Photo credit: Portland Timbers
Portland Timbers 1- FC Dallas 1
For the Portland Timbers coming to Frisco, Texas and its colossus Toyota Park, with the labels of total underdogs. Despite the locals, FC Dallas coming with a momentum as high after their last week wins at home over Seattle and overall favorites. For the visiting Portland Timbers with back-to-back losses the odds of netting a positive result were not within the reach of the visitors. Still nothing written and sentenced until the end and for the Mighty PTFC; in this match they did honor their moniker with a great match.
In today’s match with many moves performed by Giovanni Savarese in his initial eleven and a different formation using a 4-3-2-1 opposite to the traditional used of 4-2-3-1. Adding to his initial eleven some novel moves that at the end became prolific for the Timbers.
As this match exposed a new defensive game performed by the Timbers backfield, and despite the exposure put by Dallas midfield Ronald Lamah scoring his third goal in two matches in the 36 minute. In the rest of the match and especially the second half, the Portland defensive game really saw an improvement and stepped up its act denying the Dallas strikers any liberties.
Still the most import addition in Portland’s starting lineup was the incorporation of Bill Ponti Tuiloma in place of Liam Ridgewell and the Kiwi delivering in his debut. In addition, this match marked the return to the lineup of Diego Chara that he did made a difference with his game and was a big influence to Paredes and Olum. Especially for newcomer Cristhian Paredes today. I saw a great performance by him and he is showiing a lot of confidence in the field. Either defensively or offensively, his game saw a big improvement.
With many areas of improvement and players to return to their old form, in the likes of Diego Valeri, the very many opposing defenses are very closely watching the Argentinian. This is a gain for Sebastian Blanco that with just a minute and seconds in the second half scored the equalizer with a spectacular goal.
As the stats favored the likes of FC Dallas with more possession and shoots at goal, the Portland Timbers had two clear opportunities among one in the 75 minute that earned Lawrence Olum a red card for a handball. The other opportunity was in the 83 minute when Alva’s Powell shoot shave the posts and sheer luck did not allowed what could been the go-ahead goal for Portland.
In Saturday’s match we saw a much better and recovered Rose City displaying a far better game both offensively and defensively. So close for a win but in the end a point is a point.
FC Dallas
Portland
