Two meetings, two goals and a much needed break

The Timbers bounce back at home against Colorado.

PORTLAND — Phil Neville has danced around the fatigued topic lately.

The Timbers have played eight matches in May, a month that included trips to Tacoma, San Jose, Salt Lake City, San Jose again and Orlando with Portland laboring through injuries to players such as James Pantemis, Diego Charra and Jimer Fory. It’s a stretch that’s seen a club that was once second in the West, and at one time unbeaten over the course of seven matches, stumble into Wednesday’s May finale against Colorado at Providence Park. The Timbers sat in fourth, the Rapids were a point behind in fifth, and there was no denying the importance for a Portland squad finally set to get some rest, with 10 days off before their next match against St. Louis.

“It’s been a demanding month, but I won’t say there’s any fatigue in camp,” Neville said on Tuesday. “I think that anyone thinking fatigue is making excuses. We’re ready for this game. It’s a big game.”

Still, deep down, Neville knew his club needed a spark. An offense that ranked as the best in the MLS at the end of April had sputtered with two goals in its last four matches. Antony hadn’t scored since March. Jonathan Rodriguez’s anticipated return from an offseason knee injury has had little impact and the designated player is still on a considerable minutes restriction. The flow and joy, as Neville likes to say, of a Portland attack that thrived with speed on the counter for the season’s first two months had fizzled.

So Neville called two meetings on Wednesday before Colorado.

First, he met with Antony. The 23-year-old Brazilian was so instrumental in getting Portland off to the start it did this season — especially as the offense tried to stabilize itself following the departure of Evander. He scored four goals in Portland’s first six matches. And while his scoring production dipped, he still closed out April with five assists in the month’s final three matches. But it’s been crickets in May. No goals. No assists.

Neville needed more.

“I told him to play with fun. Play with enjoyment,” Neville said. “Just release that tension that you’ve had in the last couple of matches. Pretend you’re playing on the beach of the Copacabana in Rio and just enjoying yourself.”

There wasn’t much to enjoy in the first half against Colorado. Both teams looked slow. Both teams sloppily turned the ball over. But only one team found the back of the net: a 33rd-minute strike from Colorado’s Djordje Mihailovic that took the Timbers into the half facing a mountain of a one-goal deficit.

But Antony and the Timbers found something in the 59th.

It began with near devastation. With Portland keeper Maxime Crepeau flat on his back after making a save, Colorado’s Sam Bassett had 192 square feet of net to give the Rapids a 2-0 lead when he got the rebound and instead rang a shot off the crossbar from point-blank range. Mosquera cleared it to midfield, where Ayala headed it on to David Da Costa. Ten quick steps, a look and a perfectly threaded pass to Antony later and the game was tied.

This was Colorado, after all.

“I just like to score goals against Colorado,” said Antony, whose equalizer was his sixth goal in six career games against the Rapids. “It’s a good thing.”

The second meeting Neville had was with Mosquera, where he challenged the 22-year-old Colombian right-back.

“We have a situation in the squad where he’s probably the only player that has nobody like him in the squad,” Neville said. “We’ve got two players for every position. You could say we have Eric Miller, but Eric Miller is more defensive. We bring Eric Miller on and we start Eric Miller when we want to be a little more defensive. We don’t ask Eric Miller to provide the width on the right-hand side high up the pitch. In that respect, there’s a little bit of comfort that’s drifted into [Mosquera’s] game and we need Juan to perform at his absolute best.”

Neville said he told Mosquera to think about next year’s World Cup. Neville had recently watched the FA Cup final, which featured Colombian right-back Daniel Muñoz playing for Crystal Palace, which took a 1-0 win over Manchester City.

“He played really well and helped Crystal Palace win the game, and I said, ‘Juan, that’s the level that you have to get to and you’re not at that level yet,” Neville said.

In the 76th minute, the Timbers were out in transition again. Starting from right-back, Mosquera passed the ball up to midfield to Santiago Moreno, who cradled it for a moment and fed it right back to Mosquera who was charging down the right channel. Catching the ball in full stride, Mosquera stormed around one defender to get into the box, then fired off a pass toward the far post that only needed a tap-in from Kevin Kelsy to give Portland its 2-1 lead.

“I said this was the game he needed to deliver,” Neville said. “And he delivered.”

It wasn’t smooth sailing until the end. Despite playing much of the second half down a man following a Wayne Frederick red card, the Rapids had multiple quality chances late, including an 89th-minute shot from the left side saved from Crepeau and a near foul in the box by Diego Charra in stoppage time.

It was after the final whistle blew in the 99th minute, after Mosquera dropped to his knees after playing the entire match, that Neville finally conceded that, yes, May has been a bear.

“You can see that we’re probably running a little bit on empty,” he said. “…We said before the game we had to commit to getting a result in this game, because I felt as if this result was going to define where the next two or three weeks were going to go. It was a positive.”

— Tyson Alger, The I-5 Corridor