The Portland Timbers had one of the best first half performances all season against the Vancouver Whitecaps on Wednesday night, but unfortunately followed it up with a second half performance that was among their worst in years in a 3-2 loss to the Vancouver Whitecaps. Yimmi Chará and Dairon Asprilla scored in the first half for the Timbers, with Déiber Caicedo, Brian White, and Cristian Dájome scoring for the Whitecaps in the second half.
The Timbers looked sharp at the outsite, with Sebastián Blanco nearly putting the Timbers into the lead in the 9th minute when his chip attempt on a rebound was off the Whitecaps goal crossbar. But six minutes later, the Timbers did take the lead when Cristhian Paredes played a soft pass at the top of the box to Yimmi Chará, who curled a perfect shot inside the left post and past goalkeeper Maxime Crépeau to put the Timbers up by a 1-0 score.
After close chances by Asprilla and Paraedes just missed, the Timbers doubled their lead in the 42nd minute when Chará freed up a ball that Asprilla nailed into the roof of the Whitecaps net, and the Timbers had a 2-0 lead that they held at the half.
But in the second half the Timbers had trouble holding possession, and the Whitecaps did not take long in making the Timbers pay for their timid strategy, when in the 63rd minute, Vancouver’s Déiber Caicedo intercepted the ball and made a run of half the pitch length before slotting a low shot past Timbers goalkeeper Steve Clark into the lower left corner, and the Whitecaps had pulled within a goal at 2-1.
It only took 13 minutes for the Whitecaps to add another goal, when Whitecaps defender Bruno Gaspar barely kept the ball from crossing the Timbers end line and chipped a soft ball into the box that Whitecaps forward Brian White got to first, and headed back across the goal past Clark and into the net, and the Whitecaps had drawn level at 2-2.
But just six minutes later, just as had happened to the Timbers the previous week in Los Angeles against the Galaxy, the Timbers went from getting a possible draw to being down a goal by giving up a late penalty chance, and again it was Josecarlos Van Rankin being called for the foul, with Cristian Dájome stepping up and sending Clark the wrong way and converting easily, and a Timbers two goal lead at the break was down a 3-2 deficit.
The Timbers did show a little energy in stoppage time seeking the equalizer, with Diego Valeri just missing a shot wide right, but the Timbers never found the equalizer, and the Whitecaps leave Providence Park with the 3-2 win.
Both Portland’s Steve Clark and Vancouver’s Maxime Crépeau were credited with a single save each on the night.
