PORTLAND — There will be twists and turns ahead, of course. But the Portland Timbers were not about to play down the significance of Sunday’s start to the Major League Soccer season.
“I think this game was crucial for a lot of reasons,” Timbers coach Caleb Porter said in the aftermath of another 2-1 win over the Columbus Crew.
By matching the win in Columbus three months ago that gave Portland the MLS Cup championship, the Timbers posted a win in March for the first time under their fourth-year head coach. Sure, the Timbers have overcome slow starts to do special things, but the sooner that first win is in the books, the better it is for the club’s psyche.
“You want to get that first win, especially at home,” defender Nat Borchers said. “I think it takes a lot of pressure off us, at least for the near term.”
In contrast to what might have been expected in front of a charged-up sellout crowd at Providence Park, the Timbers were willing to wait out Columbus and use their speed to create chances on the counter-attack. That approach created a series of high-quality chances, though the Timbers didn’t make them count.
The goals that got Portland in the win column came from a Diego Valeri free kick in the first half and from a determined finish by Fanendo Adi in the 79th minute.
Adi’s winner came 11 minutes after Frederico Higuain tied the match for the Crew with a fabulous bicycle kick.
“Brilliant goal,” Porter said. “Those things happen in the sport. It’s how you respond to it that determines whether or not you’re going to win the game. I thought our response was excellent.”
Valeri’s placement was excellent on the goal that opened the scoring. Taking a free kick from 18 yards from the goalline and just to the left of the 18-yard box, Valeri’s in-swinger found its way through traffic that included Portland’s Liam Ridgewell and into the right side of the net.
“I just wanted to put the ball on target,” Valeri said. “Liam looked at me and said put it there and I will flick it. He couldn’t flick, but it’s good. It was a goal.”
The winner was less artistic but every bit as satisfying. Dairon Asprilla, a threat from the left wing all match long, took a sharp angle shot that Columbus goalkeeper Steve Clark knocked into the air. With the ball floating above the front of the goal, Adi was able to get to the landing spot and steer it across the goal line with the outside of his left leg.
Adi said he was afraid the floating ball might deflect off the cross bar and away from him, and joked that he was tempted to break the crossbar to reach the ball.
“I saw the ball. I just had to manage a way to put it in,” Adi said.
Manage he did, and so the Timbers got a meaningful win despite watching Columbus possess the ball more than 60 percent of the time. The Crew completed 467 passes to Portland’s 299. But except for Higuain’s magic — he also hit the post with a volley later in the second half — the Timbers were the team creating the most dangerous moments.
Columbus striker Kei Kamara took five shots in the game, but Borchers and Ridgewell — reunited for the first time since MLS Cup — each produced timely blocked shots to help foil the Crew.
“It was a cat and mouse game when you’ve got Kamara in the box and you’ve got to mark him and Higuain comes late and you’ve got to mark him up,” Borchers said. “They were sending some numbers forward. Towards the end of the game they had Conor Casey in the box as well. You just have to deal with those things.”
Among the things the Timbers dealt with was the temptation to attack out of midfield, a natural instinct for Valeri. The plan on this afternoon, though, was to invite Columbus forward.
“Of course it’s tough (to be patient),” Valeri said. “We don’t want to play like that in most of the games, but when we need to do it to win the game we will do it.”
Win the Timbers did, starting 2016 the way they ended 2015 and, in Porter’s words, putting down a marker that they are not resting on past glory.
“We showed today how hungry we are. We showed today that we picked up right where we left off at the end of the year — that last year wasn’t an anomaly,” Porter said. “We showed today that we can be even better. I’m confident that we can go to another level.”
Match notes
Dynamic wingers: In preseason, Dairon Asprilla played on the right wing and Lucas Melano on the left wing. Sunday, they flipped sides. Porter said he wanted Asprilla matched up with Columbus right back Harrison Afful. Asprilla’s ability to win balls in the air and to dribble at Afful, along with his ability to defend when needed, played into that decision according to Porter. Both players were dangerous on the counter-attack all afternoon. Asprilla missed a couple of high-quality chances in the first half, but his driven shot from the left of goal led to Adi’s tap-in finish.
Adi impressive: Columbus coach Gregg Berhalter said called Adi a handful for central defenders. The Crew coach sounded happy that he won’t have to deal with Adi the rest of this season. “How many guys are like Adi in the league?” Burkhalter said.
Taylor stands tall: As expected, Jermaine Taylor played left back in his first regular-season match for Portland and had a strong match defending one of the better wing players in the league, Ethan Finlay. Finlay was limited to 37 touches and 22 passes. He did get credit for making the pass that Higuain bicycled into the goal, but that play was all Higuain.
Counter thought: Porter called his team lethal on the counter-attack — except for the finish. “The only thing I thought we need to do better is finish off some counter attacks.”
Celebration
Before they kicked off 2016, the Timbers commemorated their 2015 MLS Cup championship by unveiling a sign reading “2015 MLS Cup Champions” on their ring of honor above the north end of Providence Park.
There were fireworks, and after the Timbers Army sang the national anthem (a home-opener tradition) the supporters’ group presented an artistic tifo that read “Dance, Kiss, Love” with pictures of the 2015 Timbers celebrating their title, Diego Valeri kissing the Cup, and the original 1975 Timbers in celebration. Valeri called it his favorite Timbers Army tifo yet.
“It’s the most special,” he said. “Our fans surprise us every game, so I would expect a better one (in the future).”
Borchers said it was nice to celebrate the title one more time with the fans before getting to work on 2016.
“You want to be able to reflect on it. You want to be able to tip your cap to the fans. They did a phenomenal job of keeping the atmosphere electric like they always do,” Borchers said. “But once the whistle blew it was a new season and I think we approached it very professionally. To get the result tonight was big for us.”
