The Portland Timbers would rally to seize a win on two identical goals off corner kicks (!) and secured a 2-1 win over Club León in the Leagues Cup opener at Providence Park. Zac McGraw had two headed goals off those corner kicks, while Alan Medina had the lone goal for Club León (who were actually the home team on this night).
In the 3rd minute, Jonathan Rodríguez slipped a shot just wide right. In the 12th minute, Club León’s first shot on goal paid off when Jhonder Cádiz headed the ball into the run of Alan Medina, who blasted a shot from outside the Timbers box that beat Maxime Crépeau and into the upper left corner, and León had a 1-0 lead.
In the 31st minute, the Timbers threw away a golden goal scoring chance when Antony made a run down the right side and beat his León defender and slipped a pass across to Rodríguez who was ready to shoot in an empty net, but Evander did not appear aware of this and lunged at the shot and skied it over the goal, and the seemingly sure goal for the Timbers was lost.
But in the 41st minute, the Timbers would get that equalizing goal on an Evander corner kick, when Zac McGraw met it with a perfect header near the penalty spot, and it was into the upper left corner of the net, and the score was 1-1, which would be the score at the halftime break.
In the 50th minute, Club León’s Jordy Alcívar had a nice blast from just outside the Timbers box that Crépeau did well to get a hand onto and tip it over the crossbar.
Then in the 58th minute the Timbers had two great chances go unfinished, first when Felipe Mora had a one-on-one chance against goalkeeper Alfonso Blanco, but his shot was stopped. Antony had a great chance at a rebound shot, but his chance was stopped by a defender. Ten minutes later José Alvarado had a great chance for León when he slipped in behind the Timbers defense and had a chance to chip over a charging Crépeau, but his chance was over the net.
It looked like the match was headed for penalty kicks, but seconds from the end of regulation, the Timbers had a repeat performance of an Evander corner kick being headed home by McGraw, and just like that, the Timbers had a 2-1 lead.
The Timbers killed off three minutes of stoppage time, and secured a 2-1 win.
