Match 3: Portland Timbers 2-0 Carolina RailHawks

By: Bob Kellett | May 2nd, 2009

Bottom Line: Ryan Pore set up a goal and scored one of his own to lift the Portland Timbers to a 2-0 victory over the Carolina RailHawks in front of 6,742 at PGE Park. Pore put the Timbers (1-1-1, 4pts) in the lead in the 5th minute when he delivered a cross in the box that Brian Farber headed past Carolina (3-1-1, 10pts) keeper Eric Reed. Pore scored Portland’s insurance goal in the 83rd minute by drilling home a shot from the top of the box off of a pass from George Josten. On loan keeper Chris Seitz made nine saves to pick up his second consecutive shutout. He is expected to return to Real Salt Lake Sunday. The victory is the Timbers’ first at home against Carolina.

Timbers Lineup
Seitz
Thompson Knowles Danso Hayes
Farber (Nimo, 88) Claesson (Savage, 58) McManus Pore
Keita (McLaughlin, 68) Josten (Jallow, 89)

Did you notice….

We had to wait 185 minutes to see it, but that first goal was nice. A perfect cross from Pore and a calm finish from Farber. The key, however, was the quick restart by David Hayes after a RailHawks’ foul. It caught the Carolina defense off guard and left Farber unmarked in front of the goal.
A lot of credit for the second goal goes to Josten. He held possession of the ball in the middle of the pitch and waited until Pore supported him on the right side. The defense was sucked in and he laid a soft ball right at Pore’s foot.
Man of the match from my perch was Brian Farber. Forget the goal (well, don’t completely forget it). He brought a lot of energy to the match. I thought that was important in the second leg of a two-game series. He is the most athletic guy on the club. Reminds me a lot of Bryan Jordan the way he throws his body around and the way he can use his hops to overcome his lack of height.
The second man of the match was Gavin Wilkinson. The boss managed a good game. He started Farber. He shook up the attack by playing Josten. He replaced Keel with Danso. All good things. His best move might have been taking Claesson out and putting in Savage early in the second half. Carolina was threatening around the box the first ten minutes of the second half and the Timbers looked tired. Savage came in and brought some much needed energy in the middle of the pitch.
Did anybody miss Takayuki Suzuki? He didn’t even dress for this game.
The inability of the backline to mark their men on set pieces and corner kicks continues. This could really hurt the team down the line.
Seitz was tested a few times but for the most part he had an easy night. I give the guy credit. It isn’t easy to step in and play with a new team, but he did a good job communicating. On loan players don’t always seem interested in winning. He did. Would be nice to see him back in these parts in, say, 2011 when he is a little older and starting to reach his prime.
Danso can really move from box to box. Unfortunately he was caught out of position a couple of times. If I have a position that worries me at this time it is the central defender position next to Knowles.
If you walked through an old growth forest you wouldn’t be able to tell Carolina defender Brad Rusin (#45) from the trees. I’m surprised he wasn’t blown in half during the wind storm.
What a pleasure it is watching David Hayes pass from the backline. He is quality.
The USL referees are letting teams play this year. I’m in favor of this. Most of the time when they blow the whistle they have it wrong anyway.
Here’s a reason to like Carolina. Their coach Martin Rennie had this to say after the match: “Definitely, we wanted more than one point,” Rennie said. “But from my perspective, I’d rather go and try to win. One win is equal to three draws. So many games in the USL are draws. In certain circumstances, it pays to go for it. You do that, you leave yourself open, and that cost us this game [Saturday]. But I think it’s better to go for it.”

Can’t imagine Gavin ever saying that.

Attendance watch
2009 Game 1: 8,549 Game 2: 6,742* Average: 7,645
2008: Game 1: 10,977 Game 2: 4,921 Average: 7,949

* My pregame prediction was only off by 47. This marks the first time in two years I’ve come within 3,000 of the actual attendance.

Final thoughts: Encouraging. Tonight’s game was encouraging. It was encouraging to see a few goals, it was encouraging to see the manager shake things up, it was encouraging to see that there might be some depth on this roster, and it was encouraging to pick up three points at home. Now it is on to Cleveland where the Timbers need to take advantage of a new team that has given up nine goals in its first three games.

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