“He assisted me, and I just had to finish”. Certainly not as far as name recognition or pedigree. Tim Parker has won many over already with his steady play, but Christian Dean hasn’t played an MLS minute this season.
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The Vancouver Whitecaps and Portland Timbers renewed their Cascadia rivalry for the final time this season. The “Bearded Borchers” offered up his thoughts on a match that could have gone either way for both sides. With the heat, both clubs seemed to be playing much slower.
“His mentality is absolutely fantastic”, said Whitecaps head coach Carl Robinson.
“He needs to improve some things, his stepping and dropping needs to be better… but he’s got a huge upside”.
When compared to Parker, Dean’s road with the Whitecaps has been a little longer. But his most impressive play was a risky sliding tackle on big Timbers’ striker Fenando Adi in the box in the 71st minute.
“Melano is a player we’ve had our eye on for some time and we are extremely pleased to finally announce his addition”, said Timbers coach Caleb Porter. “We didn’t play well the first half, but we scored”.
“It’s good for my confidence that I’m right in the (centre back) mix right now”.
No all-stars: No Timbers are among the 22 MLS players who will take on Tottenham Hotspur on July 29.
They were helped out by the Whitecaps however when the visitors turned a defensive free kick into an attacking opportunity for their opponents with a series of short passes that were more about getting rid of the ball than progressing up the field. They kept the back line up for the entirety of the game. “They’ve got top players”, said Robinson.
Whitecaps midfielder Matias Laba got a pass in the middle of the pitch, 45 yards away. Russell Teibert might have replaced him in Portland, but Teibert wasn’t feeling great.
It’s all part of Robinson’s commitment to building through youth. With the draw, the Whitecaps ended the night even with Kansas City in third place, while Portland (9-7-5) and Seattle were knotted in fifth. In the meantime, Portland has two critical away games coming up against Western Conference leaders FC Dallas and San Jose Earthquakes, who trail Portland in the playoff chase by six points with 13 games left to play.
The Portland Timbers have signed Argentine forward Lucas Melano as a designated player.
It was Valeri’s second goal in nine games this season after rehabbing from offseason knee surgery, then an ankle injury following his return. Melano is also expected to earn a salary near $1,000,000 annually, making him the second-highest paid Timber behind center back Liam Ridgewell. “We bent, but we didn’t break”.
“Coming here and creating that number of chances is a feat in itself, but we need to be more clinical now”.
“We found the goal in the first half and we didn’t play our best, and they found the goal in the second half and they didn’t play their best”, he said.
ON DEFENSE: Timbers goalkeeper Adam Kwarasey made several key saves in the first half to keep Portland in the lead. In the 27th minute, Manneh rounded Kwarasey after a great setup from Mauro Rosales, but his shot from a tight angle was cleared off the line by Portland centreback Nat Borchers.
The Whitecaps (9-8-3, 33 points) looked as though they were going to draw first blood in the 16th minute when striker Kekuta Manneh went into the box with only goalkeeper Adam Larsen Kwarasey to beat.
The Timbers picked up the pace again, but Vancouver matched them.
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“I looked forward and I had space”. He called it the most lovely goal he had ever scored. Ousted was the lone member of the Whitecaps to be included on the All-Star roster.
