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Football is a game of small margins.
Vancouver Whitecaps were within six minutes of suffering an emotional sapping defeat against their Cascadian rivals in Portland last night, in what would have been the end of a fairly miserable couple of weeks.
Instead Darren Mattocks’ debut MLS goal sends the Caps into a 15 day break with some restored confidence, after fighting back to earn a late point in stormy conditions.
With Wednesday’s Voyageurs Cup defeat still fresh in everybody’s minds, the Caps were keen to go into the international break with something of a spring in their step.
They may not have got the three points, but they leave Oregon with their first MLS points against their long time rivals.
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Eric Hassli dropped to the bench once more, with Davide Chiumiento coming back in to the starting eleven and Alain Rochat surprisingly shaking off an ankle injury to continue at left back.
The first half was pretty much a non event, with the advancing storm clouds one of the few exciting attacks.
Portland huffed and puffed, but had very little to show for it apart from off target headers from Jack Jewsbury and Jorge Perlaza.
With the heavens opening and the sky lit up by lightning, Vancouver waited until the closing seconds of the half to have their only shot on goal for the first forty-five.
Camilo Sanvezzo was brought down by Eric Brunner just outside of the Portland box. The referee saw no foul, waved play on and the ball broke to Sebastien Le Toux.
The Frenchman cut the ball back to Camilo from the byeline but the Brazilian didn’t have the time or the space to properly control the ball and blasted over.
The second half was delayed due to the weather, but when it did finally get underway, it was a much livelier affair.
Playing towards the throngs of the Timbers Army, Portland looked to try and press their home field advantage, and Perlaza shot wide right in the 49th minute.
Moments later and Portland were on the attack once more and should have taken the lead.
Amid terrible Vancouver defending, Perlaza broke on the right and sent in a perfect cross to Darlington Nagbe just outside of the six yard box. Nagbe had ghosted in unmarked and should have buried the chance, but instead blasted over, in a lucky escape for the visitors.
Timbers goalkeeper Troy Perkins had been a mere spectator for the match so far, but he had to show quick reflexes two minutes before the hour mark, producing a fine sprawling save to turn a deflected Le Toux shot out or a corner.
Following his recent successes, Camilo tried to flight in a long free kick over the Timbers defence five minutes later, but with Martin Bonjour poised to get on the end of it, Hanyer Mosquera just got his head on it to clear the danger.
Portland then turned up the intensity and had their best spell of the match.
The home side immediately went up the field and Joe Cannon produced a sprawling one handed from Perlaza for a corner.
The pressure remained on and Portland had a penalty claim dismissed, after some tough tackling and great defending from the Caps backline.
The Timbers attacks kept coming and Cannon was forced to save at his near post from Kalif Alhassan.
The pressure finally took its toll in the 67th minute when Cannon was caught off guard by a cross-come-shot from the right by Jewsbury.
Although the veteran stopper managed to claw the ball out from under his crossbar, it fell straight into the path of Kris Boyd, who made no mistake in looping the ball in from close range for the opening goal.
Portland nearly doubled their lead two minutes later when Perlaza went one on one with DeMerit, but despite the Colombian’s speed and turns, Vancouver’s captain admirably dealt with the danger.
The Caps tried to fight back and Gershon Koffie tried a long range drive in the 72nd minute, which never really troubled Perkins.
It was the Ghanaian’s last action of the match and the midfielder was soon replaced by Eric Hassli.
A minute later and Camilo tried a long range effort, which curled past the right hand post.
With time running out, Martin Rennie introduced Darren Mattocks with seven minutes remaining and it only took the substitute just over a minute to make his mark on the match.
Martin Bonjour hit a long free kick towards the box from just inside the Caps half, which Hassli flicked on perfectly with his head straight into the path of Mattocks. The Jamaican cleverly let the ball bounce, which seemed to cause hesitation in the Timbers defence, before controlling it with his chest and firing spectacularly over Perkins and into the Portland net.
The 700 travelling fans were sent in to rapture, but they had their hearts in their mouths a minute into stoppage time, when another cross-come-shot caused some confusion for Cannon, but thankfully the woodwork came to the Caps rescue this time around.
Portland will feel slightly aggrieved with the result, after just shading the game, but having suffered the heartache of a late lapse against the Sounders last weekend, the Caps can be buoyed once again by a gutsy performance from a team that is keen to show they never quit.
The international break is now upon us and for Vancouver, stage one of Martin Rennie’s overhaul is now complete. Stage two begins on June 10th.
ATT: 20,438
FINAL SCORE: Portland Timbers 1 – 1 Vancouver Whitecaps
PORTLAND: Troy Perkins; Hanyer Mosquera, Eric Brunner (David Horst 46), Steven Smith, Kalif Alhassan (Sal Zizzo 79), Diego Chara, Eric Alexander, Jack Jewsbury, Darlington Nagbe, Jorge Perlaza (Mike Fucito 88), Kris Boyd [subs Not Used: Joe Bendik, Rodney Wallace, Lovel Palmer, Franck Songo’o]
VANCOUVER: Joe Cannon; Young-Pyo Lee, Martin Bonjour, Jay DeMerit, Alain Rochat; Jun Marques Davidson, John Thorrington, Gershon Koffie (Eric Hassli 72); Davide Chiumiento, Camilo Sanvezzo (Darren Mattocks 83), Sebastien Le Toux [subs Not Used: Brad Knighton, Jordan Harvey, Carlyle Mitchell, Matt Watson, Omar Salgado]
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