Recap & Reaction: Portland Timbers vs. Real Salt Lake
The Timbers ice a red-hot RSL at home
The Portland Timbers dominated another Western Conference rival on a sweltering night in the Rose City, defeating Real Salt Lake 3-0 to continue their summer charge up the table. Felipe Mora, Santiago Moreno, and Evander all scored, and James Pantemis recorded his fourth clean sheet of the season against the highest-scoring team in MLS heading into the match.
I’d be remiss if I didn’t start this recap off by saying how truly terrible head official Joe Dickerson’s performance was in the first half. An early yellow card to Diego Chara was the first of many inconsistent decisions, promptly followed by the yellow he showed to Jonathan Rodriguez for arguing against said call. It was Chara’s first ‘foul’, and a soft one at that, especially considering the fact that Diego Luna commit four fouls through the opening 14 minutes and wasn’t booked.
A few minutes later, tempers finally boiled over when Chicho Arango delivered a cheap shot to Evander after he’d been whistled for a foul for clearly dragging Evander back — an infringement that should have been a yellow on its own but wasn’t. A brawl then broke out between the two squads, and when the dust settled Arango, Andres Gomez, and Felipe Mora had been cautioned for their involvements.
Despite that incident, and a lengthy stoppage for a clash of heads between Dario Zuparic and Arango, only four minutes of stoppage time were added at the end of the first half. Performances like that from PRO’s officials cannot happen and hold the league back from reaching its full potential.
Now for the actual soccer:
Despite playing the majority of the opening 30 minutes 12v11, the Timbers took a 1-0 lead into halftime thanks to a third minute strike from Felipe Mora — his 11th goal of the year. Santi Moreno, who’s had an excellent start to the summer, set Mora up after a powerful allowed him to retain the ball and put his defender on the turf in the process.
Rodriguez could (and if we’re being honest probably should) have doubled the Timbers’ lead after a free-flowing attack involving Evander, Santi Moreno, and Diego Chara set him up for a one-time finish inside the box, but his effort was straight at Zac MacMath.
Other than a strong save to deny Chicho Arango from distance, James Pantemis had very little to deal with during the opening 45 minutes.
The second half began in the exact same way the first did, with the Timbers scoring after just a few minutes. Santi turned from provider to finisher to increase the Timbers’ lead, absolutely blasting a volley past MacMath on a knock-down from Evander in the box. Santi marked his 100th Timbers appearance with a third 1g +1a performance of the season and second straight match with two direct goal contributions, bringing the talented Colombian winger to five goals and 10 assists in 2024.
Phil Neville said post-match that the Timbers are going to receive a massive bid for Moreno in the next 12 to 18 months, and that he’s going directly to the top level of club football.
Rodriguez and Mora had multiple chances to put the game out of reach, but Evander in the 90th minute would be the man to do so — firing a left-footed strike past an outstretched MacMath to make it 3-0. The Timbers’ all-star continues to lead the team up the table with his performances, tallying his 11th goal and 12th assist of the season en-route to the win.
Considering RSL’s position at joint-top of the West heading into the match, and their high-octane offense getting completely stonewalled for 90 minutes, the result has to be in contention for the Timbers best performance of the season. Despite the visitors controlling 56 percent of the possession, Portland held RSL to just three shots on-target while absolutely shelling them with 20 shots of their own, seven of which were on-target.
Santi Moreno and Evander were unplayable on the night and both figure to be in the MLS team of the matchday as the Timbers climb up to fifth in the Western Conference. Portland also tied RSL’s league-leading 48 goals with the result, playing beautiful, free-flowing attacking football with a front line that I’d put up against any other front line in MLS.
It should also be noted that Canada’s Copa America 3rd-place match concluded while Portland’s thrashing of RSL was taking place, meaning Max Crepeau and Kamal Miller will return to bolster an in-form Timbers team.
Onward.
Scoring Summary:
Portland: Mora (3’), Moreno (48’), Evander (90’)
RSL: Nada.
Next Up:
The Timbers travel to California to take on the Carson Galaxy next weekend, with kickoff slated for 7:45 p.m. PT.
I have to say the second goal (the one by Moreno) was one of the very best team goals I've seen in 24 years of watching this team. The sequence of one-touch passes from Mora, to Rodríguez, to Evander (header), to Moreno's side-volley finish left six RSL defenders useless to defend, and that type of firepower from those four players is very scary to the rest of MLS as they are finding their form.
This attack is outrageously fun and insanely good, it’s almost unfair for opposing defenses. Once one of our DPs gets the ball it almost feels expected that we’re going to score. And Moreno has now joined that trio and is playing just as good as them, if not better. Unlocking him has brought a whole new dynamic to this team, and I credit Phil with getting that out of him.
Lotta concerns from a lotta people (including myself) about Williamson and Evander playing on the field together before this game, but the truth is we hadn’t seen it enough to get a good judgement, and if this game is anything to go by, it is just fine. Williamson was great, I do believe this is his best position (he gets a bit lost at the 10 sometimes and isn’t as effective as a primary creator), he did very well both with and without the ball, I was quite happy with his defense. I know he’s probably the player in our midfield that makes the most sense to trade to get a DP midfielder that the FO is reportedly eyeing, but man I hope we don’t trade him. I would love to see a midfield of Ayala, Williamson, and Evander, please I just want to see it from the start at least once.
Zuparic will rightfully get all the attention for the defense, but Araujo is right there with him, they make a really good pairing and they have to be the starters, even when Kamal gets back. Bravo over-committed several times and got burned but he was so good on the ball. You really can just keep going down the list of the entire team, all of whom are playing at the top of their game right now. Full credit to Phil for getting these guys playing so well, this roster is and has been very talented for years, and getting the best performances from the players is one of the most important jobs of a coach. They are playing as a team, chemistry is off the charts, and it’s so much fun to watch. RSL played very poorly away so let’s not get too excited. Let’s see how we do on the road vs the Galaxy, that will be an even bigger test