Portland won on a takeaway on Andrea Pirlo. Valeri converted that goal. Valeri is a great player. From time to time, all players make mistakes. Today is was Pirlo. Unfortunately that mistake was the only mistake on the day and it was massive. If Ring was back, we win the game. If Villa was back, we win the game.
Johnson was the man of the match. That was one of the best GK performances I've seen in MLS this season. That save on an open net basically versus Valeri should be save of the week and save of the year. But we don't win internet awards.
But my huge disappointed is with the referring. Guzman pulled Moralez's leg several time before his finally went down. There were no defenders with a clear path to guard Moralez if Guzman would not have pulled on Moralez's leg. The closest defender was on the other side of the 18 yard box. That is DOGSO and should have been a straight red and Portland would have been down a man for 50+ minutes. Elfath pointed out the player that was the other defender but he was miles away from Moralez. That subjective call if bullshit. It never went to video review, which is should have least have gone. Elftah would have seen the initial leg grab where the other defender was further away from Moralez. Absolute bullshit.
Our next home game is the last game of the season. October 22. Winter is coming.
The only positive, aside from Johnson, is that we're five points clear of 3rd place. Unfortunately, we're 9 points behind Toronto and 1st place. The Shield is theirs.
One last point regarding refereeing. Ted Unkel (experience albeit controversial referee) was supposed to the be 4th official. We hasn't here and an official took his place. This was no reported anywhere. And it was this guy's first game being a 4th official. Moreover, the VAR is Bardhyl Pashaj. He's not an experienced VAR, he's a new guy. Elfath is one of the more experienced referees and he has gone to VAR many times. He didn't today and that is absolute bullshit. I'll pay Vieira's fine who commented on the poor referring and VAR today.