Vancouver Whitecaps vs Portland Timbers – The Cascadia Cup Clash in Pictures
Vancouver Whitecaps’ unbeaten run ended at 10 games on Friday night, halted in its tracks by a 1-0 defeat from Cascadian rivals Portland Timbers.
A Ranko Veselinovic own goal midway through the second half was all that separated the teams in the end, in what was another tale of two halves from the Whitecaps.
With the MLS Western Conference playoff race tight as can be right now, every point lost, especially at home, feels like they could be massive come the end of the season. Just how massive, we’ll soon find out.
AFTN photographers Tom Ewasiuk (@ResidualImage) was there to capture the action before, during, and after the game. There’s some fantastic photos in the gallery. Here’s his “Story In Pictures”, with a full Flickr slideshow at the end.
The starting XIs are ready for battle
Portland come out the better team and Felipe Mora fires over from a good position 5 minutes in
Chances were at a premium but Dairon Asprilla had a header that went close for Portland midway through the first half
While Vancouver’s best chance fell to Ryan Gauld in the final minute of the half but it didn’t test Steve Clark too much
The ‘Caps started the second half like a different team and caused some panic in the Timbers defence
Creating a couple of chances and even having a penalty shout waved away
But Portland were also still very much in the match
The deadlock was finally broken in the 66th minute when Felipe Mora got onto a Sebastian Blanco cross and sent the ball across the face of the goal
Which Vancouver’s Serbian centre back Ranko Veselinovic sliced into his own net to give Portland a 1-0 lead they weren’t to give up
The closest the Whitecaps came to levelling things up came from a fierce Deiber Caicedo shot that flew towards goal
But was cleared off the line by Portland’s Claudio Bravo, much to the Timbers delight
Tempers boiled over towards end as Lucas Cavallini tried to lend a helping hand
That didn’t go down too well
And Cava’s reaction here sums up everyone of a Whitecaps persuasion’s feelings at full time
You can see all of Tom’s photos from the game HERE and in our full Flickr slideshow below: