Portland Timbers top Puerto Rico 1-0, leave PGE Park with a bang (original) (raw)
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The Portland Timbers' final home game in PGE Park this season was a tense, physical and defensive affair Thursday night.
The Timbers persevered and Ryan Pore's goal late in the game gave the team a hard fought
of 15,418 at PGE Park.
What stood out for the Timbers (11-7-8, 41 points) was their ability to maintain their collective heads and adjust to a style of play that was the opposite their preferred style.
"Right from the very start of the game, the (Islanders) goalkeeper was taking his time and he was slowing the game down tremendously," Portland coach
said. "For us, it was a matter of trying to pick up the momentum of the game."
The game was full of pushing, hard tackles, fouls and yellow cards. The Islanders came out determined to slow the pace of play with physical play, but Timbers didn't back down and didn't become intimidated or frustrated.
"It was a physical game and there wasn't a ton of chances," forward Doug DeMartin said. "We kept grinding and battling, and we knew we would get some chances, we just had to take advantage and we finally did."
The Islanders started the game pushing and shoving the Timbers all over the field. Bodies were dropping constantly, either from hard shoves, tackles or tangled legs in the first 10 minutes. The Timbers started pushing back and that's when the game turned chippy.
Timbers midfielder James Marcelin (a throwdown of Puerto Rico forward Nick Addlery) and forward Ibad Muhamadu (hard shove in the back of Addlery) drew yellow cards.
Then there was Portland forward Bright Dike, chasing a loose ball and smashing into Puerto Rico goalkeeper Bill Saudette. The collision caused Islanders midfielder Osei Teleford to confront Dike, starting a heated conversation.
"We gave as good as we got," Wilkinson said.
It was DeMartin's assist that led to Pore's league-leading 15th goal of the season. DeMartin beat a Puerto Rico defender and sent in a hard cross in front of the box.
Pore sailed in from the right side, dove in low and redirected the ball for the score in the 83rd minute.
The Timbers also gave the raucous crowd a win in the final home game at PGE Park this season. The Timbers will play their final four regular season games on the road while
in preparation for the Timbers joining Major League Soccer next season.
"That was a goal of ours, the send the USL franchise out with a bang," Pore said. "We did that tonight, and I think the fans appreciated that."
Notes:
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Starting left back Steve Purdy left the game in the sixth minute after colliding heads with the Islanders' Teleford. Scot Thompson replaced Purdy. ... The sellout crowd was the fifth this season, setting a new modern-franchise single-season record. ... The team also celebrated the 1 millionth fan (since 2001) to attend a Timbers home game Thursday night. Jeff Whitman received a Timbers jersey, upgraded field-level seats, a prize pack and was honored at halftime.
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