by Matt Hoffman
The LA Galaxy defeated the Portland Timbers 1-0 in US Open Cup play Wednesday night at Providence Park.
A deflection came to the foot of Raul Mendiola who one-timed it past Wade Hamilton to give the LA Galaxy a 1-0 lead five minutes into the game. That would be the Galaxy’s only shot on goal for the first 50 minutes but it was enough to secure the lead despite Portland’s best efforts to equalize. Stellar play in goal by Clement Diop nullified a great chance by Jack McInerney. Jack Barmby had a strong first half as well.
He even had a breakaway of his own, only to be foiled by his own feet.
The score held and the Timbers were lucky not be down 2-0 early in the second half. An errant back pass and, later, a profound inability to dispossess the Galaxy of the ball in their half nearly netted the Galaxy another goal.
The Timbers came back from a two goal deficit at Provide Park three days ago but surely wouldn’t want to have to repeat the feat.
Few teams have been more reliable at killing a lead than the Bruce Arena-era LA Galaxy. But there were green shoots in the second half just as there were in the first. Barmby’s corner kick was right on the money. So too, much to Portland’s chagrin, was Diop.
McInerney had a good look at goal but took the shot from the difficult angle instead of passing to a loosely guarded Barmby. Barmby would get a nice shot off minutes later after a sweet Taylor Peay nutmeg cross found nothing but white shirts in the Galaxy box.
Caleb Porter rested some of his starters for the mid-week US Open Cup match but with advancement or elimination on the line, Porter elected to bring in his top guns beginning with Diego Valeri in the 63rd minute and Fanendo Adi three minutes later. They nearly got Portland on the board in the 69th minute but Adi’s effort sailed harmlessly over the crossbar.
With the insertion of Lucas Melano in the 73rd minute, Porter had used his three substitutes with 15 minutes of time remaining try to stave off the single-game elimination.It looked as if that would indeed be the case but Adi’s header in the 85th minute went wide to his left.
Mendiola’s goal will be what appears on the score sheet but for the Galaxy, who will advance, the person who shepherded the result was center-back Jelle Van Damme whose constant attention to detail and his marshaling of the Galaxy’s backline were key to the team being able to ride out the result.
