The Portland Timbers secured a big win on a rainy Saturday night at Providence Park, as Sebastian Blanco, Marvin Loría, and Jeremy Ebobisse scored in a 3-1 win over the Vancouver Whitecaps in the first of ten straight home matches. Theo Bair had a spectacular volley for the Whitecaps goal.
The Timbers would have the early momentum and nearly made it pay off in the 20th minute when a hard shot from Sebastian Blanco was saved but set up a follow up by Diego Valeri that was only kept out of the net because it hit Whitecaps defender Ali Adnan square in the forehead. The Whitecaps defender did stay in the match but only for 10 minutes before being subbed off.
In the 28th minute the Timbers would make their momentum pay off when Blanco would hit a hard shot from 25 yards out that Whitecaps goalkeeper Maxime Crépeau got a hand on but couldn’t keep out of the net, and the Timbers had a 1-0 lead.
But in the 38th minute, the visitors would level the score when the Timbers were unable to clear a corner kick out of their own box, and Whitecaps midfielder Theo Bair would tally his first professional goal with a spectacular side volley with his back to goal that was perfectly placed into the upper left corner, past Timbers goalkeeper Steve Clark, and the match was tied at 1-1, which would be the score at the break.
In the 50th minute, a series of nice Timbers passes ended up with Valeri getting a good shot from near the penalty spot, but the shot was stopped by a sliding block from Whitecaps defender Brett Levis. But five minutes later, the Timbers did get their second goal of the night when Marvin Loría hit a 25 yard shot that was a near mirror image of Blanco’s first half goal, though the shot appeared to take a slight deflection, but Crépeau could not keep the shot out of the net, and the Timbers had a 2-1 lead.
The Whitecaps appeared to level the score just a few minutes later, but the goal was ruled offside and disallowed.
The Timbers would add an insurance goal in the 90th minute when Valeri played a through ball to Tomás Conechny, who one-touched a pass to Jeremy Ebobisse, who was open to trap and then place a low shot into the net to finalize the score at a 3-1 Timbers victory.
Steve Clark had three saves for the Timbers while Maxime Crépeau had five saves for the Whitecaps.
Timbers Match Report | Video Highlights
