Resting the likes of Larrys Mabiala, Diego Valeri, and Diego Chara after their excursions in Wednesday night’s victory over the Columbus Crew, the Portland Timbers were always facing an uphill battle Saturday night in Minneapolis against Minnesota United.
When that first half ended, it was clear just how far uphill they’d have to fight. The Timbers went into the break trailing a team that hadn’t won in two months by three goals to nil, their manager swearing in an interview on broadcast television.
Things improved after the restart, but while they clawed two goals back, the Timbers couldn’t find an all-important third. They lost, deservedly, by a score of 3-2 for the second straight year at TCF Bank Stadium — leaving the Twin Cities with one of their most uneven performances of the year in tow.
In the end, it was a predictable outcome.
Chara’s absence always spells trouble, but in this game, with the spellbinding Darwin Quintero lined up on the other side of the field, it was particularly ominous. David Guzman, flanked by Andy Polo and Andres Flores, had an awfully big job to do in central midfield. It wasn’t to go well.
After seventeen minutes, Fernando Bob picked up the ball in Minnesota’s half, looked up, and played a straight ball over the top to Quintero, who had broken in behind the Timbers’ backline. The Colombian raced into the box, cut back on Julio Cascante, and slipped a pass to Romario Ibarra to slide into an empty net.
The goal had been coming — the Timbers’ midfield was getting anywhere near Minnesota’s attacking players, continually leaving their defense exposed — and it was only the beginning of what quickly turned into a landslide.
Some 15 minutes after the opener, Liam Ridgewell played an entry pass out of central defense into Andy Polo in the center circle, only for Polo to knock it straight to Quintero — who turned sharply and knifed a seeing eye pass into Ibarra for another one-touch finish past Steve Clark.
Then, three minutes before halftime, from a corner, the Loons added a third. Quintero sent a corner into the penalty area which took a deflection off of Rasmus Schuller, bounced, and was blasted into the net by center back Michael Boxall.
Just a handful of minutes later, a seething Giovani Savarese punctuated his assessment of his team’s first half with an expletive and stormed into the visiting locker room.
His anger wasn’t misplaced. Minnesota had ripped off 13 first half shots, ten of which came from inside the box, scored three times, and saw Miguel Ibarra blast what would have been a fourth goal off of the crossbar. It was a bloodbath.
It also, with the introduction of Chara for an overmatched Tomas Conchney, was about to change.
From start of the second half, the Timbers were a completely different team. Reshuffled slightly into a 4-2-3-1, they controlled their defensive midfield, kept and moved the ball, and, facing a team with a well-established penchant for blowing big leads, got an absolute screamer of a goal to get on the board at 3-1.
Ten minutes after the restart, an Andres Flores corner was cleared by Francisco Calvo into the path of Alvas Powell — who settled the ball with his chest on top of the penalty area, and then, without a moment’s hesitation, fired a rocket of a shot into the top right corner.
It was a sensational strike, as good a goal as Powell will ever score, and with it, Minnesota went into a shell. They were reduced to playing for counters — one of which resulted in a Quintero dink off of Clark’s crossbar — and the Timbers began to pile on the pressure.
Just after that Quintero chip, Savarese, having already brought out Chara, sent Valeri into the fray. Soon enough, it was 3-2.
With just over ten minutes to go, Valeri, holding the ball on the left flank, found Jorge Villafaña on an overlapping run. Villafaña cut the ball back, and Sebastian Blanco, the only Timbers outfield player making his third start in eight days, finished coolly into the far corner.
All of the sudden, the Timbers were one goal away from one of their biggest ever MLS comebacks and Loons a concession away from an epic collapse.
The drama, as expected, continued to mount. With both players challenging for a second ball on top of Minnesota’s penalty area with time ticking away, Fernando Bob stuck out an elbow and connected with Valeri’s throat.
The Maestro collapsed, and referee Dave Gantar went straight to his back pocket. Minnesota would face the final minute of normal time and the six minutes of stoppage time following it with ten men.
They held on, but barely. Valeri came close to curling in the free kick that was the result of Bob’s indiscretion, before Bobby Shuttleworth was forced into an excellent reflex save to deny Andy Polo from close range. Finally, after more than 96 minutes, Gantar brought down the curtain.
It had been a spirited fightback from the Timbers, especially considering how weakly they responded to big deficits in Houston last weekend and D.C. and Kansas City two road trips before that, but there could be no complaints about it ultimately coming up short.
You can’t play a first half like Portland played in this game and expect to get a result in this league — and the nature of that first half, reductionist though it sounds, was almost entirely attributable to Chara’s absence from it.
The biggest problems that the Timbers had, from their inability to track Quintero to the disconnect between their central midfield and front three, went away after halftime. They became a fluid, cohesive unit. It helped that Minnesota fell back so far, much to Adrian Heath’s chagrin, but the difference was unmistakable.
This is not, certainly, an excuse for how absolutely abysmal the Timbers were to start the game. Timbers teams in the past have functioned without Chara, even if they haven’t racked up wins without him. It is only to marvel at the size and scope of his impact on this particular side. There are no parallels in MLS.
And so, with this final three-game week out of the way, we’re down to the business end of the season: there are just four games to go, all against Western Conference playoff contenders, two at home, and two on the road.
Fans of this team would not be at all wrong to feel pessimistic heading into the final month. The Timbers are not playing well, and haven’t been for months. But Chara, along with Valeri, is going to start every game from here on in — and that, at least, should give them a shot.
