The Portland Timbers looked to build on the momentum of a big win over Vancouver last weekend, and would do so by making a Bright Dike goal hold up for a 1-0 win and would earn their first two-game winning streak of the season with the win over the Colorado Rapids in front of another sold out crowd of 20,438 at Portland’s JELD-WEN Field.
The match would be very physical and tight early, with the Rapids getting the first good opportunity in the sixth minute when Tony Cascio slipped past Timbers defender Kosuka Kimura, but his low shot was tipped past the post by Donovan Ricketts. The visitors would have another good chance ten minutes later with Martin Rivero running a nice give-and-go with Cascio, but his shot was stopped by a diving save by Ricketts, and the Timbers defense blocked two follow-up shots to end the threat.
In the 35th minute the Timbers would get their first good chance, with Diego Chara taking advantage of a Colorado defensive mistake, finding Bright Dike on a run into the box, but Dike would slide the shot well wide right after defender Marvell Wynne had done well to cut down the angle.
A very quiet first half would end with a wild last few minutes for the Timbers, getting some good deep runs that didn’t result in a shot on goal, until the 45th minute when a cross from Sal Zizzo found Franck Songo’o wide open 15 yards out from the far post, and his low shot would deflect off Rapids defender Drew Moor and appeared headed to the goal, but a spectacular trailing leg kick save by Colorado goalkeeper Matt Pickens kept the ball out of the net.
But only a minute later, the Timbers would make a similar attack pay off when Zizzo found Dike on a run down the middle of the box, Zizzo’s precise pass would hit the Timbers forward in-stride, and he would one-time the shot past Pickens and the Timbers had a 1-0 lead.
One minute into stoppage time the Timbers should have doubled their lead when Songo’o played a perfect pass into the run of Darlington Nagbe, who was one-on-one with Pickens, but his attempt to chip the Rapids keeper would trickle just wide left, and the Timbers would have a 1-0 lead at the break.
The Timbers would once again nearly double their lead in the 54th minute when after a shot by Zizzo had been cleared by a header from Tyrone Marshall, Timbers midfielder Jack Jewsbury lined up a follow-up shot from 30 yards out that was headed to the upper left corner before being tipped over by a spectacular tip save from Pickens.
In the 65th minute, the visitors would have a good chance to level the score when a curling free kick from Rivero required an awkward tip save by Ricketts to keep the ball out, and Ricketts appeared to have injured his arm on the play as he was grimacing when he collected the ensuing corner kick and threw the ball downfield, though he would remain in the match.
Five minutes from stoppage time, the Rapids had a golden opportunity to level the score when Omar Cummings had an open header from four yards out but slipped the shot just wide left. The Rapids would have one last good chance to even the match just into stoppage time when Cummings had an open look from the top of the box but would slip the shot just past the left post, and the Timbers would kill off four minutes of stoppage time for the 1-0 win, their first back-to-back wins of the 2012 season, and the first shutout for Ricketts since he joined the Timbers earlier this month.
http://www.portlandtimbers.com/news/2012/08/recap-portland-flips-dike-1-0-win-over-colorado
