Evander converted a penalty, Yimmi Chara scored in his return and the Portland Timbers overcame yet another injury to beat St. Louis City 2-1 and earn their first road victory of the season on Saturday night at CityPark in St. Louis.
Evander coolly drilled the penalty chance into the right side of the goal in the 63rd minute to give the Timbers a 1-0 lead after St. Louis City’s John Nelson was called for a hand ball in the box. St. Louis goalkeeper Roman Bürki guessed wrong and dove the other way.
The hosts leveled the match on Célio Pompeu’s shot that beat Timbers goalkeeper Aljaz Ivacic in the 79th minute.
But Yimmi Chara put the Timbers back on top just minutes later, taking a pass from Santiago Moreno and slotting it past Bürki and into the corner of the goal.
The late lead held up and the Timbers escaped for a road win against the same St. Louis team that had beaten the Timbers 2-1 at Providence Park on March 11.
“It’s really nice to come back from the injury,” Chara told reporters. “I have a really nice feeling from being back on the field with the team, scoring a goal and leaving with three points.”
St. Louis City (6-3-1, 19 points) is an expansion team but has played more like a veteran group, entering the match atop the Western Conference standings.
“We knew it was going to be difficult,” Timbers coach Giovanni Savarese told reporters. “They have been playing very well, they have been very pragmatic, so we knew we would have to put together a very mature performance, and I thought that we did.”
But it wasn’t all good news for the Timbers (3-5-2, 11 points).
A Timbers team that has been beset by injuries in the first two months of the season endured yet another one on Saturday night as midfielder David Ayala went down in the first half.
Ayala suffered a non-contact knee injury during a St. Louis buildup in the 18th minute. He went down immediately and was clearly in pain before he was stretchered off and replaced by Cristhian Paredes. The severity of Ayala’s injury was not immediately known.
“The most disappointing thing of the match was the injury of Aayala unfortunately,” Savarese said. “He was playing very well, he was getting very confident, and it’s unfortunate he got injured.”
The Timbers also were without Dairon Asprilla, who apparently is nursing a knee injury, and Sebastian Blanco, who sat out after playing limited minutes earlier this week in his return from injury in Portland’s U.S. Open Cup victory.
But Chara’s game-winner in his first action since suffering a hamstring injury in the season opener gave the Timbers three points in their second important victory in their past three MLS matches. The other, of course, was Portland’s big 4-1 home victory against the Seattle Sounders two weeks ago.
Neither side posed much of a threat in the attack during a first half that saw possession even at 50% to 50%. The Timbers managed four shots to St. Louis’ three, but the two Timbers attempts that were on goal were easily controlled by Bürki.
But the action picked up in the first 15 minutes of the second half with both teams creating some good chances.
“They were very strong in the beginning,” Chara said. “We were smart and able to adapt to it and control that. In the first half we struggled with possession, but in the second half it was much better.”
By the end of the match, the Timbers had outshot St. Louis 15-7, including a 7-1 advantage in shots on goal.
“I thought we managed things very, very well,” Savarese said. “I think we found our moments, we had very good opportunities, we managed the ball very well, and then we managed their transitions and long balls also with a lot of maturity. We had a plan in place, and the guys executed.”
Next up: The Timbers return home to face Austin FC at 7:30 p.m. next Saturday in a match that will be available on Apple TV for those who have MLS Season Pass subscriptions.