Claudio Bravo aims a shot to score Portland’s second goa on minute 53 in their 2-0 victory over LAFC on September 9, 2023 at Providence Park, Portland, OR.
The Portland Timbers got a convincing 2-0 victory over the West Coast powerhouse LAFC. A much needed victory to give the fans, and most importantly, the players themselves the necessary confidence to face the rest of the MLS regular season, and challenge for a spot in the post season.
Providence Park has been known in the league as a difficult ground, while surpassed by size and modernity of new soccer specific stadiums and shared massive NFL stadiums, the old cathedral is envied in mystique. Even an impressive side like LAFC, defending 2022 champions, led by a player with a top curriculum like Carlos Vela, can stumble here.
Portland showed a completely different face on Saturday night’s game, looking as a very organized defensive machine, with Larrys Mabiala and Zac McGraw displaying a very solid defensive game, and serving as the spring to launch the team forward.
Mabiala, former Paris St. Germain player, youth French international, and senior Congo international, has been underutilized this season with only 8 starts. He took the spot of Dario Zuparic, who is serving a suspension for accumulation of yellow cards. Standing on his right side, Zac McGraw won back his starting spot due to the absence of Miguel Araujo on international duty with the Peruvian National Team, playing 2026 Would Cup qualifiers.
Mabiala got the first goal in minute 21 after a calamitous error by LAFC goalkeeper, John McCarthy, attempting to clear a cross by Timbers midfielder Evander Ferreira, left him with the entire 24’x8′ (goal dimensions) to himself. This was Larrys’s 9th goal in his Timbers career in all competitions, which makes him Portland’s top defender scorer in the franchise’s history, and earned him a spot on MLS team of the week.
The line of 4 was completed with Eric Miller on the right side, and last but not least, Claudio Bravo, whose explosion, endurance, and sacrifice was impressive. He not only made Carlos Vela’s life very difficult during regulation, he constantly sprang forward and was rewarded with a goal.
In minute 53, the Argentina youth international from Lomas de Zamora, recovered a ball in the Timber’s high pressure line after a bad control from Carlos Vela. After a quick release to Evander, he sprang forward with remarcable verticality. Followed by a series of one touch passes involving the entirety of the midfield line, first to Evander, quick to Yimmi Chara, off to Santi Moreno, and back to Bravo in the center of the box. One touch control, pacing with the ball glued to his feet for a couple seconds while holding the pressure of several defenders around him, Bravo had the cold blood to find the right moment to shot and score Portland’s second goal, and to many accounts, Man of the Match.
