The Inevitable Stumble

The unbeaten streak is over. In a familiar refrain, the Portland Timbers have lost in Texas.

The first half was pretty good! Portland took the lead in the 8th minute after a wonderful long ball from Evander found Antony in stride. The winger’s first attempt was saved by Maarten Paes, but Antony was able to slot home the rebound. But the Timbers had a couple more chances to widen the lead, and they didn’t take them. Jonathan Rodriguez had a golden chance in the 31st minute, but his shot went wide left. Dallas had multiple opportunities in the first half, but nothing materialized. They didn’t even register a shot on goal during the first 45. Portland took a 1-0 lead into halftime, but it wasn’t safe by any means.

Cascadia FC's Substack is a reader-supported publication. To receive new posts and support my work, consider becoming a free or paid subscriber.

Aptly enough, the fireworks began once the sun set. David Ayala lost the ball at the top of the box (it looked like he was fouled), and after one through ball from Tsiki Ntsabeleng Petar Musa equalized in the 49th minute. Dallas kept up the pressure, and they eventually took the lead when Nkosi Tafari had a free header at the back post off of a corner kick in the 61st minute. But the Timbers weren’t dead yet. Three minutes later, Felipe Mora headed a ball into Evander’s path, and the MLS All-Star played a perfect through ball to Antony. The winger just kept running until he was in the box, and then he found Evander on a late run who slotted home the equalizer. Portland suddenly had some momentum, but any semblance of control evaporated. The match-winner was scored by Cristhian Paredes, who headed a cross from Bernard Kamungo into his own net in the 87th minute. The Timbers couldn’t find an equalizer in the 10 minutes of stoppage time. 

There are many things to talk about from this holiday special, but the front page belongs to the referees. Rosendo Mendoza was in charge of this match, and there was a special twist before kickoff. According to Phil Neville in the postgame press conference, both teams were informed that VAR wasn’t working prior to kickoff. You’ll never guess what happened next. In the 35th minute, Cristhian Paredes took a shot from distance. Upon closer inspection (the broadcast didn’t even show a replay for some reason) it looked like the shot hit Dallas defender Sam Junqua in the hand. But the play didn’t go to VAR, and Mendoza didn’t whistle for a penalty in real time. Based on some grainy replays, it does look like the shot hit Junqua’s hand but it’s unclear whether or not his hand was extended from his body. Although it should have gone to VAR, I don’t have an issue with Mendoza’s initial ruling. The far more infuriating foul call in the first half that didn’t involve a potential VAR review was an obvious trip by Marco Farfan. He miscontrolled the ball and fell over it, and Mendoza gave Dallas a free kick. That stopped a promising Timbers attack. By all rights, that should be a yellow card to Mendoza. I don’t get how you can miss that as a professional referee. 

In the second half, Mendoza completely lost the plot. On Dallas’ first goal, Ayala lost the ball as a result of a hard challenge. If VAR was actually on the job, they would have spotted that foul and disallowed that Dallas goal. Phil Neville got booked right after that goal for some reason. This game ended with yellow cards being thrown around willy-nilly. Two yellow cards were shown to the team benches, and a couple Dallas players picked up yellows for hard fouls. But the Timbers did receive a yellow card with a minute left. That card went to Evander, and I assume it was for dissent. I don’t know what he said, but it happened after he got fouled by Sebastien Ibeagha and the Dallas defender got a yellow card. Yellows for dissent are so subjective. But Evander’s booking will result in a yellow card suspension for Sunday’s match against Nashville. 

However, the refereeing isn’t why the Timbers lost this game.

These are the stats from the second half. 5 days after a dominant second half erased a halftime deficit and propelled the Timbers to a comeback win, the Timbers turned in an absolutely putrid display with a 1-0 halftime lead. They needed to come out of halftime on the front foot, but it was another case of “good half, bad half.” Did the Timbers deserve a result from this game? Based on the chances they created, yes. But all three goals they conceded were preventable. Miguel Araujo doesn’t have the same chemistry with Dario Zuparic that Zac McGraw has. On the first goal, Zuparic steps out of line to challenge Tsiki Ntsabeleng, but it opens the space for the South African to find Petar Musa in the box. Araujo is on the wrong side of Musa, and the striker can basically walk it into the goal. The second goal is equal parts bad defending and a good cross. Dallas has all of their players clustered by the near post, and Nkosi Tafari begins to drift to the back post when the corner is taken by Sebastian Lletget. It’s a really well worked routine, and Claudio Bravo has no chance of winning that header over Tafari. Could James Pantemis have done better in goal? Maybe. But the second goal illustrated a consistent problem with this Timbers team: a severe lack of height. Portland has been getting dominated on set pieces for years, and most of it is due to their inability to win headers in the box aside from a few players. The third goal was ridiculous. Diego Chara was playing right back, and he couldn’t stop Kamungo from getting his cross off. Cristhian Paredes is making a near post run and provides a striker’s finish into his own net. It’s an awful goal to concede. Three bad goals, several missed chances, and a loss in Texas. There really isn’t that much else to say. I don’t think that the Timbers began to bunker once they took the lead in the first half. Dallas just upped their pressure and were able to win second balls in the midfield. More on that later.

Evander got another goal tonight, came a crossbar away from having two, and he now has 10 goals in 2024. He should have been credited for the assist on Antony’s goal, but he wasn’t. That’s annoying. What is also annoying is the yellow card he picked up today. Sunday’s match is now a huge test for this team. Can the attack still hum without their centerpiece?

The Timbers needed someone else to step up tonight, and Antony celebrated July 4th with his first goal involvements since March 9th at Yankee Stadium. He started on the left wing and proved to be an excellent counterattacking outlet. However, he can still be a little inconsistent with his passing. The Brazilian winger can hold his head up high because he did all he could to try and get the Timbers a result.

There is now an elephant in the room, and his name is Jonathan Rodriguez. The Uruguayan was brought in to score goals, and he had four clear chances tonight. The first one was from an Ayala cross to the back post. I’ll forgive him for missing that one because it was a tough angle. The second one is the golden chance of the night. All he had to do was put the pass from Antony on target, and he scuffed it wide left. But Rodriguez doesn’t give up. A third chance presented itself to him on a breakaway. But before he could get his shot off, Tafari recovered and made an incredible tackle to deny him. The fourth was a half-chance. Antony played another ball across the box, but it was Paes who slid in and got a touch on the ball to take it away from the Uruguayan. He played most of the game as a lone striker, and didn’t offer much in that position. Tonight’s performance isn’t an indictment of Rodriguez (well, it kind of is), but it’s more of a sign that the Timbers really need to bring in a new striker in the summer. 

David Ayala didn’t get on the ball enough tonight. But he was one of the better performers on the team before getting subbed off. It didn’t surprise me that he didn’t play the full 90. 

Dario Zuparic was the best player on the pitch during the first half. He ended up being the best defender on the team when the game ended. He won all 4 of his ground duels and is now only one game away from getting a yellow card removed. 

Santiago Moreno only played 58 minutes, and contributed more with his defense than in attack. He was able to spring several counters due to his defensive work. As far as I’m concerned, he’s still undroppable because of his defense. 

Juan Mosquera had another solid outing before getting subbed out. I was really impressed with his 1v1 defending on the right side. I think subbing him off was the most controversial choice that Phil Neville made tonight. 

James Pantemis had his worst game as a starter, but he really wasn’t too bad. He had several good punches and two of those three goals were due to big defensive mistakes. I think that the second goal was the most saveable, but he was largely let down by his defenders. Sigh.

Now we get to the truly bad performers tonight. The first of those three is Miguel Araujo. He looked a little rusty after returning from Copa America, and had a bad miscommunication with Pantemis in the first half. Sometimes Araujo can get too aggressive and step out of line which opens space behind him. Maybe I am being a little harsh, but I was expecting more out of Araujo tonight. His distribution looked a little off as well.

Claudio Bravo has not had a good week. He was one of the poorer performers during the first half against Minnesota, but looked like his true self during the second half before getting subbed. Tonight, he looked completely off the pace. He was routinely caught out of position, barely had any contribution going forward, and was more of a liability than an asset. In order for the Timbers’ defense to be at their best, Bravo has to be at his best. Tonight, he was one of the worst players on the pitch.

But he wasn’t the absolute worst. That honor goes to Cristhian Paredes. Here is a quick stat for y’all. When Paredes starts in 2024, the Timbers are 2-2-6. When he comes off the bench as a substitute, the Timbers are 6-3-2. Out of all the players on this team, no one has regressed harder than Paredes in 2024. “I didn’t like how they (FC Dallas) passed through the center of the pitch,” Neville said in the post-game press conference. Paredes had an OK first half, but turned into a ghost in the second half. When the Timbers needed their midfield to hold up the most, he melted. Paredes is still an excellent supersub, but this team does take a step back when he starts games. I’m not even that mad about the own goal! It’s an unlucky finish and at least he was trying to cut out that cross. Maybe he was exhausted after playing for so long in the furnace of Frisco, but there’s enough evidence that he isn’t contending for a starting role. Spot starts will continue to be the only time he starts.

There are only two subs that I want to highlight. The first is right back Diego Chara. With Eric Miller sidelined for this game, Neville brought on the club captain to play right back. He wasn’t exactly awful, but he did look out of position. 

Sawyer Jura made his Timbers debut tonight, and showed some encouraging flashes. He is definitely the fullback of the future. I find it extremely funny that one Timbers homegrown fullback played for the hosts while another made his debut for the visitors. “It’s a dream come true. I’ve been working towards this my whole life. I take so much pride when I put on the jersey,” Jura told reporters in the post-game press conference. This was his last short-term loan, so if Neville is inclined to play him in more first-team games he will have to be signed to a senior contract. For the record: Jura signed his first contract with the team this offseason. It is a NEXTPRO contract until 2026, when it becomes a MLS contract and he will join the first-team as a Homegrown player. Either way, even though the result was rather poor, at least Jura was able to fulfill his childhood dream. We’ll see a lot more of him in the coming years.

I could scream that the sky is falling after this game. Part of me wants to dig deeper into every poor goal the Timbers conceded tonight and all of the chances that they missed. But I don’t think that’s incredibly important. The 7-match unbeaten streak ended tonight, and now the Timbers have authored 2 separate streaks of 7 games in 2024. The first was the 9-game winless streak, which then turned into the unbeaten streak. This streak was going to end at some point. It doesn’t surprise me one bit that it ended on a Thursday night (not just any Thursday night, INDEPENDENCE DAY) in Texas. If any game before Leagues Cup was the most likely to end this streak, it was this one. The Timbers have only won ONCE in Dallas during the regular season, and that was in October! A team on short rest dropped points in a goddamn furnace during a short week. I’m not too concerned with this result. The most important thing about this game is how they respond on Sunday. That’s what Neville largely echoed during his post-game press conference. This team has to work on what they did wrong tonight, but they also need to put this poor result behind them. It is possible to do both!

After this round of midweek matches, the Timbers have dropped a spot to 6th. They are still 3 points clear of 10th place, but every team below them (aside from SKC) has a game in hand. Everyone will play those games in hand on July 17th. The Timbers will have that Wednesday off. But now they need to take care of their own business. The streak is over. A win on Sunday is now of the utmost importance. Because after the Nashville game, their only two opponents before Leagues Cup currently occupy spots 2 and 3 in the table. It’s not about the loss. It’s about how they respond.

Cascadia FC's Substack is a reader-supported publication. To receive new posts and support my work, consider becoming a free or paid subscriber.