You win some, you lose some, and sometimes it all falls apart. The last scenario seemed the case for the Portland Timbers on Sunday at Providence Park as they lost 3-1 to the LA Galaxy in a game that saw two back-breaking early goals and a controversial red card.
“When you look at the game, there’s many, many things you look at and you can say we did many good things,” Timbers coach Giovanni Savarese said. “The first half with how we managed it in regards to moving the ball and being aggressive. We tried to create opportunities, we had chances. The second half we went with 10 men and kept on battling and giving everything we had to stay in the game and never gave up.
“There’s many things to be proud of in this game in stuff that we did, but then you have to go into analyzing the reality of what the game is. When you’re looking at that and analyzing, at the end of the day you have to win games. Yes, you can do good things, you can move the ball well, you can create opportunities, you can look really, really good, but if you don’t take advantage of your moments, the game can change in a minute.”
The Timbers (1-2-3, 6 points) and Galaxy (3-2-0, 9 points) went back and forth in the first several minutes, but the Galaxy struck first in the 9th minute on a cross from Samuel Grandsir to the chopping feet of Javier “Chicharito” Hernandez, who put it home. Chicharito’s athletic play stunned the Providence Park crowd and made it 1-0 Galaxy.
Chicharito almost had another one in the 13th minute on a header, but it went wide. Three minutes later, though, the Galaxy did double their lead. Grandsir sprinted down the left side relatively unmarked, firing a cross that deflected off of Bill Tuiloma and in for the own goal in the 16th minute.
Initially, Tuiloma’s own goal was credited to Kévin Cabral because he was in the area. It was later corrected, as Tuiloma touched it last on the incidental deflection.
In the 24th minute, Aljaz Ivacic made two incredible saves to prevent the game from slipping to a 3-0 Galaxy lead. As the first half moved along, the Timbers had their share of chances but couldn’t cash in. They even out-shot the Galaxy 10-5 in the first half, but still trailed 2-0 at the break.
Portland was also down a man. In stoppage time in the first half, Pablo Bonilla was sent off with a red card that reduced the Timbers to 10 men for the entirety of the second half. Fans weren’t happy with the call, chanting obscenities from the Timbers Army to express their displeasure.
“We talked about this before the game,” Tuiloma said. “We’ve got to control ourselves. The reaction that Pablo (Bonilla) had was unacceptable, hurting the team. Being in a situation like that, 10 men down, is very hard. We got the red card last game. Gio was telling us to be careful with the referees, and now we know this season the referees are on to the players and how we react. This is just unacceptable for us.”
“The referee gave a soft red card,” Savarese added. “Very soft. We’ve been getting soft red cards that maybe other leagues don’t apply into being red cards. But at the end, we gave the referee all the possibility to make the decision, and we have to be smarter.”
As the Timbers came back for the second half, they subbed defender Justin Rasmussen in for midfielder Santiago Moreno, trying to balance things out with the loss of Bonilla, who was already filling in for Josecarlos Van Rankin due to a red card last game.
Tensions were high throughout the second half, and it began right out of the gate. In the 48th minute, Nick DePuy and Sebastian Blanco each got yellow cards for their scrap that included some pushing. There were other disagreements throughout the half that led to yellows.
After Blanco drew a foul that resulted in a yellow just outside the box, Tuiloma stepped up and nailed a curling free kick goal for the Timbers, making it 2-1 in the 51st minute.
In the 60th minute, Raheem Edwards found Chicharito on a quick pass between the gaps of the Timbers’ defense, and the Galaxy’s star forward secured a brace for the afternoon to make it 3-1 in the road team’s favor.
That score held the rest of the way, despite the fact that Marco Delgado was sent off for his second yellow in the 61st minute, evening things out at 10 men apiece for the Timbers and Galaxy. Substitutes including Dairon Asprilla, Eryk Williamson and Marvin Loria were not enough for the Timbers to claw back, and they gave up three points at home.
Diego Chara did get himself into the MLS record books in stoppage time, however, earning a yellow card and tying the league’s career record for fouls with 756. He is tied with longtime Real Salt Lake midfielder Kyle Beckerman and can break the record next time out.
Portland’s next match is on the road at Vancouver at 7 p.m. Saturday (TV on Fox 12 Plus).
-- Ryan Clarke, rclarke@oregonian.com
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