushing right past him. Mora made no mistake and slotted the ball away at the far post to get the party started.

Rodriguez decided to double the fun and chip in three minutes later. A back to front move started with James Pantemis punching away a Nasvhille opportunity, and the ball ending with Williamson running at a disheveled and disorganized Nashville defense. Williamson dished off for Mosquera in the box, who’s shot attempt was, erm, wayward — but fell right to the feet of Rodriguez. Jona fired home a first time finish to the opposite post to double Portland’s advantage.

Not content with one goal, Jona decided to go out and get himself a second in the 24th minute. Again on the counterattack, Santiago Moreno pinged a perfect cross-field ball to Rodriguez to switch the filed. Jona bullied his way towards the top of the box, and sniped a zinger right into the bottom corner to bag a brace in just three minutes.

Not one to be left out, Eryk Williamson decided to compound Nashville’s pain by getting in on the goal scoring party in the 29th minute. Moreno spun his defender off a throw-in and raced towards the endline, and curled in a delicious pass to cut out the entire Nashville backline. Williamson was first on the scene to meet the brilliant pass, and slid to home to score Portland’s fourth goal of the night.

Nashville, who just took four shots to the chin in an eleven minute period, were given a momentary reprieve with a cooling break right after Portland’s fourth goal. You might have thought that they would use the pause to regroup, settle down, and talk about how to get back in the game without making things worse.

Instead, Brian Anunga decided to make things worse. In the 35th minute the central midfielder committed a horror tackle on David Ayala, sliding in late in a dangerous manner that could have done serious injury to Ayala’s leg. After initially being shown a yellow card, after VAR review it was rightly changed to be a straight red card.

As the first half wound down, Nashville knew that they were beat. But Portland still wanted to score more, and the Timbers faithful in the stands knew that Jonathan Rodriguez was on the cusp of something the Timbers have incredulously never accomplished: score a hat trick in MLS play.

In first half stoppage time, they thought they were handed a golden opportunity to finally get it. Shaq Moore appeared to have fouled Rodriguez in the box while sliding to win the ball. The referee pointed to the spot, and Rodriguez immediately grabbed the ball and stepped up, prepared to write his name into Timbers history.

What happened next can only be interpreted as the ironies of the universe conspiring to perpetuate one of the most ridiculous streaks in Timbers soccer. As Jona stood waiting, VAR intervened and recommended the ref take a second look. After review, it was adjudged that Moore did not foul Rodriguez, and so the penalty decision was reversed.

The game went on in the second half, but the final result never really felt in doubt. The Timbers did let their foot off the pedal at times and have sloppy passages of play with the ball, and Nashville was more than happy to wrestle back some level of momentum in the match.

That sloppiness resulted in Nashville staining Portland’s clean sheet and scoring a consolation goal via Sam Surridge in the 82nd minute.

Still, despite the disappointment, everyone in Providence Park knew that Portland was destined for three points after the first half drew to a close. The only remaining question was whether Rodriguez would break the hat trick duck.

There multiple moments where it looked like he would do it. In the second half he found himself in the perfect place to score his third, but whether it was a poor touch or misplayed ball he never was able to find the back of the net. He played the entire ninety minutes plus stoppage time, something many brace-baggers before him have been denied, but the forces of the universe continued to conspire to deny the man who had been on-target for so much of the night his reward.

Still, it was academic in the end. What mattered more was that Portland was absolutely clinical in their finishing, and easily dispatched their foe at home to bag three important points.

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I know everyone will want to talk about the hat trick that wasn’t, and we’ll get to that later this week (maybe). But the biggest takeaway from the night was that Portland scored four goals without their best player, and seemed to put all of the worries of their finishing to bed for at least one night.

Nashville is by no means a juggernaut, and they have many issues to resolve (as this game re-emphasized). But credit to Portland for being ruthless in their execution in front of goal. The goal scoring explosion took any of the fight out of Nashville, essentially sealing the game by the time the first half was over.

Santiago Moreno was excellent on the night, tallying two assists and showing his quality. Eryk Williamson was industrious and effective, tallying a goal and an assist himself.

All in all, this was night where Portland did their work early and did it well. They’ll need more of that was the summer goes on, and we approach the Leagues Cup.

Scoring Summary:

Portland: Mora (18’) Rodriguez (21’, 24’) Williamson (29’),

Nashville: Surridge (82’)

Next Up:

It’s a big one coming up at Providence Park: joint Western Conference leaders Real Salt Lake come to town on July 13. The showdown is set to kick off at 7:30 p.m. PT.