The Portland Timbers Reserves would probably be happy with their Sunday performance overall and they dominated most of the run of play, outshot their opponents 21 to 5, and had 9 corner kicks to none for the visitors. But the Timbers would have trouble turning their dominating play into an advantage on the scoreboard, and would pay dearly for a few defensive lapses and would fall 3-1 to the San Jose Earthquakes reserves on a Sercan Guvenisik hat trick in front of a Reserve League record crowd of 14,121.
The Timbers would have all the early possession, getting their first shot on goal in the 13th minute when a cross from Brent Richards was headed well by Danny Mwanga, but easily saved bySan Jose goalkeeper Evan Newton.
Then in the 25th minute, though the Earthquakes had rarely crossed midfield with possession, the discovered they didn’t have to when Sercan Guvenisik looked up while five yards inside his own half of the field and spotted Timbers goalkeeper Jake Gleeson too far off is line, and he placed his 60 yard shot perfectly over Gleeson and into the net, and very much against the run of play, the Earthquakes had a 1-0 lead.
Twelve minutes later, the Timbers would level the score when Mwanga’s cross was met by the head of Richards, with the shot going off the crossbar and down, clearly crossing the line and the assistant referee would verify the goal, and the score was level at 1-1.
One minute later the Timbers just missed a chance to take the lead when when Ryan Kawulok got a close in shot that rebounded back out off the post. Just before the half, it was Mamadou Danso with the chance for a header off a corner kick, but his down off the ground but then rebounded up over the crossbar, and the score would be level at 1-1 at the break.
Five minutes into the second half, San Jose would take the lead again when Guvenisik slipped in behind the Timbers defense, in a close offside decision but the flag stayed down, and the San Jose forward beat Gleeson low to the keeper’s left to make the score 2-1 San Jose.
In the 63rd minute, Portland’s Mwanga with a good look from near the top of the box, but his shot would be blocked wide by goalkpeer David Bingham, who came in at the half. In the 77th minute, Timbers defenders Steve Purdy had a good look when Mwanga dropped him a nice pass, but the shot was saved wide by Bingham, and off the ensuing corner kick, a header by Danso was blocked off a defender, with Timbers players screaming for a handball, but no call was made.
The Timbers continued to maintain almost all of the possession as they looked for the equalizer, and second half Timbers substitute Cam Vickers nearly became the accidental hero when his attempted cross ended up being a near miss as it slipped just past the upper left corner of the goal.
Shortly afterwards, with the Timbers pushing everyone forward for the tying goal, Richards had another good header chance saved by Bingham, but the Timbers would pay for their aggression on the counterattack with Sam Garza setting up Guvenisik once again for an easy finish in the 89th minute for the 3-1 San Jose lead.
The Timbers had a few chances for a late consolation goal, but never found the net again and fell by a final score of 3-1.
