Timbers - 2, LAFC - 0: Match Recap and Highlights
Two defenders provide the offense as the Timbers beat LAFC for the first time since 2021.
The Portland Timbers defeated LAFC 2-0 on Saturday night at Providence Park. Larrys Mabiala capitalized on a goalkeeping error to open the scoring in the 28th minute, and Claudio Bravo finished off a gorgeous flowing attacking move to double the lead in the 53rd minute.
The win was Portland’s first against LAFC since 2021, and kept Portland’s faint playoff hopes alive for another week.
Recap
Timbers interim head coach Miles Joseph rolled out mostly the same XI as he did last weekend in Seattle, with Eric Miller, Larrys Mabiala, and Claudio Bravo entering into a backline dealing with a number of absences.
There wasn’t much to separate the sides in the first half hour of the match, with shots coming at a premium. That all changed in the 28th minute, when a pair of howlers from LAFC goalkeeper John McCarthy in quick succession gifted the Timbers a corner kick — and then a goal.
McCarthy dove and whiffed at a corner — the second one in succession for the Timbers after McCarthy’s error handed them the first one — and the ball bounced right in front of the net. Larrys Mabiala was first to pounce, and he reacted to head the ball home and give the Timbers the lead.
After conceding, LAFC woke up. The visitors pushed hard for an equalizer, with Carlos Vela hitting post just minutes after the Timbers scored. Multiple LA attacking sequences got in behind the Timbers defense, but the backline did just enough to clear away the danger before the crucial moment.
Portland held firm and went into halftime with a one goal advantage. The Timbers outshot LAFC 4-3 despite being at nearly a 60%-40% possession disadvantage.
Even though they held LAFC without a shot on goal in the first half, the Timbers hadn’t earned a clean sheet win in MLS since June, so they entered the second half keen to get a second goal and cushion their advantage.
Eight minutes into the second frame they did just that — in gorgeous fashion. Claudio Bravo stepped to win the ball at midfield, and sprung the Timbers counter. Bravo found Evander, who laid it off for Yimmi Chara who then immediately found Moreno. Santi slipped in Bravo, who had continued his run, and the Argentine kept his composure and fired past McCarthy into the bottom corner, giving the Timbers a 2-0 lead.
Portland remained in control throughout the remainder of the second half, and the sputtering LAFC attack continued to sputter. The visitors never came terribly close to scoring, and were frankly flattered by the scoreline, as the home team could have tallied one or two more.
The full-time whistle blew with Portland racing away to a 2-0 victory. It was Portland’s first win against LAFC since 2021, and the first time they tallied consecutive home wins in league play all season.
Highlights
11’ First real chance of the game falls to the Timbers, as a quick flowing counterattacking move ended in Moreno leaving the ball for a Mora shot just outside the box. Pipe’s attempt was off-balance however, and it flew well wide of the net.
28’ GOAL TIMBERS! 1-0 Larrys Mabiala scored the opening goal of the game after a pair of absolute howlers from LAFC ‘keeper John McCarthy handed it to Portland on a silver platter. First, he badly misread and missed on a through ball for Mora, gifting the Timbers a corner. Next, on the second corner in succession, McCarthy completely whiffed on the ball in, and Mabiala was first to it to apply the crucial header.
30’ LAFC HITS THE POST. With the green smoke still billowing Vela streaked past Bravo and puts an attempt just off the right upright.
After conceding, the visitors pushed hard for the equalizer, with multiple LAFC attacking moves coming close to generating shots.
44’ Moreno had a hard shot parried away by McCarthy, whom appeared to have put his two minutes of madness behind him.
HALFTIME: Timbers - 1, LAFC - 0
49’ Mabiala nearly tallied a brace, as he dove and put a header off a set piece just wide right out of the break.
53’ GOAL TIMBERS! 2-0 Claudio Bravo finishes off an absolutely gorgeous one-touch passing sequence from the Timbers, as he started off the move himself after winning the ball at midfield. The ball then pinged from Evander, to Yimmi Chara, to Moreno, and then to Bravo who took a touch and cooly slotted past McCarthy.
66’ Mora had a golden chance to make it three, but he got the through ball from Moreno caught in the spokes and couldn’t get the shot off.
66’ BIG SAVE BINGHAM! The Timbers goalkeeper came up big to push away a powerful shot from Bogusz.
76’ Franck Boli, introduced for Felipe Mora, forces a great save out of McCarthy, as the Ivorian sought to put the game to bed.
83’ Off a free kick, Vela curls a shot just high.
FULLTIME: Timbers - 2, LAFC - 0.
Final Thoughts
Don’t look know, but the Timbers are just outside of the playoff spots after putting in a candidate for one of their best games of the season. The Timbers were in control from essentially start to finish, and managed to capitalize on a reeling LAFC team that has seemingly forgot how to win games.
Portland’s effort all around the pitch was massive. From Mabiala’s opener, to Bravo’s tenacity and clinching goal, to Evander’s workman shift in harrying LAFC all night, to Diego Chara’s continued ageless brilliance, everyone in dark green put in a shift.
Doing it at both ends of the field must have felt particularly sweet to Mabiala, who has been getting a lot of flak from fans for his dip in form this season.
Bigger picture, this win was massive for Portland’s playoff hopes — which appear to be getting bigger by the week. The mountain is still steep and the Timbers will need to put in performances of this level in essentially every game remaining if they want to have a chance to make the postseason. But right now, because of a consecutive home league win for the first time all year, we can definitively say they still have a chance.
Next up: a trip to Texas. The Timbers square off against Austin FC at 5:30 p.m. PT on Sunday September 17 at Q2 Stadium, where the Timbers will do something else they have yet to do this season: win two games in a row.
I honestly don't have strong feelings about making it to the playoffs or, if we get there, making a good run. I just want to end the season having shed the malaise that has hung over this team for most of this year so that we can move into next year without a lot of baggage.
This game was awesome for a variety of reasons, but the post game press conferences were my favorite part. Zac, Larrys, and Miles shared some really interesting information that I'd like to highlight for those who missed it.
When asked about making offensive substitutions instead of defensive ones, Miles said "2-0. What do you have to lose? Lets go for it, lets go for more goals, and I think that's important at this point. We need 3 points, we don't need 1. ... You gotta be brave and you gotta be bold in times like this." LOVE IT!! Love that he's not scared, we can't settle down and let the opponent come at us, we should be trying to win every minute. He's probably seen us falter in the final 15 minutes a lot over the past six years and he wasn't about to let that happen again.
The Mabiala quote in regards to Ridgewell that's been going around is great as well. When Liam came in I think we all assumed he would be coaching the defense, but he was probably #2 to Llamosa, following his orders. Now he's the head defensive coach, and he's all over it. Mabiala said, "Liam's like all over everything and doesn't let anything slide, and that's good because I feel like especially for the last two seasons we've been letting a lot of small things slide that cost us so many points. And Ridgy's here and not letting anything slide and I like it." Really happy to see that Ridgy being in a more involved role is having a positive impact on the team. He's not too far removed from his playing days, so his knowledge is very valuable. Zac also mentioned that Ridgy was very upset by goals allowed from set pieces in the past couple games, and he placed an emphasis on set piece defending (30-35 minutes on set pieces is what he said).
Similarly to the previous quote, Zac mentioned that Miles and the coaching staff is calling players out in film sessions, holding players accountable for their mistakes. That is huge. With this and the last quote, I'm starting to think that maybe Gio was a little too nice to his players. I don't want my coach to let mistakes slide and not hold players accountable. Zac said, "We're not trying to hurt anyone's feelings, but at the end of the day it's a professional sport and we're all trying to win and all trying to be better for each other." Hell yeah, they're big boys, they can take criticism to make themselves better.
Another thing he said is a small change but something that I think makes a big difference. Bingham was playing higher this game (and in general) so they can incorporate him in possession between the center backs. Previously, it's been Diego Chara (or another CM) dropping deep to receive the ball, which takes a key player out of the midfield. Bringing the keeper up allows for our midfield to stay intact, and now we can advance the ball much easier out of the back because we have that midfielder there to create triangles. I love this, it's a really small change but we've been able to play out of the back so much easier the last few games. I love that we're seeing these little tweaks that Joseph is implementing that make a noticeable difference on the field. Under Gio our gameplan to play out of the back has been to just give the ball to our fullbacks and have them play a pass to a central midfielder or winger, who usually has a defender on their back and often times will lose the ball. We're seeing the team click so much better in possession because of Miles (maybe I'm giving him too much credit and Gio was just really bad? Eh) and it's great to see.
Then something I observed myself this game was Paredes playing much more disciplined and not going up high as much. He likes to press high and try to win the ball high up the field, which is great, but it leaves a lot of space in the midfield. He was doing none of that this game, he stayed back a lot and it really helped to plug up the midfield. So while maybe he didn't do much on the ball, I felt his positioning was really effective and key for the win. Or maybe he was just tired from playing so many minutes this season, who knows lol
I may be overreacting but hearing all this responses gives me so much hope. It seems the players are really responding well to the coaching change, and it shows that with just a slight upgrade in coaching this team can play so much better than they have. I thought we were going to get crushed this game, I'll be honest. But now I'm excited to see where this team will go for the last few months
Shoutout to u/rzle on reddit, he makes summaries of the pre and post game press conferences each week and it's super helpful when I don't have time to watch the whole thing. That's where I got all this info.