PORTLAND, Ore. – It was a different opponent, the venue changed and it was another day, but the song remained the same for the Portland Timbers.
A little more than a week after dominating long stretches of their match against the Seattle Sounders, firing off 20 shots to their opponents’ six only to lose 2-1, the Timbers saw a similar scenario unfold against Sporting Kansas City on Wednesday night at Providence Park.
Portland outshot Sporting 18-8, which included a number of clear goal-scoring chances, but failed to score in a 0-0 draw. It left head coach Caleb Porter somewhat at a loss to explain his team’s finishing woes, but also happy with back-to-back performances he described as “two of our most complete games” of the season.
“We played extremely well," Porter said in his postgame comments, "did everything we wanted to do in the game, the game played out exactly like we thought it would play out, we defended well, shut down their attackers.
"From a defensive standpoint I thought we were exceptional. We had more clear chances in any game than we’ve probably had all year. We had three, four breakaways and we should have scored and we should have won.”
Sporting goalkeeper Tim Melia had a hand in Portland’s finishing woes, recording seven saves, but the Timbers likely will want a number of chances back.
Midfielder Diego Valeri was especially spectacular in creating chances. He played a through ball to Fanendo Adi in the 29th minute that required a diving save from Melia. Adi alone had three shots, all on goal.
Valeri played in Lucas Melano twice in the second half for quality looks, only to see the final product go wanting. Melano had five shots, three on goal.
“We are very disappointed about that because we know the performance was really good,” Valeri said. “It was a tough game, very aggressive, very hard and we created a lot of chances.
"We know to get three points to win the game you have to score, so we know that we will keep working. We can’t say more. I’m glad about the performance. The team is playing well at a very hard moment of the season.”
Porter said despite finishing third in goals scored the last two MLS seasons his group isn’t suffering from a lack of confidence or mental block in front of goal. The Timbers are tied for second to last in the league with 29 goals from 28 games.
“These guys are confident, you can see it, anybody who watched this game you can see these guys don’t look tense,” Porter said. “I think they looked comfortable in those moments. A few of the [shots] were rushed, a few of them [needed] a better decision, going far post rather than near post type of thing, a few of them are great saves. But honestly I can’t remember this year getting that many clear chances.”
Defensively, the Timbers limited Sporting to just two shots on target, neither providing much of a test for ‘keeper Adam Kwarasey. Porter pointed to the work of reserve defensive midfielders Jack Jewsbury and George Fochive and Valeri, saying they won the “battle” with Sporting’s midfield of Benny Feilhaber, Paulo Nagamura and Soni Mustivar (who returned after missing the previous three games with injury).
“I told them it would come down to the moments and the finishing, and we weren’t able to score today and we should have,” Porter said. “That’s what I told them, and they know that. Attackers are paid to score.”
