Columbus Crew felled by Portland Timbers on late goal, defensive miscues
Lucas Zelarayan’s magic plus a dominating possession game weren’t enough for the Crew on Saturday night in Portland.
Despite the midfielder’s team-leading ninth and 10th goals, 62.2% ownership of the ball and five more shots (17-12), Columbus couldn’t overcome three costly breakdowns in a stinging 3-2 loss to the Portland Timbers (6-9-8) at Providence Park, where the Crew (10-7-6) have never won in six matches against the Timbers.
Failure to grab their first such victory means Columbus will stumble into the MLS all-star break with a loss to a club still three points out of playoff qualification in the Western Conference.
“We have to defend better,” Zelarayan said. “It’s not about defenders. It’s about the 11 players, but we have to improve because we are scoring goals. And today, it was a difficult game. We came back and then we gave up another goal and we lost the game, so we have to get better in that (area).”
More: Columbus Crew at Portland Timbers: 5 storylines
Zelarayan leveled the score at 2-2 in the 65th minute with his second goal of the match. It was scored with a right-footed shot from outside the penalty area off a setup from defender Steven Moreira, bending the ball into the top right corner.
It was a pivotal moment in a match that began with the Crew falling behind 2-0 on goals by Portland’s Dairon Asprilla in the 28th and 30th minutes. Rather than using the equalizer as a boost, though, the Crew allowed the Timbers to control possession for the next 10 minutes and net the winner off Sebastián Blanco’s right foot in the 80th minute.
Blanco's goal capped a sequence that included a Timbers header that sent the ball off the Columbus crossbar followed a few minutes later by a lob into traffic that led to the goal.
Portland slipped the ball behind the Crew’s back line and Blanco finished near the goal with a shot that Columbus goalkeeper Patrick Schulte (two saves) had no chance to stop. It was a gut-wrenching sight for Crew assistant Kwame Ampadu, who filled the role of head coach while Wilfried Nancy served the start of a two-match MLS suspension.
“It’s very disappointing,” Ampadu said. “I think it’s a cruel way (to lose). To have most of the play, to have most of the possession and to create good chances, it’s disappointing then to concede three goals away from home.”
Nancy wasn’t alone in serving a suspension for something that occurred a week earlier in a contentious 1-1 draw with New York City FC. Star forward Cucho Hernandez also sat as he received two yellow cards against NYCFC.
Rather than switching to a new tactical formation, forward Jacen Russell-Rowe, fresh off a stint with Canada at the CONCACAF Gold Cup, joined the starting lineup in Hernandez’s usual spot up front. Russell-Rowe assisted on Zelarayan’s first goal with a give-and-go feed, cutting Portland’s lead to 2-1 during first half added time, but neither he nor forward Christian Ramirez could finish multiple setups from Zelarayan that might’ve changed the outcome.
Midfielder Aidan Morris also returned for the Crew after playing two matches for the U.S. at the Gold Cup. Morris' premature departure from that tournament July 2 for “personal reasons” became a talking point as headed back to Columbus, where he officially joined training last week at Ohio Health Performance Center.
Morris, who'll head to the MLS All-Star game in Washington, D.C. with Zelarayan, logged 89 minutes against the Timbers. Milos Degenek, meanwhile, didn't dress for the match. After being used as a sub in three of the previous four matches, Ampadu said the defender was rested due to a lingering undisclosed injury.
The Crew could’ve used him defending the back line.
Despite winning the possession battle in all but four of the match’s five-minute intervals, Columbus ended a tough week by taking a loss before breaking for all-star festivities and the Leagues Cup. The Crew’s next MLS matchup is a new chapter in the “Hell Is Real” rivalry against East-leading Cincinnati FC on Aug. 20 at Lower.com Field.
Hernandez will be back, but Nancy will have to finish his two-match suspension. The Crew began last week fourth in the East standings and dropped to sixth after being passed by Philadelphia and Orlando this week.
More: MLS video of Crew coach Wilfried Nancy ejection
Looking at the positives, Degenek may have enough time to heal for the restart of MLS play in August, and the Crew also plan to get Yevhen Cheberko, a left-footed Ukrainian center back signed out of Croatia, into Leagues Cup matches. Those two could give the Crew a needed defensive boost, but the club needs to tighten its play overall.
Too many balls are getting behind the Crew's back line for scoring opportunities against Schulte, and it finally caught up with Columbus in Portland.
“It’s something we obviously need to look at next week in training,” Ampadu said, “and for sure we’ll be looking at that, trying to address those issues.”
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This article originally appeared on The Columbus Dispatch: Columbus Crew squander Zelarayan's goals in loss to Portland Timbers
