Portland Timbers top Philadelphia Union, advance to the MLS is Back Tournament final

Heading into Wednesday’s first semifinal of the MLS is Back Tournament between the Portland Timbers and Philadelphia Union, the plucky young Union were the fashionable pick to advance to next week’s final in Central Florida.

The battle-tested Timbers had other ideas. And for most of the 90 minutes, Portland was the hungrier, sharper, better team, one worthy of the spot in Tuesday’s championship match it claimed with a 2-1 victory on goals by Jeremy Ebobisse and Sebastian Blanco.

Ebobisse’s first-half header came off a sweet Diego Valeri cross.

For Ebobisse — one of the breakout stars of this tournament, which has been played in a tightly-controlled bubble on the Walt Disney World campus amid the coronavirus pandemic — the strike was his fourth goal in six matches at the one-off event.

The 23-year-old actually could’ve opened the scoring even earlier, but the service from his fellow young gun Eryk Williamson was slightly too tall. It was just one of several chances Portland missed in the first half — the best of them a rocket from distance by Sebastian Blanco that forced a top-shelf save from Philly keeper Andre Blake.

Despite the dominance of the Timbers — who still feature several players, like Valeri and left back Jorge Villafana, who won the MLS Cup in 2015 and lost the final to Atlanta United three years later — Portland’s inability to pad its lead nearly came back to haunt them before the first half was over.

Blanco was whistled for a push on Jamiro Monteiro inside the box. Sergio Santos stepped up to take the first penalty of his professional career, only to fire his shot over Steve Clark’s crossbar.

It was the first time in eight games this season, dating to before the three-plus-month shutdown that began in mid-March, that Philadelphia went into the locker room at the intermission trailing on the scoreboard. And while they mustered some resistance in the early part of the second half, the Timbers continued to knock on the door, with substitute Andy Polo forcing another fine stop out of Blake.

But the Jamaican backstop could do nothing to prevent Blanco’s third goal of the tournament with 20 minutes of regular time remaining. As they had on Ebobisse’s opener, the Union’s defenders fell asleep on the play, leaving the most dangerous player on the field criminally unmarked on the doorstep to clean up Valeri’s corner kick:

The game should’ve been over there and then. But the Timbers gave Philly a lifeline when they allowed Andrew Wooten to pull one back with five minutes to play. Fortunately for them, Brenden Aaronson’s apparent equalizer in the dying seconds was ruled offside.

The Timbers will meet the winner of Thursday’s other semi between Orlando City and Minnesota United.

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