By DAN KARELL
Caleb Porter’s return to the state of Ohio for the first time since becoming the head coach of the Portland Timbers didn’t go as he had planned.
The Columbus Crew ended the Timbers’ 15-match unbeaten run on Sunday, defeating the Western Conference side, 1-0, at Crew Stadium. Both teams were missing a number of regulars due to injury or international call-ups, though it was the Crew that had a distinctively younger feel.
Konrad Warzycha, Will Trapp, and Bernardo Añor were the three in the midfield for the Crew, and it was Añor who scored the game’s only goal, latching on to a corner kick from Federico Higuain and heading past Timbers goalkeeper Donovan Ricketts in the 5th minute.
The situation went from bad to worse for the Portland Timbers, as Pa-Modou Kah was sent off for a high challenge on Crew forward Aaron Schoenfeld, earning the hosts a penalty kick in the 11th minute. Higuain stepped up to take the spot kick, but surprisingly, his shot went wide.
Crew forward Dominic Oduro nearly doubled the lead in the 65th minute when his shot across goal missed by inches. In the 75th minute, Ethan Finlay nearly scored on a header, but Ricketts palmed the shot over the crossbar.
Here are the match highlights:
Great to see the Crew pick up a win, but man do we do things the hard way. There were long stretches in the second half where Portland looked like they had the man advantage, not Columbus. Good to see the Crew hold on to a lead tho.
Columbus was pretty confused as to how to play with a man advantage. Considering all they are good at is winning balls in the air. Tough for them to try and play possession with eleven versus ten. Best for them to keep mucking up the midfield with tackles that never win the ball!