MINNEAPOLIS — The Portland Timbers' road woes continued on Wednesday night, falling to Minnesota United 3-2. In head coach Caleb Porter’s estimation, it came down to a few key moments.
“We made mistakes,” Porter told the media after the match. “Again, it’s difficult to win games when you make the defensive mistakes and individual errors that we’ve made the last two games. You look at the three goals that they scored. Those are routine situations—all three goals. First one is an own goal. Second one is one pass, a central pass that gets right through our back four. And the third ones a cross. It’s a routine cross.”
The loss evens the season series between the Timbers and the Loons, as Portland took care of business in the season opener and delivered a commanding 5-1 win at home. However, the Timbers have now lost six straight games outside of the Rose City.
Ahead of the match, Porter promised four or five rotations on defense. Center back Amobi Okugo, along with incumbent Roy Miller, was tested early and often. Marco Farfan was given a run-out at left back, while Jeff Attinella took over at goalkeeper. Farfan in particular was pressured heavily by Kevin Molino and Abu Danladi.
“Like young players, sometimes he was a deer in the headlights,” Porter said of his young fullback. “We felt that, instead of him continuing to get targeted, let’s get him out. He’ll get another chance, but it wasn’t his best 45 minutes.”
The extra forty-five minutes of rest for starter Vytas will hopefully keep him fresh against Seattle in a crucial Heineken Rivalry Week matchup (10 pm ET; ESPN2 in US | MLS LIVE in Canada). To midfielder Diego Chara, getting back to Providence Park should help get things back on track.
“Its very important, seeing as the last two games were away,” Chara said of returning home. “Now we go home to prepare for an important rivalry game against Seattle.”
To Porter, there isn’t much time available for Portland to lick their wounds. Sunday’s clash will be a major test for the Timbers, and they expect to walk out with three points.
“My message is that we have three days to get ready, recover mentally and physically and get ready for Seattle. We need guys in the back that are in the lineup, and who knows it maybe changes again because we’re not getting guys making plays. But in this next game whoever we choose they need to start making those routine plays. Otherwise, we’ll continue to fall short.”
