What the Portland Timbers came away with after a scrappy Western Conference battle at Sporting Park was a 0-0 draw with Sporting Kansas City – their third draw in as many games – but nobody was hanging their heads in the Timbers locker room after the match.
The draws just so happen to have come against Real Salt Lake, LA Galaxy and now Sporting Kansas City – two MLS Cup champions and one runner-up from the last two seasons.
“We’re unbeaten in three games against three very good teams,” Timbers head coach Caleb Porter told the media following the game.
Porter also pointed out that all three matches didn’t involve his team pinching results by any means. Porter said the Timbers have gone toe-to-toe with all three teams, nearly equaling SKC in possession Saturday and coming away with three shots on goal to their two.
“Sporting Kansas City is a good team; it’s one of the toughest places to come and get a result,” Porter said. “…To put yourself in a position to get three points on the road you have to keep the game tight, especially against a good team, and hope to finish your couple chances, which we didn’t. But if you can’t finish your couple chances to win the game, getting a point on the road here is a positive.”
Portland also have the feather in their cap of turning in another clean sheet, making it two in three games following a scoreless draw against RSL to start the season. Porter liked the fact that most of SKC’s 16 shots came via set pieces and not from the run of play, further evidence that Portland’s defensive woes from early last season are a thing of the past.
“Tonight we showed we can go on the road and battle, and I think honestly we out-possessed them quite well, we pressed them the whole game and really just did a good job on both sides of the ball,” new Timbers center back Nat Borchers said.
The road doesn’t get much easier for the Timbers, with an away match next weekend against Cascadia rival Vancouver Whitecaps, another playoff team from last season. But even though Portland are left searching for their first win of the season, they’ll take with them the confidence to know they can earn a result off any caliber team.
“I just thought from start to finish we played like a mature team and a team that’s willing to do the dirty work on the road to get a result,” Borchers said. “We did a lot of good things on both sides of the ball, and I thought our possession game was really good tonight. If we continue to do that we’re really going to start getting some points here.”
Dan Itel covers the Timbers for MLSsoccer.com.
