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PORTLAND, Oregon. – And there was the Cascadia Cup this year.
One night when what we will remember is dominated as much by events off the field as it later, the aspect on the ground can not be ignored. The Portland Timbers would have won the regional competition this year with Seattle Sounders FC and Vancouver Whitecaps FC with any result on Friday. Instead, and for the second consecutive game, the Timbers conceded two goals, had never led and lost a major home game.
Unlike last week's loss to Atlanta United FC, it will force people to think. It can not be a blip, where a series of good chances could have tipped the game with a little bit more luck. That's what Sunday felt. Tonight, it's different.
Tonight's 2-1 defeat gives him a double. Two games where the final product was not there. Two games where mistakes in the back have happened too often and too early. Two games that let you wonder exactly where the Timbers are in their season.
It's always a bad night that 900 people of your rival are celebrating in your building, but as for the season, there are now other concerns. The braggart that had the Timbers after finishing their trip early in the season, and after getting results on the road at New York City FC, Seattle and Los Angeles FC, has disappeared. Now the team has to regroup.
"I think for the moment, it's important for the guys to completely disconnect and think about nothing," said head coach Giovanni Savarese, on the question of how to progress. "(The coaches) will make sure we analyze the game for them; that we come back, when we train, and show them what we can do better. But I think they need some time to make sure they can come back strong and mentally quiet and do what we do.
"Because when we play (well), we are a very difficult team, but we have to do it for 90 minutes."
The Timbers are in an in-between, right now: between the home stretch when they proved that they could compete with anyone in MLS and, if everything goes well at it. future, where they will be closest to the playoffs, answer the questions that define the now. However, these questions will be part of what we will remember as the season progresses.
Here are the other memories of Friday's loss.
Jordan Morris vs. Zarek Valentin
If there is a game that defined Friday's game, it's Seattle's left-winger against Portland right-winger. Twice tonight, Morris left and beat Valentin at the bottom line. Twice tonight, the Sounders scored goals.
It is rare that, from a defensive point of view, a goal is the fault of a single player, and at each of these games, there are questions to ask about what happened after the return of Morris to the goal. But it's one-on-one games that fullbacks can not lose. While tonight's goals were not entirely at Valentin's, every game started with Morris's victory.
The quasi-equalizer
Diego Valeri was responsible for Portland's only goal and, in the final moments of the game, he almost equaled a decisive equalizer. On the right side of the ball, the Timbers captain dropped his cross on Stefan Frei's head. Sebastián Blanco, who only needed to put the ball on the target. But with Frei stuck out of position, moving under a ball that he could never have caught, Blanco tried his luck over the crossbar.
It was a cruel turn for someone who, at night, had been Portland's best player. More and more often, Blanco is the driving force behind the Portland attack. On Friday, it meant pass after pass from the left flank, either in the space in front of the goal, or in the swamp of corpses near the penalty spot. Too often, Blanco seemed to be playing the right ball. Very often, he and his teammates were just not in sync.
Then he found himself at the other end of the equation. Five minutes after the stop time. A cross that could give the Timbers this year the Cascadia Cup. In the end, one foot separated Portland from claiming this honor.
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