Three times in three minutes of stoppage time Saturday night at Providence Park, Charlotte FC got a body in front of the ball. Midfielder Djibril Diani blocked a shot from Cole Bassett. Pep Biel blocked one from Ian Smith. Defender Harry Toffolo blocked a header from Ronald Hernández. Then the Portland Timbers won a corner. In the sixth added minute, Ian Smith swung it in from the right, Bassett headed it on, and substitute Alexander Aravena headed it in. Portland won 3-2.
"We're normally decent from defending set pieces," Charlotte coach Dean Smith said. "I mean, to be fair, it's a great header from the lad." His complaint was with what came before it. "It didn't need to go for the corner, because I felt that we could have cleared the ball deeper than we did."
Charlotte had held the draw for 27 minutes, and the point mattered. It came to Portland one point behind fourth-place Chicago Fire FC in the Eastern Conference. Chicago won, and Charlotte (13-10-8) stays fifth with 47 points, now four back, with three matches to play. The Philadelphia Union also lost and is still one point behind Charlotte in sixth.
The draw had come from forward Idan Toklomati, who scored his 14th Major League Soccer goal of the season in the 69th minute, adding to the club record he set Oct. 17. It was his ninth goal in 11 matches, the club said. Midfielder Luca de la Torre set it up seven minutes after coming on. Smith said he made the change because "we was getting overrun in midfield a little bit," and it produced a "great ball in and a great finish again by Idan." Of Toklomati, he said, "I thought he was our best player tonight again."
Charlotte had scored first. In the third minute Biel, a midfielder, hit a left-footed shot from outside the penalty area into the bottom corner, a chance the league's expected-goals model, its estimate of how often a shot like it goes in, put at 3 percent. It was his 13th goal of the season. Captain Ashley Westwood's assist was his 10th, the first time in his career he has reached double figures, the club said.
Portland's Ariel Lassiter, a forward, answered in the 11th and 40th minutes, both times from the middle of the box and both times set up by Eric Izoita. Smith called them "little basic errors." On the first, he said, defender David Schnegg jumped when he did not need to. On the second, Portland played a 1-2, a quick give-and-go, around forward Liel Abada.
Smith also objected to what happened before the second goal. He said Toklomati was fouled going up for a header, needed treatment and then had to wait off the field for a minute under what Smith called "this stupid treatment rule." "I mean, where in the world is that a good rule?" he said. "We ended up conceding a goal with 10 men on the pitch."
Portland outshot Charlotte 27-6 and put 11 shots on goal. Goalkeeper Kristijan Kahlina saved eight, two of them in the 87th minute from Hernández and David Da Costa. "Probably most concerning was the amount of shots we allowed, the amount of entries into our penalty box," Smith said. "We started the second half horribly, with and without the ball." He said the team has become more of an attacking threat, and "it's probably left us a little bit more open." He added, "It's nothing that we can't coach."
Smith said Westwood, who came off in the 85th minute, and defender Tim Ream both have sore Achilles tendons. Smith said he kept Ream home because "it's not worth risking a five and a half hour flight" on the injury. The players will be assessed Monday.
Two of Charlotte's last three matches are at Bank of America Stadium: CF Montréal on Wednesday, Oct. 28, and Orlando City on Saturday, Oct. 31. "I don't bank on anything, never have done," Smith said, "but playing at the bank is always a big thing for us."
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