The Portland Timbers U-23s and their fans would go through a night of ups and downs on a rainy night at the Kiggins Bowl in Vancouver, Washington, but it would be a an 88th minute goal that was credited to Fernando Monge that would be the killer in a 4-3 loss to Seattle in front of a crowd of 1,631. Though the goal was credited to Monge, it appears it was actually a Timbers own goal (see the last three photos on page two below).
The Timbers looked confident early in the match and took a 10th minute lead when Roberto Farfan made a nice run down the left side and his cross found Mark Sherrod unmarked and he one-timed the shot from six yards past Seattle goalkeeper Doug Herrick for the 1-0 lead.
Seattle would level the score on a Timbers own goal in the 21st minute when a shot from near the corner of the box deflected in off Timbers defender Chris Harms. Nine minutes later, Seattle took a 2-1 lead when Fernando Monge played Sean Morris in alone behind the Timbers defense, and he chipped a charging Spencer Richey to give Seattle the lead for the first time.
Ten minutes into the second half, the Timbers leveled the score when Erik Hurtato took advantage of a Seattle miscue and tapped the ball past Herrick to draw the Timbers back to a 2-2 draw.
But in the 67th minute, the center referee would award the visitors a penalty kick on what appeared to Timbers fans to be minor contact in the Timbers box. But Aodhan Quinn stepped up and sent Richey the wrong way and finished easily to put Seattle ahead 3-2.
Five minutes later, a combination of the wet conditions, or maybe a mental error by the Seattle goalkeeper would pay off for the Timbers when Cam Vickers sent a blast from near the corner of the box that appeared to have no chance of scoring, but the ball slipped off Herrick’s fingers and into the roof of the net, and the Timbers had once again leveled the score at 3-3.
But then just before stoppage time, a corner kick would turn the draw into a loss when Richey failed to clear the ball with a punch, and Monge managed to control and send the shot towards net which appeared to be headed off the line by William Seymore, but the clearance rebounded back into the net off Harms, though it only cleared the line by about the width of the ball, but it was enough to turn the rally into a loss for the Timbers, by the 4-3 score, their first home loss of the 2012 season.
