The Portland Timbers knew a win on Saturday night would have secured them a playoff spot, but a draw or a loss left it open to other results. And everything would go wrong for the Timbers on this night as they ended up on the short end of a 3-1 result against the Houston Dynamo, and other results did not go their way, and they will miss the playoffs for the second straight season. Felipe Mora scored for the Timbers, while Griffin Dorsey scored twice for the Dynamo and Adalberto Carrasquilla also had a goal.
The Timbers had the first good look of the match in the 5th minute when Evander‘s free kick was saved by former Timber Steve Clark.
In the 11th minute, after the Timbers have given up a confusing corner kick, the Dynamo would make the Timbers pay when Griffin Dorsey was left open short of the near post, and headed it nicely past David Bingham, and Houston had an early 1-0 lead.
In the 30th minute the Timbers had a good chance to level the score when a nice cross from Yimmi Chará gave Santiago Moreno a good chance near the far post, but his shot was saved. In the 37th minute, the Timbers had another great chance with a blast by Cristhian Paredes from just outside the box that slipped just wide left. Houston held a 1-0 lead at the break.
Early in the second half, Houston made the Timbers pay for a defensive breakdown when Adalberto Carrasquilla was patient as the Timbers scrambled to defend, and blasted a high shot into the net past Bingham, and the score was 2-0 Houston.
In the 55th minute, a blast by Portland’s Claudio Bravo was tipped just wide by Clark. In the 71st minute the task was made even harder for the Timbers when Dorsey had his second goal on the night, a high blast on an open shot that Bingham had no chance at, and the score was 3-0 Houston.
The Timbers did get a goal back in the 80th minute, when Evander played a ball into the box into the run of Felipe Mora, who finished nicely to make the score 3-1 Houston, but the Timbers never got close and ended up on the short end of the result.
With the other results around the league on Saturday night, the Timbers slipped from 7th to 10th and miss out on the playoffs by a single point.
