Coming off an impressive 2-2 draw on the road against Atlanta United, New York City FC seemed poised to continue their dominance over MLS heading into Cascadia to take on the Portland Timbers. Unfortunately, it wasn’t meant to be as the Boys in Blue lost in a one-sided 3-0 contest, putting a crooked number in the ‘L’ column for the first time in 2018.
NYCFC started the game on their back foot, twice conceding quality chances to Portland’s Sebastian Blanco within the first five minutes. The defensive pairing of Maxime Chanot and Alex Callens continued to snuff out the Timbers chances early on, but City’s inability to effectively move the ball forward into the attacking third meant that they were under constant pressure.