The Portland Timbers are starting to get some of their injured players back, and starting to find their form, and got another strong result today with a 2-1 win over St. Louis City. Evander and Yimmi Chará had the Timbers goals, while Célio Pompeu scored for the hosts.
After a scoreless first half, the Timbers had a great chance in the 50th minute when Franck Boli had a great look from the top of the box, but curled his shot just inches wide to the right. St. Louis had a great chance of their own a few minutes later, with Eduard Löwen also sliding his shot just wide right.
In the 54th minute the Timbers really had a great chance when Cristhian Paredes slid a soft pass across to Santiago Moreno just in front of the goal, but his shot was blocked by a nice sliding save by St. Louis goalkeeper Roman Bürki.
Then in the 61st minute, Boli had a breakaway for the Timbers, and though his shot was blocked, John Nelson handled the ball while attempting to clear the rebound and the referee pointed to the spot. Evander would take the penalty and converted it successfully, and the Timbers had a 1-0 lead.
But in the 79th minute, the hosts would find the equalizer when Tomáš Ostrák slipped a nice pass to Célio Pompeu whose one-timer into the roof of the net beat Timbers goalkeeper Aljaž Ivačič, and the score was now 1-1.
But not for long. In the 82nd minute, Moreno fought hard to free the ball from the St. Louis defense, and then as he entered the St. Louis box he slid a pass to Yimmi Chará, who one-timed a shot that left Bürki flat-footed as it slipped into the far side of the net, and the Timbers had regained the lead at 2-1, which would be the final score.
Roman Bürki had five recorded saves for the hosts, while Aljaž Ivačič did not record any official saves for the Timbers.
