PORTLAND, Ore. – Come the final whistle of the Portland Timbers’ first home game of the 2020 Major League Soccer season, the feeling was very much as it had been eight days before, when the team’s defensive struggles saw its preseason schedule close on a disappointing note. For the first half of Sunday’s game, those notes felt distant and potentially irrelevant, with promising performances in both attack and defense hinting last week’s disappointments may, in time, be forgotten.
Minnesota United FC would score three times in the second half, though, opening the scoring in the 51st minute and responding to their host’s equalizer with goals in the 76th and 78th.