Entering Friday’s Round of 32 knockout match against St. Louis City SC, the theme of the Timbers ’ Leagues Cup run had been, unquestionably, their ability to win without direct contributions from their stellar trio of DPs. When the Portland Timbers needed to scrape by for a late win in the opening round of Leagues Cup, it was defender Zac McGraw who played the role of hero, delivering two critical set-piece goals with his head.
Then, just last week, it was a quartet of the Timbers’ supporting attackers which combined to score four goals in a lopsided win, helping Portland secure the top spot in the West 5 Group . The somewhat unexpected contributions were all well and grand, but Friday’s win-or-go-home match appeared the right moment for those stars to grab hold of the game early and leave no doubt against an inferior Western Conference foe. Yet on a night in which Portland needed a lift from its goal-scoring dynamos, it didn’t get it.
The Timbers bowed out of the Leagues Cup in a 3-1 loss to St. Louis in CITYPARK, conceding two goals from the 84th-minute onward, dooming Portland on a slow offensive night in which star midfielder Evander exited early with an injury and his teammates never picked up the slack in his absence. City SC had golden opportunities to dot the scoreboard in both the second and 25th minutes, but both shots dinged off the right bar.
Two minutes later, in the 27th, a header off a set-piece once more ended in a near-miss. It was Portland’s turn in the 30th. With possession deep in the center of the box, striker Felipe Mora tapped it back to defender Juan Mosquera who unleashed a rocket at the goal.
It put a scare in the home crowd, but was deflected narrowly as the scoreless draw continued. For the Timbers, the looks, in and of themselves, were encouraging given the attack was down its top creator. Evander went down with a right leg injury in the 11th minute, triggering a substitution of David Ayala for the Portland side.
Evander walked off without assistance, but would not return, increasing the pressure on an offense that had been stymied to that point. St. Louis’ attack didn’t let up, either.
Portland keeper Maxime Crepeau, who made several key saves en route to his first clean sheet as a Timber, came under fire near the end of the first half, making a particularly dynamic diving save in the 39th. The Timbers, who have cemented themselves as a premiere MLS attack, were outshot 9-2 in the first half Friday, and 18-11 overall. St.
Louis landed the first punch of the night in the 51st when a helter-skelter sequence ignited by a Timbers turnover ended in a successful strike from Cedric Teuchert. The thing about this Portland group, however, is that so often this season, no matter how slow their start, it has found ways to respond. And that’s exactly what happened three minutes after conceding, when defender Claudio Bravo sent a beautiful curving shot to the top left corner from outside the box, tying things up.
It would be Portland’s lone response on the evening, however. The Timbers were dispossessed frequently throughout the night, and lapses in focus cost them dearly in the end. In the 84th minute, shortly after another Portland turnover, a corner kick opened the door for St.
Louis to once again dissect the Timbers’ backline. Moments after the set piece, City SC still in possession, winger Marcel Hartel found the ball in close and sliced it across the goal and past Crepeau for a 2-1 edge. City SC added one more to the scoreboard for good measure in the 88th, Simon Becher sending a lofting one-touch goal to seal the outing.
The loss was Portland’s third across its last seven matches of MLS and Leagues Club play. Next up: The Timbers enter a two-week break before resuming MLS play on Aug. 24 when they fittingly host St.
Louis at 7:30 p.m -- Shane Hoffmann for The Oregonian/OregonLive.
