While the Thorns spent the weekend on pause amid a scandal involving the Timbers/Thorns organization, the Timbers continued their red-hot run toward the playoffs, earning a fourth win in a row. The Timbers beat Inter Miami 1-0 Sunday with a goal from Jaroslaw Niezgoda at Providence Park in front of an announced crowd of 20,006 fans.
The Timbers are now unbeaten in their last eight games, seven of them wins. In those eight games, the Timbers have accumulated 22 points, nearly as many as they had accumulated in their first 20 games of the season, 24 points.
“The game was a grind type of game,” Timbers coach Giovanni Savarese said Sunday. “But ultimately we were able to defend very well, we were able to create some very good moments offensively, and we found a very important goal that has given us three points that are very crucial for our run to the playoffs.”
Niezgoda scored the game-winner on his first touch of the match in the 83nd minute. On a corner kick, Niezgoda rose up and headed the ball past Miami goalkeeper Nick Marsman in a clinical finish.
The goal was Niezgoda’s second of the 2021 season. In his MLS career, Niezgoda has managed to score nine goals in 11 shots on target.
Niezgoda tore his ACL in November last season, but has been slow to come back. He made his return from the injury in August, but has not played more than 10 minutes at a time yet this season. Against Miami he subbed on in the 82nd minute.
With the win, the Timbers (46 points, 14-10-4) remain in fourth place in the league’s Western Conference standings, but improve their position as they chase the third-place Colorado Rapids at 48 points. A top-four finish would give the Timbers the postseason advantage of hosting a home playoff game.
As of Sunday, the Timbers have the longest active scoring streak in MLS with 18 matches. They had last been shut out in June against Minnesota United.
“We wanted to keep the momentum going, and we have,” Timbers goalkeeper Steve Clark said. “This win was about points, but I think of it as the momentum that we’re playing with. We’re looking up the table now instead of looking down and that’s a big step for us going into our last six games.”
Looming conspicuously in the backdrop of Sunday’s game was the recent scandal involving the other side of the Timbers organization, the Portland Thorns of the National Women’s Soccer League.
Last week, two former Thorns players, Mana Shim and Sinead Farrelly, shared detailed allegations of inappropriate behavior and sexual coercion from former Thorns head coach Paul Riley while in Portland. Shim filed a formal complaint to the Thorns in 2015, and both Shim and Farrelly were interviewed by the club, and the Thorns say their investigation did not find “unlawful activity” but did find that Riley had violated “company policies.”
Afterward, owner Merritt Paulson and general manager Gavin Wilkinson opted not to renew Riley’s contract, which Wilkinson had hinted they were planning to do anyway before Shim’s complaint, due to the Thorns missing playoffs. The club framed it as a non-renewal, thanking Riley for his service in its press release, and Riley was hired by another NWSL team five months later.
A Thorns home game scheduled for Saturday was canceled amid the controversy, but fans showed up in front of Providence Park with signs calling for Wilkinson to be fired and asking for Paulson to sell the club.
Asked for comment after Sunday’s game, Savarese called the allegations “disgusting.”
“The relationship as a coach with your players is sacred,” Savarese said. “That’s the most important thing -- the trust that you have in the locker room with your players is extremely important. Everything that has come out is just very difficult to read. The reality is, it’s important that women speak up, that something’s been said and it’s important now to listen, to learn, and to make sure that there’s a change in regards to those types of situations.”
Players on the Timbers released a statement Saturday on social media denouncing reports of abuse in the NWSL. “We offer our full support to the Thorns players and all NWSL players as they work to ensure abuse like this is remove from our sport and players are protected,” the statement said.
Clark thanked Eryk Williamson and the MLS Players Association for helping draft the statement that “reflected our feelings.”
“I think we’re looking forward to, if it’s possible, sitting down with the Thorns and all of us Timbers, and first of all listening to them with empathy and then trying to learn as male players how we can be allies,” Clark said. “We want to hear their stories, and we want to be men in our locker room who stand up for women’s players.”
During Sunday’s Timbers game, members of the Timbers Army held up a banner that said “you knew” directed at Paulson and Wilkinson, while a small tifo displayed throughout the game said, “Believe, support and protect NWSL players.”
At various points during the match, fans chanted “protect the players” and “GW out” aimed at Wilkinson. Some fans wore red or waved red flags in solidarity with the Thorns.
During the Timbers-Miami game, the NWSL announced it would reopen the 2015 investigation initiated by the Thorns, and new outside counsel would oversee it on behalf of the NWSL.
Asked if the Timbers had discussed the controversy, given the Timbers’ close affiliation with the Thorns and a scandal involving the same front office, Savarese said they had.
“We explained the situation and made sure everybody’s aware,” Savarese said. “You saw the statement that came out with all the signatures of the players because they are all participating in understanding and being aware of everything that has happened. There are more things that we are looking to organize from our part to connect with the Thorns.”
For the Timbers on the field, Sunday was a slow start and they especially looked lackluster in the midfield throughout the first half as Sebastian Blanco started on the bench.
Blanco had come off injured in the 52nd minute of Wednesday’s midweek road win against LAFC and was not fit to start Sunday. He has been instrumental in the Timbers run of good form since returning from an injury in August. In Blanco’s eight starts in 2021, the Timbers have won six.
Diego Valeri, who figured to be a replacement option for Blanco in the midfield, was also unavailable Sunday due to yellow card accumulation.
“We didn’t have the fluidity in the final third to be dangerous,” Savarese said of the first half. “I thought our build-up was decent but we didn’t do some of the things we should’ve done in the first half: our switching the point of attack wasn’t enough, we tried to play on the same side many times, sometimes the decision-making when we saw something in front wasn’t timed right, our movements weren’t in correlation with each other.”
“That’s what we spoke about at halftime,” Savarese added. “To make sure we found the switch, that we were finding those pockets that we didn’t utilize in the first half, that we got in behind them and brought their lines a little higher so we can get inside the box.”
Blanco came on in the 68th minute, and added some danger immediately, firing a long-range blast just barely over the crossbar in the 70th minute.
In the 80th minute, Blanco set up Dairon Asprilla with a golden chance, chipping the ball to the far post for Asprilla to run onto, but Asprilla couldn’t connect.
The Timbers’ best chance of the first half came in the 32nd minute off a long ball to Felipe Mora. Defender Claudio Bravo launched a ball from the Timbers’ own end into Miami’s box, but Mora’s volley was nabbed by Marsman.
Sunday was the Timbers’ first time playing Inter Miami, an expansion team that joined Major League Soccer last year.
Up next, the Timbers will take a two-week break for the international calendar and then head to Los Angeles to face the Galaxy on Oct. 16.
-- Caitlin Murray for The Oregonian/OregonLive
Twitter: @caitlinmurr
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