Photo by Godofredo Vasquez/USA TODAY Sports
By RYAN TOLMICH
Just over a week after winning a hotly contested affair against their most heated rivals, the Portland Timbers repeated the feat in MLS play with an impressive victory on Sunday night.
Facing a Seattle Sounders team without Obafemi Martins and Clint Dempsey, it were the Timbers that brought the heat in attack, earning a 4-1 victory over their Cascadia rivals on goals from Darlington Nagbe and Rodney Wallace, as well as a brace from Fanendo Adi.
Adi’s pair of finishes came just moments apart, ending a longstanding deadlock before adding insurance to seal the Timbers victory.
The forward’s first finish of the evening came on a Nagbe pass, as Adi smashed home a shot first-time to give the Timbers a 2-1 advantage in the 74th minute. Just two minutes later, it was Adi again, absolutely rocketing a shot from distance to officially claim all three points for the hosts.
After going months without scoring, Nagbe finally found the back of the net to open the scoring, sending Providence Park into a frenzy as the Timbers took the early lead in just the game’s 12th minute.
Nagbe’s finish came as a result of a series of key passes, with Adi holding up play before the ball found its way to Diego Valeri. The Argentine playmaker squared a pass up to a rushing Nagbe, who took a touch before rifling a long-distance,k right-footed shot from 25 yards to snag the game’s first goal.
With the finish, Nagbe scored the first goal of his 2015 campaign while ending a scoring drought that extended back to October 25 of last season.
After seeing Nagbe go close yet again in the 29th minute and playing on their heels, the Sounders got their equalizer against the run of play as Lamar Neagle found himself in space on the backpost.
On a free kick from long range, Neagle was the beneficiary of a well-placed ball from Tyrone Mears that sailed up and over the Timbers defense. Neagle, alone on the backpost, volleyed home the shot first time, leveling the score at 1-1 in a half where the Timbers proved to be the more effective team.
From there, the Timbers continued to create chances, the best of which came in the 68th minute as Gaston Fernandez unleashed a laser off a Nagbe pass only to see Stefan Frei make the save.
It would prove to be no matter, however, as Adi’s finishes matched with a late goal from Wallace to give the Timbers the victory.
Wallace’s goal, a close-range rocket came in the 91st minute, added insult to injury as the Timbers knocked off the Sounders for the second straight time in all competitions after falling in the two teams’ first clash in April.
The Timbers return to action July 5 for a contest against the San Jose Earthquakes, while the Sounders look to bounce back with a returning Dempsey in a July 3 meeting with D.C. United.
Nagbe needs to be challenged, or challenge himself to be more assertive on the field. He was outstanding last night, but he also disappeared form the game at times, and needs to be more engaged and assertive.
He has the skills to be a top class player, but I need to see more fire, more passion. Come December, he will be eligible to be called in to JK’s squad, I don’t know if he is or will be called, but it would be interesting to see him in a January camp w/the U-17, U-20 & U-23 mix.
Just saying, I need to see more passion form him; his skills are without question, but he needs more that skill to elevate his game, IMHO.
So … just so we’re clear … does he needs more passion? Or does he need more passion?Maybe it’s passion you think he needs. I know it’s not his skill as “his skills are without question”, but lets be clear that “he needs more skill to elevate his game”…
Perfectly clear. A + 7 = Dinosaur.
Nagbe is the conundrum wrapped in an enigma. Its all there to be great but yes, he fades in out of matches. Sometimes he disappears entirely. Yesterday it was only portions f the match. He could be great, but its on him at this point.
Do you think it’s his passion that picks himself up off the turf after being the most fouled player year in and year out?
Being without Martins and Dempsey hurts the Sounders, the I believe it’s their 3rd DP that they miss the most.
The Sounders are simply not very good without Ozzie Alonso. If he comes back soon, they could at least tread water until the return of high scoring duo in August.
Their Shield hopes may be fading, but all they need to do is make the playoffs to keep MLS Cup dreams going. Also, the experience the young guys are getting could mean a lot once Champions League play begins.
As much as I hate to say it, Portland’s attack is fun to watch. I really enjoy watching Nagbe, Valeri and Adi.
I think that you have hit the proverbial nail squarely. Love him or hate him, Alonso has always been the person who’s made Seattle tick. His absence combined with Pineda’s alarming decline are the issue. When combined with Martins’ and Dempsey’s issues Seattle may be the worst team in MLS. Its the gamble of top-heavy salary bias and its not just the missing DP’s, some of their other high earning non-DP’s are not playing well. Marshall is starting to exhibit the “I don’t give a s^*t” attitude that Crew fans saw from him when things went badly there. Pappa looks disinterested all too often too.
The other big issue is Sigi. He simply doesn’t know how to approach the game when he doesn’t have the best players. I don’t understand why he didn’t move Evans into the center of midfield to stabilize his team and start Scott as a central defender.
Seattle will still make the playoffs with little difficulty, but the Supporter’s Shield isn’t in the cards I don’t think.
BINGO. The Sounders have not won with Alonso for 6 years now.
I see we’ve descended to pirate-speak — Aye “it were the Timbers”. . . In fairness to Ryan, I’m not sure how well I’d do at posting stuff on deadline shortly after the conclusion of a match, but there are some things spellcheck just won’t catch.