For the hosts, playing their first ever MLS home game and marking the occasion with their first ever MLS victory, it was a historic day. For the Timbers, it was another entirely forgettable one.
Save for a stretch after Cincinnati’s opening goal, Giovani Savarese's team turned in a truly abominable performance: sloppy individually, sloppy collectively, and punished thoroughly. They were beaten on set pieces, beaten from open play, and, for the second straight week, lost a veteran to a late, needless red card.
So, sitting on one point, having just become the first MLS team to concede three or more goals in each of their first three games of a season, the Timbers are again facing a not insignificant amount of early-season adversity.
No one thought that this marathon season-opening road trip would be entirely smooth sailing. But few could foresee challenges of this depth and severity arising at such an early stage.
Last year, after suffering consecutive defeats to start the season, it was in game number three that Savarese found a successful formula — benching Liam Ridgewell, and dropping the Timbers into the Christmas tree formation that would eventually springboard them to a 15-game unbeaten run between April and August.
On Sunday, however, Savarese didn't get it right. Without the suspended Diego Chara, and coming off of a 4-1 drubbing at LAFC this weekend, the Timbers' boss made five changes — handing first starts of the season to Claude Dielna, Bill Tuiloma, Christhian Paredes, Dairon Asprilla, and Lucas Melano.
With the central midfield pairing of Tuiloma and Paredes somewhat excepted, each of these moves were disasters. Asprilla was ineffective and Melano anemic, but the experienced Dielna arguably was the worst of the bunch — and it was his inattention that led directly to Cincinnati's taking the lead after just 16 minutes.
After a foul from Paredes on Kekuta Manneh, Cincinnati had a central free kick from crossing distance. Leandro Bertone lifted it into the box, and Kendall Waston ran right past the French defender and headed it into the corner.
Dielna never got near him. It was a shocking piece of defending and a straightforward goal, and, as it happened, the Timbers never recovered.
They surged somewhat before halftime, but only carved out a handful of chances — the best of which fell to Asprilla on the doorstep after Larrys Mabiala flicked on a corner, but Cincinnati goalkeeper Spencer Richey reacted instinctively to deny him with an excellent sprawling save.
The scoreline remained at 1-0 when, just before the hour mark, just as they did in Los Angeles last Sunday, the Timbers unraveled completely.
On the end of a failed long throw from Jeff Attinella, Roland Lamah fired a shot that deflected into the path of a streaking Allan Cruz, who, with his back to goal, controlled the ball with his first touch, and sent a back-heel into the far corner with his second.
It was a lovely, inventive finish, and the hosts, flush with confidence, would add a third just two minutes later when former Timber Darren Mattocks, having replaced an injured Fanendo Adi, sent a second ball into the box that right back Mathieu Deplagne, without a goal for more than five seasons, arrived unmarked to tap in.
For the Timbers, it was a mess. The defense was as disorganized as it'd been at any point throughout the first two weeks of the season, with the lack of familiarly between Dielna and Mabiala painfully evident at its center, and Attinella, usually such a safe pair of hands, struggling both with his decision-making and
At this point, with the game all but out of reach, Savarese finally admitted defeat and brought on Andy Polo and Jeremy Ebobisse for Asprilla and Melano. The Argentinian forward had completed just six passes, the Colombian winger just five.
A couple minutes after that, the Timbers suffered another indignity. Mabiala, who had picked up a yellow card in frustration at the end of the first half, was sent packing for bundling over Manneh just outside of the Timbers' penalty area.
With 20 minutes to play, up a man, Cincinnati was content to hold onto the ball and soak up the atmosphere. The game finished at 3-0, the biggest win for an MLS expansion side in its home debut since the Seattle Sounders beat the New York Red Bulls 3-0 at what was then Qwest Field a decade ago.
Alvas Powell, facing his former club for the first time since being traded away last December, greeted the final whistle by turning to east side of the stadium and firing up the supporters looking down at him.
The Timbers, meanwhile, couldn't get off the field fast enough. They'd again been exposed defensively, completed just half of their passes in the final third, and been soundly defeated by a team that is effectively two months old.
The good news? The Timbers get next week off to regroup, and they'll have Diego Chara back in the lineup — ergo a fighting chance — when they take the field next on the last day of March at the LA Galaxy.
Between now and then, Savarese has to get his team into fighting shape: figure out the defense, figure out which of his squad players he can trust, and figure out the best way to set this team in the short-term before help and home games arrive in the coming weeks and months.
The Timbers certainly have room for error — significant error — on this road trip. But they can't afford too many more days like this one.
