Portland Timbers head coach Caleb Porter said just one week ago – after Diego Valeri made his return to action as a substitute following offseason knee surgery – that he expects his Argentine playmaker to start filling up box scores post haste.
Prophecy fulfilled.
In his first start of the 2015 season, Valeri curled in a beautifully taken goal that would prove to be the game-winner in the Timbers’ 2-1 victorySaturday afternoon over the Montreal Impact at Stade Saputo. And it couldn’t have come at a better time for Portland.
They had been shut out in their previous two outings, the longest goal-less streak under Porter’s two-plus-year leadership, and had scored just seven goals in nine games. Center back Nat Borchers broke that streak with the opening strike Saturday, and Valeri gave the Timbers their first multi-goal haul since April 4.
“I’m happy about the goal and the win,” Valeri said. “We wanted to get three points, and we did it. Now we have another hard game in Houston [on May 16]. We will enjoy this, rest up and train next week.”
Saturday was the first time this season Porter was able to send out his first-choice front four of Valeri, wingers Rodney Wallace and Darlington Nagbe and striker Fanendo Adi, who came off the bench in the last two games.
“It was good to have Valeri back on the pitch and to get that front four group back together again," Porter said. "That was the attacking group that we went with at the end of the year when we won three out of our last four games and finished so strong. I thought in the second half we took the game over and created a lot of chances. Obviously Valeri showed a bit of class with his goal; it’s great to have him back and he’ll keep pulling off plays like that. I’m confident that we’ll continue to gel in the attack, more and more, and it was great to score another goal off a set piece. We need to find goals like that, too.”
The show of class from Valeri came in the 70th minute on a goal kick that fell to Rodney Wallace at the top of the area. He slid a cross outside to Valeri on the left wing for a perfectly struck blast that whistled past Montreal goalkeeper Evan Bush and inside the far post for a 2-0 Timbers lead. It proved crucial as Montreal’s Dominic Oduro pulled one back just a minute later, making for some nervy moments for the Timbers in the final 20 minutes.
“Valeri’s goal, that was something special, that was always going to be the game winner,” Borchers said.
The last time the Timbers faced a Canadian side from the Eastern Conference, they squandered a 2-0 lead in an eventual 3-2 loss to Toronto FC.
“That made it a little tougher on us, put more pressure on us in the end,” Porter said of the Oduro goal. “But that was a game last year where we would have maybe lost or drew; the Toronto game is case in point. Even though we conceded a goal, the fact that we saw the game out I thought was very mature.”
Porter also lauded his team’s efforts for managing the game just as he had hoped, by staying compact defensively in the first half and capitalizing on their chances when things opened up later in the game as Montreal pushed for a goal in front of their home fans.
“I thought their performance was very professional,” Porter said. “First half we managed the game extremely well, limited their chances and kept the game tight. We knew in the second half with them being at home we’d find more chances because they would be eager to score and to win the game. And the game played out just like we thought.”
