The Portland Timbers traveled to Denver for their Independence Day match against the Colorado Rapids, hoping to upstage the postgame fireworks show with some on-field explosiveness.
A matchup against the last-place team in the Western Conference seemed to offer a golden opportunity to break out of the prolonged slump that has seen the Timbers win just once in their past nine matches, scoring only five goals during that stretch.
Instead, both the match and any planned postgame pyrotechnics were doused by Mother Nature.
Tuesday’s game was postponed after the Timbers and Rapids played just the first half, with the score remaining 0-0. The second half will be played at a later date, which as of Tuesday night has not been announced.
Initially scheduled to kickoff at 7:30 p.m. local time, the match didn’t start until 9:25 p.m. due to thunderstorms. The two sides managed to take the field for the first 45 minutes, playing through slippery pitch conditions before another round of storms soaked Dick’s Sporting Goods Park. At around 11:45 p.m., 90 minutes after the two sides went to their respective locker rooms for halftime, the MLS made the decision to postpone the match.
The on-field action wasn’t a whole lot more stimulating than the rainfall that parenthesized it. The lone half of play saw each side deliver one shot on goal apiece.
Colorado threatened first in the 23rd minute when Connor Ronan delivered the first corner kick of the night into the box and defender Lalas Abubakar headed it toward the right corner of the goal. David Bingham, starting in place of regular Timbers goalkeeper Aljaz Ivacic, dove to his right and made a one-handed save.
The subsequent corner once again found the head of Abubakar, and this time he put it in the back of the net. However, before the curling ball reached him, the referees had blown play dead, citing Rapids midfielder Cole Bassett interfering with Bingham.
That was the first of two pivotal calls that went the way of the visitors. The latter came during stoppage time, when Colorado’s Darren Yapi received a pass from Michael Barrios in the box. Yapi appeared to have his jersey tugged by Portland defender Dario Zuparic — and he made that known to the referees afterward — but no whistle blew. Yapi ultimately got a shot off that missed wide left. A foul call would have given the home side a penalty kick.
The Timbers’ best offensive chance came during the 36th minute. A fast break found midfielder Marvin Loria with a clean look from just outside the box, but his left-footed attempt sailed high.
Two minutes later, Franck Boli found Nathan Fogaca on the right side of the net, but his pass arrived a bit late, forcing Fogaca to attempt a shot from a difficult angle. Colorado keeper William Yarbrough stopped it with ease.
Fogaca made his first regular-season start since April 1, while fellow midfielder Victor Griffith notched his first career appearance in the starting lineup, the result of a rash of injuries at the wings. The latest health blow came when Portland coach Giovanni Savarese announced Monday that Evander would miss Tuesday’s match due to a calf injury. The Timbers’ second-leading goal scorer sat out Saturday’s loss to Minnesota while serving a one-game suspension.
