PORTLAND — The Portland Timbers didn’t attempt a shot at goal for the final 84 minutes of a knock-down, drag-out soccer match on Wednesday at Providence Park.
But they managed something a lot more meaningful: a shutout victory.
Defender Liam Ridgewell scored in the 11th minute and the Timbers, despite playing down a man the entire second half, secured a 1-0 win over the San Jose Earthquakes in a physical contest. The win is Portland’s fifth of the season and sends the Timbers into a 17-day break in the MLS schedule feeling significantly better about their position than they might have.
Coach Caleb Porter said before this match that his team would need to stand up to the Quakes physically before playing any artistic soccer. Turns out there was no art to this win. But there was plenty of heart.
“I told them they reminded me why I do this every day,” Porter said. “The amount of heart and fight that they showed to get that result — that’s not easy.”
In first-half stoppage time, Portland’s Dairon Asprilla was shown a red card. As his contested for the ball in the air, Asprilla’s left elbow made contact with the head of defender Jordan Stewart. Asprilla appeared to stumble into Stewart as his arm made contact, and after consulting with assistant referee Jeremy Hanson – a resident of Vancouver — referee Chris Penso pulled out the red card.
Portland took its 1-0 lead in the 11th minute. Diego Valeri drew a foul against Fatai Alashe just outside the 18-yard box. Ridgewell scored with a header, meeting Valeri’s service at the left corner of the 6-yard box and directing the ball beyond goalkeeper David Bingham into the right side netting.
Portland’s goal came after San Jose had several good looks at the other end. The best of those was in the second minute when a miskick by Nat Borchers forced Jake Gleeson into a close-range stop to deny Quincy Amarikwa.
San Jose had its chances in the second half, too. Among them was a close-range header but Amarikwa in the 77th minute that deflected away off the head of Portland’s Taylor Peay. But the work of another makeshift lineup – one that that saw Ned Grabavoy play a critical safety-valve role, Zarek Valentin switch to left back and Peay play at right back — was enough to hold off the Quakes.
“When you go down a man, obviously you’ve got to physically run more, you have to battle more,” Valentin said. “But the guys were up for it. When one person’s getting tired, the next guy’s there saying ‘Come on, let’s go win it now.’ This was big for us.”
Match notes
Records: Portland has 5 wins, 6 losses and 4 ties for 19 points from 15 games and is seventh in the Western Conference. San Jose (5-4-5, 20 points) is sixth.
Next game: San Jose at Portland, 7:30 p.m. on June 14 (U.S. Open Cup). Next MLS match: Portland at Real Salt Lake, 7 p.m. June 18.
Lineup notes: Ned Grabavoy started for the third time this season, while designated player Lucas Melano was on the bench for the first time this season. Melano replaced Diego Valeri in the 63rd minute with the Timbers a man down and protecting a 1-0 lead. Taylor Peay made his first start of 2016, starting instead of Chris Klute at fullback. Peay played on the right side and Zarek Valentin switched to left back. Defender Amobi Okugo played for the first time since joining the Timbers in mid-May, replacing Grabavoy in stoppage time. The Timbers were without Darlington Nagbe (USA) and Jermaine Taylor (Jamaica) who are with their national teams for the Copa America Centenario, which kicks off on Friday. The injury list continues to include goalkeeper Adam Kwarasey, right back Alvas Powell and forward/winger Darren Mattocks. Powell and Mattocks could be back for the June 18 match at Real Salt Lake. San Jose was without five players because of national-team duty: top scorer Chris Wondolowski (USA), midfielders Simon Dawkins (Jamaica), Anibal Godoy and Alberto Quintero (Panama) and defender Kipp Colvey (New Zealand).
Quirky schedule: This was the last MLS regular-season match of the season between the Timbers and Earthquakes. Portland has not yet played four of their nine Western Conference rivals: Seattle (three meetings), Colorado (three meetings), Houston (two meetings) or Sporting Kansas City (three meetings).
