Report and Reaction: Newcomer Nelson cuts Timbers down to size in dominant Whitecaps display

Report and Reaction: Newcomer Nelson cuts Timbers down to size in dominant Whitecaps display

Posted on February 23, 2025 by in MLS, VANCOUVER WHITECAPS with 0 Comments

Starting the new season with a win is always great. An away win, even better. A dominant win at a fierce rival, well it doesn’t get too much better than that.

The Jesper Sørensen MLS era began in some style for Vancouver Whitecaps down in Portland on Sunday afternoon as the ‘Caps dominated a ten-man Timbers side, running out 4-1 winners. It could easily have been more, with new signing Jayden Nelson the star of the show with his first goal as a Whitecap and a hat-trick of assists.

A rampant first half saw the ‘Caps go into the break two goals to the good, after strikes from Ryan Gauld and Pedro Vite, with Jayden Nelson getting a couple of assists. The visitors fully capitalised on the home side being reduced to 10 men in the 11th minute following Kamal Miller’s straight red card for a denial of a goalscoring opportunity challenge on Brian White, but they were already on the front foot by that stage.

Nelson marked his return to MLS with a goal and another assist, this time on Sam Adekugbe’s third goal, as Vancouver put Portland to the sword. A late Anthony consolation was all the Timbers had to show for their efforts, as the Whitecaps came away with another big derby day victory in lower Cascadia.

Sørensen made two changes for his first MLS match in charge from the match down in Costa Rica on Thursday, with J.C. Ngando and Ali Ahmed dropping out of the line-up and replaced by Vite and Nelson. It was a strong starting line-up for Vancouver against a Portland side missing some key starters, although new Designated Player David Da Costa made the bench.

The first chance fell to Vancouver three minutes in when Adekugbe played in a wide open Brian White. White saw his effort saved by Max Crepeau, but the flag went up for offside anyway, sparing the striker’s blushes on a chance he should have buried.

The ‘Caps were handed a huge advantage in the 11th minute. White was again played in, this time he was chased down by Miller, but as the ‘Caps striker took a touch to the outside he was clipped on the edge of the box by the Canadian international for a free kick and a straight red card for the last man challenge.

The resultant free kick was touched inside to Gauld, but his goalbound effort hit the wall and flew over for a corner.

Vancouver kept the pressure on and Gauld had a shot straight at Crepeau in the 18th minute, with the former Whitecaps keeper recovering it at the second attempt.

It was feeling like a matter of when would the Whitecaps break the deadlock rather than would they, and the answer came in the 24th minute.

Nelson pounced on a loose kick out from Crepeau, powered into the box (a phrase that will be used a lot in this report), and cut it inside to Gauld, who finished with aplomb to make it 1-0 Vancouver.

The Timbers tried to get themselves back into the game but were lacking any real penetration in the Whitecaps’ final third.

The ‘Caps were dominant, with Nelson causing a lot of problems for the home defence on the right, and the winger grabbed his second assist of the match in the 32nd minute, touching the ball inside to Vite who rifled home a beauty into the far corner from 20 yards out.

The ‘Caps pushed for a killer third, with Adekugbe coming close, heading over a Gauld corner three minutes from the break.

Sebastian Berhalter fired over in stoppage time, after more good work from Nelson, before Crepeau spilled a Gauld shot, but the danger was cleared away, and the ‘Caps had to settle for just the two-goal lead at the half despite their dominance.

You could imagine Neville’s message to his team at half time was to try and nick the next goal and see where it takes them, and Kevin Kelsy forced the first save from Yohei Takaoka from a header within a minute of the restart.

Vancouver soon found their groove again and added a third to their tally in the 53rd minute on a quick breakaway.

With the Timbers throng vehemently appealing for a handball on Vite on the edge of the box, Gauld nipped in and played the ball to Nelson, who tore forward at pace. As he powered into the Portland box he unselfishly centred it for Adekubge to easily slot it past his national team teammate Crepeau, and the ‘Caps were in dreamland.

Da Costa, who had come on at the half, fired inches wide of the back post for Portland on the hour mark, as they desperately tried to get back into the game.

If there was any doubt though that the game was over, the ‘Caps firmly extinguished any lingering hopes the home side had when Nelson grabbed a goal to go with his hat-trick of assists moments later.

The winger got the ball 10 yards inside the Timbers half and once again went on a run, this time through three Timbers defenders before tucking it away past Crepeau to the bottom right corner.

The ‘Caps took the opportunity to rest some players ahead of Thursday’s second leg match-up with Saprissa, and it was no surprise that Nelson was one of those players that made way after his Man of the Match performance. It was a bit of a surprise that Gauld didn’t however.

Antony got some consolation for the Timbers when the ball deflected into his path in the box and he had the time and space to tuck it away past Takaoka in the 73rd minute.

Vancouver came close to making it five in the 80th minute, with Crepeau superbly denying a curling Berhalter free kick.

Ranko Veselinovic thought he’d made it five for the ‘Caps with five to go, when he headed home a cross in from the right, but the referee blew for a foul on the Serbian as he jumped for the ball.

And that was to be all she wrote. Playing their second match, on two different continents, in less than 72 hours, you’d have forgiven the Whitecaps if they’d been a little sluggish. Instead they were dominant and whole some of a green and white persuasion may point to the red card changing the game early, the ‘Caps had already set the pace in the first 10 minutes and on paper had a far stronger starting 11.

It was just what was needed to settle any nerves for both Sørensen and the group, especially coming on the back of Thursday’s late heartbreak against Saprissa. What this means for the season remains to be seen. But for now, let’s just enjoy this wonderful start to the 2025 league campaign.

FINAL SCORE: Portland Timbers 1 – 4 Vancouver Whitecaps

ATT: 20,079

SCORING SUMMARY:
24’ – VAN – Ryan Gauld (Jayden Nelson)
32’ – VAN – Pedro Vite (Jayden Nelson)
53’ – VAN – Sam Adekugbe (Jayden Nelson)
61’ – VAN – Jayden Nelson
73’ – POR – Antony

STATS:
Possession: POR 38.6% – VAN 61.4%
Shots: POR 6 – VAN 23
Shots on Goal: POR 2 – VAN 10
Saves: POR 6 – VAN 1
Fouls: POR 9 – VAN 16
Offsides: POR 1 – VAN 2
Corners: POR 3 – VAN 10

CARDS:
11’ – POR – Kamal Miller (Red DOGSO)
37’ – VAN – Andrés Cubas (Yellow)
63’ – POR – Jimer Fory (Yellow)
89’ – VAN – Ryan Gauld (Yellow)

PORTLAND: Maxime Crépeau; Finn Surman (Ian Smith 66’), Zac McGraw, Kamal Miller, Jimer Fory; David Ayala (David da Costa 46′), Julio Ortiz (Cristhian Paredes 66’), Diego Chara; Antony (Ariel Lassiter 86’), Felipe Mora (Eric Miller 37’), Kevin Kelsy [Substitutes not used: James Pantemis, Claudio Bravo, Juan Mosquera, Gage Guerra]

VANCOUVER: Yohei Takaoka; Mathías Laborda, Ranko Veselinović, Tristan Blackmon, Sam Adekugbe (Édier Ocampo 82’); Pedro Vite, Andrés Cubas (Ralph Priso 62’), Sebastian Berhalter (Jeevan Badwal 82’); Jayden Nelson (Ali Ahmed 62’), Brian White (Nicolas Fleuriau Chateau 87’), Ryan Gauld [Substitutes not used: Isaac Boehmer, Belal Halbouni, Bjørn Inge Utvik, Tate Johnson]

REACTION:

VANCOUVER WHITECAPS

JESPER SORENSEN

On the team’s big win performance:

“There was, I would say, some unusual circumstance with the red card, but I think, already before that, we started out pretty well. I think the players were looking fresh. The pace in our play was good. I think we had a very nice and fluid play with the ball from the beginning. I think it was a good win, always starting out. It has been a tough week, but of course a great win, first game of the season, it was beautiful.”

On Jayden Nelson’s Man of the Match MLS club debut:

“It was really great for us and for him having a performance like this. Coming in a little bit later on [in preseason], maybe not being in the best shape and having to catch up is difficult and also getting into the squad. But I think he’s doing well every day in training and now we saw, of course, a performance where the very important things that he could contribute to this team, we saw what he could do here for us. So of course, I’m very, very happy for him and for us that it turned out as it did in a game like this.”

More thoughts on Jayden Nelson:

“When you’re a young player and you break through in the way Jayden did at the beginning of his career, then everybody starts to build up a hype about players and all of a sudden it’s difficult to live up to that. It’s normal and it’s usual to have difficulties in a football career. It’s more normal that there are difficulties than not. But the good thing about Jayden is that he has some potential, he has a good skill set with some things he does really well. Then he has to have the work ethic to keep working to round off his play even more. He’s a young man who already now, early on in his career, has experienced a lot and done a lot. But I hope that we can help him grow into a player who can produce at a constant high level.”

RYAN GAULD

On building on this result with the match against Saprissa on Thursday:
“Obviously it’s nice not having a long trip, and I think there is an extra day in between these games compared to what we just had, so that’ll be nice to get the extra day training. But we’ll expect another tough game. They got a victory to come in and protect, and you know they’ll try and make the game scrappy, I’m sure. But we just need to take the confidence from what we’ve done tonight into that game.”

JAYDEN NELSON

On his goal celebration where he mouthed “I’m Here”:

“I’m here. It’s simple as that. For me, the first thing I said and keep saying is that I want the football to do the talking. I didn’t want to say too much or give expectations to the fans or anything. But, I’m here.”

On coming back to MLS with a point to prove:

“I played in this league, I know this league. I played in Europe, I’m coming back. There’s a lot of expectations on me. I have that on my shoulders and am coming here to prove that I can do it.”

PORTLAND TIMBERS

PHIL NEVILLE

On his side’s fighting response this time around as opposed to the big playoff loss:

“We kept going. It was really difficult… [several players’ performances] were the positives we can take from the game. We can sit here and make excuses about a couple of decisions that went against us, but that for me, and I’ve said to them in there, I don’t want anyone to talk about those two decisions. I’m more concerned about how a guy when he’s four-versus-one at the back gets through on goal. We can make all the excuses whether we thought it was a red card or a foul or not, but for me it’s that that guy should never be in that position anyway.

“Then the third goal, was it handball or not? I think everybody in the stadium saw it, but like I say, it was still 80 yards from goal. It’s not as if it was a goal-line clearance or in our six yard box, it was 80 yards from goal and we got punished. So I think what we saw today was a team of 16 that probably had eight or nine players under the age of 23, that we now need to start growing up fast against playing in the big boys league. That’s the message that I told them in there, that we have to start growing up and growing up fast.

“I thought that they had it too easy in terms of duels. They won a lot of duels, a lot of 1-v-1’s and we were all nicey nicey thinking that we’re still in Coachella.”

Did he see any similarities to that playoff defeat?:

“Not really. The feeling felt the same, that’s the only thing that felt the same. The feeling of, pfft, oh dear. But I’ve got a lot of trust in these players, I’ve got a lot of trust in what we’re doing, and I suppose the best thing is that it happened on the first day and not the last day like last year. We can recover, we have to recover, we have to get our players back fit and the players that are in our starting 11 today, there’s three or four of them that played nowhere near their level. Nowhere near their level. And I think over the next few weeks I think the selection with reflect that.”

      
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Authored by: Michael McColl

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