Mistakes were the name of the game for the Portland Timbers against the Houston Dynamo, according to their head coach Caleb Porter, and they ultimately paid the price in a 3-1 loss on Saturday night at BBVA Compass Stadium.
And Porter didn’t mince words, heaping responsibility on his players and coaching staff alike.
Portland left Dynamo striker Will Bruin unmarked in the box on a restart for the first goal, they allowed Houston to freely pass the ball about the area for the second from Giles Barnes and then they were caught sleeping on another Bruin strike to seal the result late in the match.
“We made too many mistakes to get the result today,” Porter told the media in his postgame comments. “I’m honest about that, the players are honest about that and because of that we take one on the chin.”
Porter said the team had prepared for three things leading up the match: set pieces, crossing, and counterattacking. In all three areas, the Timbers failed.
And even playmaker Diego Valeri’s second straight start, resulting in an assist on striker Fanendo Adi’s first goal in seven matches, wasn’t enough to prevent the Timbers from being kicked back into the loss column following their feel-good road win over the Montreal Impact a week ago.
“There’s no excuse,” Porter said. “We knew the conditions were going to be what they were. Ultimately there’s nothing that happened today that surprised me or any of the players. The way Houston played, there were no surprises. The conditions, there were no surprises. The game didn’t fall the way we wanted it to, but we only have ourselves to blame.”
There were some bright moments for the Timbers, however.
Following Bruin’s opener in the ninth minute, Portland responded with the equalizer four minutes after the halftime break with Valeri leading Adi on a perfectly weighted through ball that the big Nigerian striker finished skillfully despite a difficult angle (WATCH IT HERE).
And after Barnes put Houston back on top, the Timbers had several chances for another equalizer. But Bruin caught Portland center back Nat Borchers napping when he got behind the defense on a Jermaine Taylor long ball, finishing on a clever chip over goalkeeper Adam Kwarasey as he came off his line.
“I thought the way the second half was playing out that it was going to come to our favor,” Porter said. “At 1-1 we had a couple chances to go up 2-1, and then they get the goal off a cross with [DaMarcus] Beasley getting forward, something we were well aware of, and the box didn’t defend well enough on that play. And then we’re pushing, and we had chances to go 2-2 and I thought we’d find the goal to go 2-2, but then we give up the goal on the counter, ball over the top and ultimately it’s 3-1 and the game is done.”
Dan Itel covers the Timbers for MLSsoccer.com.
