Skip to main contentThe first 15 minutes were awesome.
As the Portland Timbers opened their clash against the San Jose Earthquakes at a sweltering, sizzling PGE Park last night, the local minor-leaguers had the Major League Soccer champions on the run.
With a berth in the U.S. Open Cup quarterfinals on the line, along with bragging rights in a tournament that pits top-level teams against their supposed footballing inferiors, the Timbers opened with a confident flurry of free-flowing attacks. For the edgy crowd of 10,622-especially the raucous die-hards massed at the north end of the park-it seemed an upset might be brewing.
Then, disaster.
In one of San Jose's precious few early forays into the Timbers' defensive end, Earthquakes forward Brian Ching-fresh from a U.S. national team appearance last weekend against Poland-popped loose at the top of the Timbers' penalty area. Ching, himself a veteran of the Timbers' A-League, managed a dangerous shot against Portland 'keeper Josh Saunders. (Saunders, helpfully adding a subplot, owns an MLS ring as a former Earthquake.)
Saunders made the save, but the referee's whistle blew, as Ching spilled to the NexTurf. And before the Portland faithful knew what hit them, Timbers defender Gavin Wilkinson was shown a red card for fouling Ching. The fiery New Zealand international made his way off the field amid heated protests, and Earthquakes veteran Ronnie Ekelund easily converted a penalty kick.
Wilkinson's ejection seemed extraordinarily harsh-especially from 110 yards away, in section 107, where the objections were both voiciferous and profane. But that, as the man said, is soccer. Just like that, the once-rampant Timbers were down a goal-and more importantly, at a one-man disadvantage for the rest of the match.
Short-handed, the Timbers' weaknesses were exposed by the methodical big-leaguers. Portland forwards Alan Gordon and Byron Alvarez-a two-man scourge of the A-League with almost two dozen goals between them-managed little headway against a defense anchored by Curt Waibel, a menacing shaven-headed warrior who towered over Alvarez and out-muscled the rookie Gordon. Portland's midfield struggled to adjust to the 'Quakes speed, while a number of promising Timbers attacks that would likely have struck minor-league gold died on canny San Jose defenders' boots.
San Jose's Ramiro Corrales and Canadian national team striker Dwayne DeRosario-who replaced U.S. World Cup star Landon Donovan at half-time-added second-half strikes to a lopsided 3-0 scoreline. The Timbers, reduced to 10 men for four-fifths of the match, maintained a spirited attack, but San Jose luxuriated in its advantage. In the second half, the 'Quakes frequently pinged the ball back and forth across their defensive line, patiently waiting for openings. For the most part, the major-leaguers easily absorbed Portland's offensive excurisions, though the Timbers did manage a number of dangerous chances in the second stanza.
As a chances of a comeback dwindled, the robust contingent at the north end kept up its torrent of drums, songs and chants, giving the crowd (more than double the Timbers' average) a taste of the pulsating scene the unheralded minor league club can drum up. Given that the Open Cup match marked the Timbers' competitive debut against the highest echelon of American soccer, neither players nor supporters had anything to be ashamed of.
For one thing, the crowd-the biggest in four years for the Timbers-beat San Jose's home average, a stat no referee's decision could erase, and a number that may catch the eye of MLS officials who, earlier in the day, included Portland on a list of cities being considered for expansion teams in 2006.
WWeek 2015