Photo by Diego Diaz
The Portland Timbers hosted the MLS’s new expansion team, St. Louis City SC, on a clear chilly night in Providence Park. St. Louis had won their first two MLS appearances before coming to Portland. Timbers’ Manager, Giovanni Savarese, was asked how the team prepares for a new, fairly unknown team, “At least we have two games that we have seen that we can look into it.There are a lot of things that you can tell…there is a style in there that you can tell very clearly in a sense in the way that they play… It’s all about preparation and always, you know, there’s different players so you need to get to understand also the players that they have. We need to prepare the best we can as a team that works really hard.”
Portland started the match with only eight of the allowed nine players on the bench including new star forward, Evander, due to a minor twisted ankle injury he sustained in practice on Tuesday. He was substituted in early the 12th minute due to an injury to Cristhian Paredes, who had to be carried off the field on a stretcher due to a hamstring injury.
Earlier in the week, Coach Gio was asked about the team’s injuries, “We feel that we still have a good team. We still have good players. We still have, right now, the possibility to compete. Because, I think that when we have everybody we have good depth. Right now we don’t have good depth but we still have a competitive team. So we are pushing forward, we are pushing forward with a very positive attitude.”
The Timbers started the match with energy and had an attempt saved in the 2nd minute by Brazilian forward, Nathan Fogaça. Zach McGraw, the only MLS player to come from West Point, capitalized on the energy from Fogaça’s near goal with a header goal in the 3rd minute with the assist by Eryk Williamson.
City SC had their first attempt at goal in the 14th minute with a near miss by midfielder Indiana Vassilev. Fogaça’s right footed shot from the center of the box in the 16th minute was high and wide to the left and was immediately followed by a missed attempt by Evander off of a set piece.
After a series of minor fouls and corner kicks between both teams, referee Victor Rivas gave his first yellow card of the match to St. Louis’ midfielder Jared Stroud for a nasty foul in the 29th minute. João Klauss, a City SC forward, had a right footed shot from a difficult angle on the right, saved in the center of the goal by David Bingham. He was assisted by Indiana Vassilev.
Stroud had an attempt saved in the 44th minute but found the back of the net in the 45+1 minute of stoppage time to tie the match with the assist by Klauss. This was his second goal of the season.
Portland started the second half with a close missed attempt by Nathan Fogaça in the 49th minute. In the 53rd minute, there was a delay of game due to Santiago Moreno making contact with the forearm of City’s keeper and going down. After attention by the training staff, he returned to play.
Defender Dario Zuparic earned the Timbers first yellow card for a bad foul on Stroud in the 54th minute. Play continued to be chippy with each team exchanging minor fouls. Evander had a missed attempt in the 61st minute followed by Rasmus Alm of St. Louis City SC sending a ball into the arms of Bingham in the 64th.
Miguel Perez earned City’s second yellow card in the 65th minute for locking arms with Santiago Moreno and taking him down in a bad foul. Immediately following the yellow card, Perez was substituted out along with Stroud for St. Louis’ first substitutions of the match. Moreno was shown his own yellow card in the 68th minute.
The Timbers made their second substitution in the 69th minute bringing on Jaroslaw Niezgoda for Evander. City SC made two more substitutions in the 72nd and 73rd minute. In the 74th minute Zach McGraw earned a yellow card for an unnecessary foul.
St. Louis got the go ahead goal in the 75th minute with a header by Kyle Hiebert from the center of the box to the bottom right corner. He was assisted by Eduard Löwen with a cross following a set piece situation.
Photo by Diego Diaz
The Timbers made two substitutions in the 81st minute bringing on Marvin Loria for Claudio Bravo and Diego Gutiérrez for Moreno. City’s Tomás Ostrák had a missed attempt in the 88th minute with the Timbers’ Zuparic missing the box just to the right in the 89th.
St. Louis forward Nicholas Gioacchini’s shot to the center of goal was saved by Bingham in the 90+3. After 6+ minutes of stoppage time the final whistle blew with St. Louis up 2-1.
