Just when it looked as if City SC might steal a point from a game it had no business getting one from for the second week in a row, reality caught up with the team.
And reality was not friendly to City SC on Saturday night.
In a game in which the team said it would be important to come out hard, City SC didn’t come out hard and it did not start playing harder as the game progressed, and that played into Portland’s hands. Eventually, the Timbers found ways to exploit that, dealing City SC its third loss of the season, 2-1, at CityPark. The team went 1-3-1 in its April MLS games.
“We got what we deserved tonight,†said coach Bradley Carnell, who apologized to the crowd in his postgame news conference for the team’s lack of effort.
“I’m more (angry) in the way that our intensity wasn’t there,†said defender Tim Parker. “I think we snuck away with one in Colorado, obviously getting the 1-1 draw. You could argue that we could have won that game but I think we should have lost it. So to come back home and to not really have the intensity that we really looked for, it’s something that we’re going to have to look at this week and I’m sure that training will be a little bit harder this week, a little bit more intense.â€
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The game was the end of a run of three games in eight days for City SC, but everyone agreed that wasn’t the reason the team looked flat. City SC had issues on both ends of the field. Once Portland started attacking, the defense was helpless to stop it. On offense, City SC would come close to creating a dangerous chance, and then mess it up with a pass that would get broken up and wouldn’t lead to a shot. City SC managed only one shot on goal all game, the flick from Celio Pompeu that produced the team’s only goal, in the 79th minute. City SC never got its game in gear.
“I think Portland came here with a game plan,†Parker said, “and without being too harsh on ourselves, I think we played into it. I think we needed to realize what they were doing early on and obviously try to up the tempo, up our intensity. Change the energy very early and we weren’t able to do that.â€
And even the tying goal came with a dark cloud. With one point in hand and three points and a win now possible, City SC gave up a goal three minutes later that cost it everything.
“It wasn’t the same game like against Cincinnati,†said midfielder Eduard Lowen. “We came out flying against Cincinnati. We pressed them the whole time, we didn’t give them any time and space. Portland just played a dirty game today. … But honestly, it’s our own fault. We played a game with them. We lost too many tackles. We weren’t aggressive enough. So in the end, we can just blame us.
“It was too easy. They were just hitting long balls. We lost the tackles. We won the air duels, and then we didn’t get the second balls. We were too stretched, too wide. It was too easy for them to create chances and also the way we conceded the goals. I think the first one, the penalty is a result from a goal kick, which is way too easy. And the second one, we are there with three, four men against one and he’s coming out — that’s just way too easy.â€
Portland easily could have had additional goals, but once again Roman Burki came to the rescue, making five saves. He was helpless on the two goals, one on a penalty kick and the other on a shot in the 82nd minute there was no way he could get to.
“Space,†said Carnell. “When there’s space underneath, where there’s space behind, space everywhere; I just felt everywhere I looked there was space. … Unfortunately I would say this is a tough day at the office for us. It’s a good learning moment.â€
The offense is expected to have some issues at the moment. The team is without striker Klauss, its leading scorer (five goals). City SC started Niko Gioacchini up top and Lowen, Rasmus Alm and Jared Stroud playing underneath him, and then Indiana Vassilev and Miguel Perez, who turned 18 on Friday, below them.
“It’s not a secret that Klauss is missing,†Lowen said. “In the end we will need him for sure. And I hope very, very badly that he will come back as soon as possible. Yeah, I think the first half wasn’t bad. We had some moments but not not like real chances. We are sometimes in front of the box, but we always got blocked or something. We didn’t have real chances. So I really hope that he’s coming back soon.â€
Three times in fairly quick succession in the second half, Portland got through the City SC defense and created dangerous chances. Twice the chances ended with saves by Burki but the third ended with a penalty kick. Portland’s Franck Boli took the ball into the box and had his shot saved by Burki, but he couldn’t control the rebound. The ball came in front of him in the penalty area as John Nelson swooped in from the left but slipped and fell on the ball. Referee Ismail Elfath immediately signaled for a penalty kick.
“Honestly, I don’t think it’s PK,†Nelson said. “I fall on it, maybe it hit my hand, but it was natural. He didn’t go to the VAR, but we don’t blame the ref at all. We’re a team that’s not going to blame the ref. We didn’t deserve it tonight. I don’t think it was a PK, but you know, we just we move on.â€
Evander converted the penalty kick to give Portland the lead in the 63rd minute and in the 79th minute, Pompeu was at the end of string of passes and scored from in close. It was Pompeu’s first MLS goal and made it look like City SC would get a point.
But just three minutes later, Portland scored the game-winner and that was that.
“You have the energy and the hype; you’re excited, and oftentimes, the very next few plays after a goal whether you concede or whether you score are going to be vitally important,†Carnell said. “And you could just see maybe a little sense of relief from us, which meant now a little lack of concentration.â€
“I just don’t get it,†Lowen said. “We were coming back in the game. We had to keep going and try to win the game, to turn this game around. And then we scored the goal and then suddenly we stopped playing. I don’t know — we are getting passive and giving them chances again, and then they score an easy goals like this. This is just unbelievable.â€
“I felt like we did deserve to lose this game because today our team, it wasn’t us,†Pompeu said. “No energy. The challenges were way too easy, but that was it.â€