Columbus Crew SC Defeated At Home Against Portland Timbers FC

MAPFRE Stadium was electric, and the pitch was filled with a sea-of blue. Columbus, however, could not harness that energy as they were defeated by Portland 1-3 in their tenth meeting all-time. This gives Portland their first win of the season, having also won four of the last five meetings between the two teams.

Adidas Parley Jerseys

These unique blue jerseys are to celebrate the Greener Goals Week of Service, these special adidas x Parley eco-friendly kits are won during Earth Day weekend (April 19-21). Made from technical yarns comprised of Parley Ocean Plastic, these kits are comprised of plastic waste, collected off beaches and in-coastal communities, ultimately transformed into high-performance sportswear.

MLS and adidas x Parley for the Oceans, encourages fans to decrease the single-use plastics and reinforce the importance of changing human attitude towards plastic pollution.

Photo Courtesy of MLS Photo Credit Portland Timbers FC

The Lineups

Photo Courtesy Columbus Crew SC

Match Summary

First Half

In the 9′, a misplaced pass by Portland keeper Jeff Attinella led to an open net opportunity by Federico Higuain that was just missed to the left of the post.

A yellow card was given in the 25′ to Portland defender Zarek Valentin, after dragging down Zardes from behind. The set piece delivered  a great ball from Higuain to Jonathan Mensah that was just off target.

Beautiful trickery came from Higuain  in the 28′ as he put the ball on the spot for Robinho to finish, although the shot was blocked by Attinella before clearing the ball away.

Photo Courtesy of Columbus Crew SC Communications

A scoring breakthrough came in the 31′ for Portland as Larrys Mabiala finished a header fed in by Captain Diego Valeri that would give them a 1-0 lead.

Portland soon after converted again in the 35′ as Sebastian Blanco led a perfect pass to Jeremy Ebobisse where he found himself in front of the net with no defender in sight giving them a 2-0 lead.

The Crew nearly had one back in the 39′ as a corner kick dropped in front of the net that was scored, but negated after Zardes was called for a handball.

At the end of the first half you wouldn’t expect a 2-0 score by just looking at the statistics: possession was 50/50, passing accuracy was 84 to 89 in favor of Portland, and total shots were even at 8.

Second Half

The second half got off to a slow start until the ball was stolen and lofted over the keeper by Pedro Santos to give a goal back to the Crew, 1-2 Portland.

Tomas Conechny was given a yellow card at 77′ for wasting time.

Columbus had an optimal opportunity in the 83′ with a corner to tie the game, Zardes got his head on it although it was saved by Attinella.

Higuain had another great opportunity to tie the game in the 86′ the strike was saved.

Jorge Moreira scores into the upper lefthand corner in the 92′ to win 3-1.

Photo Courtesy of Columbus Crew SC Communications

Post Game

Following the loss Crew head coach Caleb Porter thought that his team played very well the majority of the game, he thought the team had a solid 70 minutes but the 20 minutes following the set piece goal changed the game and in how the team performed. Porter stated: “…they were very opportunistic with the chances that they had[…] credit to Portland.”

The Crew will have a quick turnaround has they play at home against D.C United, Wednesday April 24th at 7:30 PM ET.