For the Timbers, it was a win worth calling mom about
Portland celebrated Mother's Day early with a 1-0 win over Sporting Kansas City
Phil Neville called his mom before Saturday’s match.
It’s something the coach says he always does: a call while the players are warming up, with a follow-up after the final whistle back home to Bury, where Jill Neville and the late-Neville Neville raised Phil, Gary and Tracey to become sporting stars in England.
“Mums, I think, are the most important and special people on this Earth,” Neville said. “I’m lucky. I’ve got one of the best.”
Neville’s second call Saturday night came after Portland’s 1-0 win over Sporting Kansas City. It was a victory that got Portland back into the win column following last Saturday’s loss to San Jose, and it was one highlighted by a spectacular moment: Santiago Moreno’s bicycle kick goal in the 10th minute that sent the 25-year-old Colombian running into the stands.
Surely, Neville had to lead his post-match call with that. The forward scored Portland’s flashiest goal of the season when he volleyed a David Da Costa pass above his head with his left foot, then uncorked an inverted right-footer that sailed past a diving John Pulskamp into the net.
“It’s all about the moment,” Moreno would say after. “It just kind of happened and I went for it.”
He also knew exactly where to celebrate — Moreno told his mom, Marta, before the match that he’d come give her a hug if he scored on her side of the field. When Moreno did, he nearly tripped running up a set of concrete stairs before landing in his mom’s embrace as the crowd sang a chorus of “Ohhhhhh, Santi Moreno!”
“I told her that I loved her,” Moreno said. “There’s no bigger satisfaction for me than to tell my mom that I love her.”
Neville could have also told his mom about his squad’s resilience.
A week earlier, Portland’s seven-game unbeaten streak wasn’t just broken in San Jose: it was cleanly snapped in a 4-1 loss. While the club followed that on Tuesday with a win in the Open Cup, that was an uneasy match that didn’t see Portland take the win against the MLS Next Pro-level Tacoma Defiance until the 93rd minute. A return to Providence Park on Saturday after three weeks away seemed advantageous for the Timbers, but Neville hasn’t quite liked the way his team has played at home this season and he was curious to see how one of the youngest rosters in Timbers history would respond.
Maybe Neville told Jill about midfielder Joao Ortiz, who keeps getting better each match in his first season playing professionally outside of his home country of Ecuador.
Maybe Neville told her about how close Cristhian Paredes is to playing himself into the starting 11, or how Max Crepeau made his first start in net at Providence Park since that Vancouver drubbing in February and made three saves to pick up his second clean sheet as a Timber.
“The last week it’s been good to have three games under my belt and get out there with my guys and honestly enjoy football,” Crepeau said.
Competition and enjoying the game is something Jill Neville always encouraged. Jill grew up playing rounders and netball. She raised Gary and Phil into Premier League soccer players, while Phil’s twin sister, Tracey, became a member of England’s national netball team.
Today, the three children reside on three different continents, with Gary back home in England, Phil in the States and Tracey serving as the head coach of the Melbourne Mavericks in Australia.
“People who were born in Bury stay in Bury all their life,” Neville said. “When I go back and visit my mum, it’s the same people at the same pubs, the same restaurants — it’s almost like time stood still.
“Now she’s got her children and her grandchildren on other sides of the world and we’re having fun because she always told us to go live our dreams.”
Neville can relate to Portland’s roster in that way. Every Timber in Saturday’s starting 11 was from a foreign country, stretching from Canada, through South America and all the way to New Zealand and Portugal. Most of them are in their early 20s. Most of them are playing for their first club in the US. And most of their mothers just want to know that their sons are doing OK, whether that’s through a hug after the spectacular or just a simple call after the mundane.
“I don’t like Father’s Day,” said Neville, whose father passed away in 2015. “But I love Mother’s Day and I think you have a dressing room there full of people who have relied heavily on their mums to instill values and work ethic and discipline into them.”
— Tyson Alger, The I-5 Corridor
Moreno's goal was spectacular! Almost go another one 10 minutes later except for a fantastic save by the keeper.