PORTLAND, Ore. – There were times on Saturday when the game looked too easy for Samuel Armenteros, even beyond his fifth and sixth goals of the 2018 Major League Soccer season.
The 44th-minute bicycle kick that went just wide of San Jose Earthquakes goalkeeper Andrew Tarbell’s left post. The 58th-minute scissor-kick shot that nearly got inside Tarbell’s right. The hesitation move that left Harold Cummings, just returned from the World Cup, ground bound in front of Providence Park’s North End. Make a list of the he-actually-tried-that-moments the Timbers’ starting striker attempted against the Earthquakes and you’re left with an inventory of a man taking his game to a new level.