Timbers win hard-fought match against Sounders

By Galo Legarda, El Hispanic News

 

 
In a game full of excitement, the Portland Timbers were able to hold a lead over the Seattle Sounders to win their Cascadia Cup match with a final score of 2 to 1 on Sunday afternoon at Jeld-Wen Field.

The game started with plenty of action. At the 10th minute, David Horst connected a header that bounced off the cross bar, then bounced off Jack Jewsbury’s knee in the direction of the goal, but the ball barely went missed the target.

The first goal came at the 16th minute. Steven Smith made a run on the left side of the field and crossed the ball to the heart of the 18-yard box, where Kris Boyd tapped it under goalie Andrew Weber for the lead. This was Boyd’s fifth goal of the season.

The second goal came shortly thereafter at the 25th minute from a corner kick. Franck Songo’o elevated the ball and Horst connected a header that bounced off the ground and went to the back of the net for the 2-0.

In the second half, Kalif Alhassan was substituted by Sal Zizzo due to a strained hamstring.

At the 59th minute Seattle Sounders added drama to the match with a goal by Eddie Johnson. Johnson entered the 18-yard box and cut back to avoid two defenders before placing the ball in the top far corner out of Troy Perkins’ reach.

At the 89th minute there was an incident that started with the Sounders’ Johnson elbowing Horst when clearing a ball. Then Johnson and Horst got face to face and argued, but they separated and kept playing. Immediately after that, Freddy Montero pushed Horst to the ground and other players got involved in the argument. Montero and Lovel Palmer both received red cards.

The referee added six minutes of stoppage time but the Timbers were able to hold the lead to the end and obtained three very important points against their Cascadia Cup rivals.

“What do they say about payback? Sometimes it’s a bitch, right?” Coach Jon Spencer said at the post-game press conference. “[I feel] very, very happy. I thought the first half was a tremendous performance. Second half, we couldn’t get a hold of the ball. They dominated most of the play. … [We] dug deep, showed a lot of character, and I am very, very happy with the three points.”

The Timbers now will go on the road and will face the Colorado Rapids on Saturday, June 30 at 6 p.m.

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