The LA Galaxy managed to weather the storm (literally) in Portland and escaped with a point thanks to a stoppage time goal by super sub Alan Gordon.
The Portland Timbers were without some of their key players (Will Johnson and Diego Valeri) due to injury but Fenando Adi took over offensively scoring both goals for the Rose City.
The first goal came in the 31st minute and off of a textbook counter. Midfielder Diego Chara played the ball to Darlington Nagbe who then backheeled it to a sprinting Rodney Wallace. Wallace raced down the left flank before feeding Adi, who was one-on-one with goalkeeper Brian Rowe and finished it off with a curler into the back of the net.
LA had a decent first half and created a few chances but none of them sufficed as the Portland defense of Nat Borchers and Liam Ridgewell held their ground. Portland also put a lot of pressure on Baggio Husidic and Juninho smothering any creativity in the midfield thus resulted in a lot of crosses into the box from Stefan Ishizaki. LA had 25 crosses in total to Portland’s 16.
The Galaxy would even the score in the 65th minute when Jose Villarreal crossed the ball from the left in for Gyasi Zardes who barely got a touch and beat Timbers’s goalkeeper, Adam Kwarasey.
Bruce Arena brought on Alan Gordon for Villarreal ten minutes later in hopes of bagging all three points but Adi dashed those hopes by scoring another goal in the 90th minute and Portland celebrated thinking they had won the game.
With the last gasp, Ishizaki curled in a corner kick that met Gordon who headed the ball into the far post and silencing the Timbers’s Army. Since the Galaxy acquired him in a trade with the San Jose Earthquakes late last summer, Gordon has scored three equalizers and a game winner, all from coming off the bench.
“We played well today It would have been awful not to get a point out of this game Our team was very good over the last 60 minutes today,” said Arena after the game.
Rowe got to start in goal again for the Galaxy while Penedo is apparently dealing with a few knocks in preseason. Penedo was also called up for a friendlies with Panama later this month so there is a chance that Rowe might be getting the nod in goal against the Houston Dynamo this weekend.
(image courtesy of LA Galaxy)
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