One week after a demoralizing and comprehensive loss to Los Angeles FC, the Portland Timbers posted another demoralizing and comprehensive loss; this time a 3-0 defeat at the hands of expansion side FC Cincinnati.
Things started off in an unfortunately familiar fashion when, in the 15th minute, Cincy opened the scoring off a free kick. After Cristhian Paredes took down Kekuta Manneh in the Timbers’ half, Leonardo Bertone stepped up and served in a perfectly placed free kick toward Jeff Atinella’s back post. The service dropped into the path of hulking center back Kendall Waston who leaned forward and powered a header back across the face of goal, skipping the ball off the turf and into the back of the net.