Houston kept more of the ball in Portland, but Portland kept getting the more dangerous looks. The provisional result is 3–1, and the shot locations make the gap feel bigger than the possession split suggests. I’m curious whether Portland were inviting Houston forward on purpose or simply winning the ball back in better places.
Our final-stat feed has Houston on 55% possession but only one shot on target and 0.47 xG. Portland took 14 of their 16 shots from inside the box and registered 3.27 xG. Houston's goal followed a round of substitutions, but the box score cannot tell us whether those changes improved their route into the area or just produced one isolated opening. Anyone who watched see a repeatable Houston pattern?
