Portland Timbers 0, Sporting Kansas City 0
Providence Park, Portland Oregon
Regardless the streak of eight matches in the plus the Portland Timbers extended after their draw on Saturday against high-flying Sporting Kansas City. The Midwest, squad currently seeded in the Western Conference top. This match had all the elements of a contest and tight match seen as a defensive duel. Indeed this became in the end a defensive headlock put by both initial elevens in the field not allowing any liberties to one another to open up the scoreboard.
In this match, the Portland Timbers lacked several of its starters being on the DL, one by accumulation of yellow cards, and by World Cup duties. The absence especially of Diego Chara, the wiz in the defensive midfield for Portland, was something to worry about for Manager Giovanni Savarese. That was no problem for Savarese, who showed off how bold he can be in every match his Timbers play. This time in his backfield, he put Marco Farfan in the right along with Zarek Valentin in the left with Julio Cascante and Larry’s Mabiala as center backs. In place of Chara, Lawrence Olum was the starter.
For the Portland Timbers the intentions of the SKC were to put them on a defensive hold. They started displaying at times some opportunities but not finishing in their quest to score. As in the 40th minute despite the Timbers, defense game success. The visitors forward Daniel Salloi shoot hit the bar and the paly ened up as a scare. For Portland Fanendo Adi taking a pas from Sebastian Blanco and heading the ball in the 57, the play stopped with goalkeeper Tim Melia opportune intervention.
In the end defense ruled this game in its entirety as both squads having their opportunities, as the Rose City and Midwest squad’s defenses stepping up in a timely manner and see a conclusion of a stalemate of zero goals.
Goals
No goals scored
Highlight of the Match
Every day we see the way Andres Flores and especially Cristhian Paredes are becoming an important piece of the Portland game. Despite the two combining for a lone shot, their defensive game is something to talk about and their contributions in the field are vast.
The other is the creativeness of Giovanni Savarese in his initial eleven of putting Marco Farfan and Lawrence Olum and this duo delivering. With Marco Farfan being an annoyance to SKC Johnny Russell in the course of the game and not letting him display his offensive might. The need to finish offensively is necessary for the Rose City squad.
Next Match:
US OPEN CUP: LA Galaxy (6, 7, 2, 20 points) at Providence Park, Portland Oregon 8:00 PM PST
Sporting Kansas City
Portland
