The Portland Timbers rallied from being down a goal, and down a man, for a 1-1 draw after a late Cristhian Paredes penalty kick to earn a 1-1 draw vs. Orlando City. Junior Urso had the lone goal for the visitors.
Neither team had a good scoring chance for the first half hour of the match, but in the 30th minute the Timbers would miss a golden opportunity to take the lead when a deep cross from Josecarlos Van Rankin found Cristhian Paredes with a wide-open chance at an open goal, but his header just slipped past the left post. It was the only real threat either team had to score in the first half, so at the break the match was scoreless.
Orlando would come out with the momentum in the second half, and it didn’t take long for that to pay off for the visitors. In the 52nd minute, the Timbers failed to clear a dangerous cross, and Alexandre Pato would chip a nice pass into the run of Junior Urso, who was wide-open at the penalty spot, and he would finish easily past Aljaž Ivačič, and Orlando City had the 1-0 lead.
The Timbers would finally come to life over the next 20 minutes, but good chances by Santiago Moreno, Yimmi Chará, and Sebastián Blanco didn’t really produce a good goal-scoring threat. Then in the 76the minute, the Timbers made their task that much more difficult when Van Rankin earned his second yellow for pulling Pato’s jersey at midfield, so the Timbers would need to try to rally while down a player.
But barely a minute later, in the 78th minute, the Timbers suddenly had that chance when Paredes was fouled by Andrés Perea just inside the Orlando box. The referee pointed to the spot, and Paredes would convert the PK past Orlando goalkeeper Mason Stajduhar, and the Timbers had drawn level at 1-1.
The Timbers would have a great chance deep in stoppage time to steal the win when Blanco found himself open in the middle of the Orlando box, but his shot would not have the pace to beat Stajduhar, and the match would end up in a draw seconds later.
Aljaž Ivačič would record three saves while Mason Stajduhar registered two for the visitors.
MATCH RECAP | Ten-man Portland Timbers come back to draw 1-1 with Orlando City SC | Timbers website
