The Portland Timbers lost only their second match of the year Saturday night, falling to visiting Puntarenas FC of the UNAFUT Costa Rican league in an international friendly at PGE Park. An entertaining match from start to finish, the 7,478 in attendance were treated to a plethora of Timber scoring chances with Portland out-shooting Puntarenas overall 23-5, but ultimately Puntarenas was able to capitalize on a small handful of opportunities to pull out the win 3-1.
Portland would score first. In the 22nd minute, forward Bright Dike dribbled down the right sideline, then cut across the middle to the corner of the box and fired a shot that whipped past Puntarenas keeper Bryan Zamora. The goal was the first of the year for Dike, who's also in his rookie campaign with the Timbers. Portland did a solid job of maintaining possession and as a result patiently created scoring chances repeatedly throughout the match. The Timbers were able to keep the ball for long stretches, stringing passes together, and really packing players into their opponent's final third. However, the game can be summed up by mostly missed chances - the Timbers bringing their fans to their feet time after time, but unable to finish the show.
"Especially in the 1st half we controlled the game and created a bunch of opportunities," said keeper Matt Pyzdrowski, who started and played all 90 minutes. "And honestly, I think we got a little complacent with where we were and that's when we gave up the goal."
Only taking 5 shots on goal all match, Puntarenas was efficiently able to make the most of their openings, responding from the Timber's goal with three consecutive scores of their own. Their first would come in the 33rd minute, on a quick counter-attack, a long cross sent to midfielder Pedro Leal, and Leal putting away a looping shot on keeper Matt Pyzdrowski to send the game tied 1-1 going into the half.
I thought it was a great game in the 1st half." said Ian Joy, who had the night off. "They (Puntarenas) definitely came to play and to show what they've got and what they're made of and I think it always makes a great exhibition match when both teams really want to win. And you can see from our performance that we definitely wanted to win. Unfortunately, we had a couple mistakes in the 2nd half that let us down a little bit."
In the 2nd half, the plot was much the same. Although Portland would control the possession and take a majority of the shots, Puntarenas FC was the team scoring the goals. They would take 2 shots in the final 30 minute and score on both. In the 54th minute, the Timbers would finally lose the lead on a spectacular running one-timer by Puntarenas forward Joshua Diaz. Then only a few minutes later, Puntarenas would score again, on an error by Portland, a pass by Scot Thompson back to keeper Pyzdrowski, knocked away by Daniel Pena and then quickly popped over the head of Pyzdrowski into the goal.
"We made a couple mistakes and they punished us for it." said forward Doug DeMartin. "Really the story of the game is we didn't punish them, they punished us."
The Timbers would continually apply pressure until the end of the match - shots hitting the post, headers deflected at the line, and an assortment of other near chances. They would even receive a boost late in the match, when forward Mandjou Kieta made his long awaited return to action, coming into the game with about 10 minutes left. Keita would instantly make his presence felt, firing a shot on goal around the 85th minute and involving himself in numerous other last-minute Timber scoring chances. The 2009 league point leader seemed energetic and excited to be in PGE Park and the fans were certainly happy to see him again as well.
"It feels so great to be back, you know." said Keita. "I was really missing this place. I'm ready now. Missed 4 games and those guys have been great and I'm just happy to be back with them."
Despite the loss, Portland was able to take a few positives away from the experience. As often happens with exhibition matches, Portland used the opportunity to find playing time for many of its reserves and younger players. Players like Alex Nimo, Doug DeMartin, Rodrigo Lopez, Josh Cameron, Bright Dike, and Matt Pyzdrowski all started and played major minutes.
Said Coach Gavin Wilkinson, when asked about how some of the younger players performed: "I thought Rodrigo played well in possession and Alex played well in possession. I think Josh Cameron was tremendous at left-back tonight, thought he actually had very, very good game. Doug DeMartin did well. Bright Dike did well. So, there were definitely some bright spots."
"The biggest thing to take away is getting that experience," said Pyzdrowski. "Getting a full game under the belt and trying to do some good things out there."
"A great positive from the game tonight is giving the guys an opportunity who haven't had a chance to play so far this season." added team captain Ian Joy. "And also being able to see different formations and different players in different positions. It's fantastic to give guys 90 minutes....and see what they're made of. And tonight, some guys didn't disappoint and you know, some could have done a bit better."
The Timbers will certainly get some time to ruminate on their shortcomings tonight as now the team will have 11 days off before their next game. How will they spend their time?
"The players will get a couple days off." said Coach Wilkinson. "You know they've worked very hard. We have 3 wins and draw in our first 4 games, so by and large its been a good start to the season. Tonight wasn't a positive, but it does give us a few things to look at. We'll take the next 2-3 days off and then come back, work hard, and start preparing for the next game."
The Timbers resume the regular season on Thursday, May 13th when they play newly promoted franchise Crystal Palace Baltimore at PGE Park. The Timbers are currently 1st place in the USSF with 10 points and a record of 3-0-1.
Although not achieving the desired outcome tonight, the Timbers still played a pretty good match and the fans in attendance should remember it as a game full of exhilarating and exciting moments. A tough loss that remained fun to watch, over 90 minutes full of painfully close chances - the ball just didn't seem bounce the Timbers way tonight.
"Sometimes that's just the way it goes, I mean goals come and go." said DeMartin. "It's just one of those things... We made some mistakes. I know I took a bad touch on one of mine, so it's just a combination of things, their keeper made some good saves. So you know, its just the way it goes sometimes."
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