[dropcap]T[/dropcap]he Portland Timbers will add their first star above their badge for the 2016 season after defeating Columbus Crew SC, 2-1, in front of 21,747 fans at MAPFRE Stadium.
It’s a bittersweet end to the season for the Black and Gold and, for MLS, it’s one that will result in more scrutiny to the lackluster officiating that has plagued the league for most of the season.
While Justin Meram’s record goal in the first leg of the Eastern Conference Championship will stand at nine seconds, the final started off in a eerily similar way, though more off of a poor play than just a well worked scheme. Steve Clark took a back pass inside the first minute and played a big first touch to his left. Diego Valeri, who was already pressing high right out of the gate, forced Clark to try and rush his pass to the far side and tackled the ball into the net for the match’s opening goal. It was a strange start, but a dream one for the visitors from Cascadia.
The Timbers built upon the start in the seventh minute as Diego Chara attempted to play a pass to Alvas Powell on the right flank. The ball clearly went out of bounds with Powell playing a somewhat lazy touch back into play. The linesman, incredulously, allowed play to continue and not wave the play dead. Crew SC players moved to the sideline as if to take a throw-in. Instead, the ball was given to Nagbe and played a pass to Melano, who fired a cross into the box that found a diving Rodney Wallace. It was 2-0 not even ten minutes into the match and we had our first controversial moment in the match.
Columbus pulled back a goal in the 18th minute on a wild play. Harrison Afful crossed a ball into the box that found Justin Meram, but the ball took a high shot off of his shoulder into the air. Timbers keeper Adam Larsen Kwarasey played a punch but was unable to clear it out. After some wild dribbling, Kamara found a yard of space and blasted a shot into the back of the net to make it 2-1.
The pace of play picked up from there and went from chippy to physical in a hurry on both sides, but play would continue in almost every instance as the tackles became harsher with each passing minute. Eventually, center official Jair Marrufo would start calling fouls, but at that point the first half had descended into less of a soccer match and more of brawl. Crew SC managed to control possession for the remainder of the first half, but could not find any more magic and the match would go into half time with the score at 2-1.
The second half was almost as if someone had hit the pause button on the first half and just started the match right back up with the same pace. Columbus found some opportunities early on, including a header towards the far post off of a cross from Kamara, but ultimately the ball ended up going wide.
Ethan Finlay was substituted out in the 63rd minute for Cedrick and immediately change the match, injecting his pace and providing several moments of skill. However, he would not be able to recreate the moment he had against NYRB in the Eastern Conference Final and had a hard time breaking down Villafana and Ridgewell, who were solid all night for Portland.
Another strange moment in the match came in the 70th minute as Portland went on the attack. A ball played by Chara onto the flank for Darlington Nagbe resulted in the linesman holding up his flag for offside. Michael Parkhurst, who was defending on the play, saw Nagbe pull up as if he knew he was offside and kicked the ball out the back of the pitch. For a reason that remains unknown, the ball was awarded as a corner to Portland even with the linesman holding up his flag for offside. No clarification was given by Marrufo and, while the corner would be cleared out, Kamara was fouled on the play and had a tough time getting back into the match the next few minutes.
Steve Clark stood on his head in the second half to keep Crew SC in the match, making a couple of critical saves, including a rather unique one as he was falling back onto the goal line and practically pulled a scissor tackle to stop a ball with just his legs.
Jack McInerney came on for Tony Tchani to change Crew SC to a 4-4-2 look and Mohammed Saeid was not far after, replacing Justin Meram. The moves, ultimately, would prove futile as Crew SC couldn’t find anyone in the box, let alone a shot on net. The final whistle would blow and Portland began their celebration.
Notes on the match:
- If you’re a fan of Columbus, this one hurts a lot. A chance to hoist the cup at home and, instead, having to watch Portland raise it is a tough pill to swallow/
- Ethan Finlay was invisible for most of this match. Cedrick came on and was instantly a bigger threat. It’s hard to say what was wrong with Finlay these last two matches, but his form in the last 180 minutes does not match the type of season he had in 2015.
- Crew SC managed to get just one shot on net, and that was Kamara’s goal. This team led the league in shots, yet to only muster a single one on target in a cup final is inexcusable.
- There was a major disconnect between Federico Higuain and Kei Kamara tonight, and it’s hard to say what it was. Diego Chara didn’t do that great of a job of marking Higuain, but Borchers and Ridgewell did a great job of locking onto the league’s top scorer.
- While I hate pinning anything on officials, this was an awful match by this crew. The missed out of bounds call directly led to Portland’s winner while Jair Marrufo chose to allow many hard and borderline dangerous tackles go on without even giving a foul. Why this match was not officiating by MLS Referee of the Year Alan Kelly will always be a mystery to me.
- Crew SC dominated possession in this match, but it’s a far cry from what actually happened. Portland was happy to allow Columbus to have the ball until the final third and simply would erase any threat.
- While this is a tough loss, it’s hard for me to sit here and say that Columbus perhaps wasn’t ahead of schedule with their rebuilding. This team should have the bulk of its roster returning for 2016.
- That being said, there will be some changes on this team for next year, and we’ll most likely hear about those changes in the coming couple of weeks at the January transfer window approaches. There’s the possibility of someone like Wil Trapp perhaps being courted by European clubs while maybe some upgrades at key positions can be made. Only time will tell.
