For 38 minutes on Sunday night, Austin FC dominated possession, looked the more dangerous team, got the most shots, won the most corners, and yet the score still stubbornly stayed 0-0. Verde just didn’t get enough on some of their attempts, and Portland Timbers goalkeeper David Bingham was up to the challenge on the attempts that did test him.
And then, the Timbers got an inadvertent assist from Alex Ring — who’d be excellent up to that point — that Felipe Mora put in, and fully against the run of play, Verde was behind.
Verde still had 2:1 possession going into halftime, and a couple more changes to score, but came out of halftime with essentially 45 minutes to save the season.
But another revolving door defensive play from Austin FC allowed Evander — who’s been Laertes to Sebastian Driussi’s Hamlet this season, a similarly-stymied designated player who needed to seize a moment — to settle the contest in the 64th minute.
To be sure, there would be subs, with Ethan Finlay coming in for Owen Wolff and Will Bruin coming in for Gyasi Zardes shortly after that second goal.
There would be chances, like Jon Gallagher’s 70th-minute effort that skipped across the turf just wide of goal.
There would even be a goal, with Ring providing a pinpoint pass to set up Driussi’s first shot, and with Driussi exhibiting enough patience to fire in a second shot once Bingham parried away the first.
But in the end, it would be another loss — the 2-1 defeat being Verde’s sixth in seven matches, adding up to an 0-4-1 record in league play plus a pair of Leagues Cup losses since last winning on July 15.
And this loss brought with it a much more diminished chance of making the post-season, though Wolff maintained his position that as long as there’s a mathematical chance at making the playoffs, they’ll fight.
