Who are these guys? If you were to tell me that the Timbers of June, July and the first part of August would string together two dominating games at home for 6 points in the table all while jumping into a tie for tenth in the playoff hunt, I’d have said you were crazy.
From the opening of the game to the end, the Timbers dominated possession and kept the pressure on Chivas’ fantastic goalie Dan Kennedy. Kennedy played out of his mind last night and single handedly kept the score from running away from The Goats.
The pressure on the backline of the Rojiblancos started early with shots on goal by Colombian Diego Chara, Khalif Alhassan and Kenny Cooper. Chara especially has benefited from Coach John Spencer’s decision to have the diminutive midfielder play more an attacking role while dropping Captain Jack Jewsbury back in more of a possession control mid.
As far as Chivas goes, the only real threat all night seemed to come from Frenchman Laurent Courtois as he was pushing most of his pressure up the gut of the defense only to have his rush stopped by the excellent play of center backs David Horst and Eric Brunner.
The tide really turned in the 44th minute when the aforementioned Brunner headed in a corner kick from Mike Chabala that got by Kennedy.
The Second half started much like the first with the boys in green controlling possession and not getting much from the Chivas players. Chivas had to substitute two players because of injuries in the first half and with newly-acquired Juan Pablo Angel not travelling with the team, the visiting team looked to have heavy legs all game. The only real push by Chivas came in the last 2 minutes of stoppage time when the Timbers had dropped from their traditional attacking 4-4-2 to a more defensive minded 4-5-1 with sub Eric Alexander coming in for Kenny Cooper in the 70th minute and Darlington Nagbe coming in for Sal Zizzo. The last gasp for the red side came in stoppage time when Courtois’ left footed shot from 10 yards away on a Justin Braun headed pass sailed just right past a diving Troy Perkins.
Game Notes:
- Perkins earned his first clean sheet since the home win against LA on August 3rd.
- Khalif Alhassan still leads the league in shots on frame without a goal. His shot from the left side of the box in the 62nd minute was saved by Kennedy.
- The Timbers end the longest stretch of games with a road trip to Washington DC to play DC United on Saturday.
- Brunner was starting in place of Futty Danso who is out for 2 to 4 weeks with an injury suffered in the game last weekend against Cascadia rival Vancouver.
(image courtesy of Craig Mitchelldyer)
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