The Portland Timbers and LAFC tied 2-2 tonight in the final Group F game of the United States Professional Soccer League (MLS) Returning Tournament and closed the first round with both qualifiers for the Round of 16.
The tie modified the classification in which the Timbers were first (2-1-0, 7 points), while LAFC finished second with five points (1-2-0).
The game as expected no longer had any kind of incentive for qualifying in the eighths, because both had already achieved it, only the definition of the leadership, which was in possession of the Timbers, was at stake.
Something that continued after the 81st minute, the striker Jeremy Ebobisse scored the tying goal for the Timbers, who although opened the scoring after seven minutes, through the mediation of the Polish striker Jaroslaw Niezgoda, after receiving the assistance of the Argentine Sebastián Blanco .
The Portland team, which sought to remain undefeated at the end of the first round, with three wins, only the Columbus Crew, in Group E, was able to achieve, was able to maintain the advantage until the 36th minute when the veteran English striker emerged again. Bradley Wright-Phillis who made it 1-1 on the scoreboard.
Before the end of the first half, in the 40th minute, Uruguayan striker Brian Rodríguez assisted Mark-Anthony Kaye to mark the second of the LAFC and take the advantage.
The same one that he kept in the second half until Ebobisse's goal came, which did justice to what happened on the ESPN Wide World of Sports field in Orlando, where another marathon day of three games was completed, plagued by a lot of heat, little football , and a surprise elimination of the Chicago Fire and Houton Astros teams.
The Fire lost 0-2 against the Vancouver Whitecaps, who qualified to eighths within the B and the Dynamo allowed to tie 1-1 at minute 90 + 1 by the Los Angeles Galaxy, and cost them the elimination in Group F.
The great beneficiary of the last day of the first round of the tournament was New Yor City FC, who passed the eighths as the fourth best third.