PORTLAND, Ore.
– Jake Besagno and Cam Weaver scored a minute apart late in the match, and the Seattle Sounders defeated the Portland Timbers 2-1 in front of 6,215 at PGE Park Friday night.
It was Seattle’s (6-8-4, 22pts) first win against Portland in nearly a year and vaulted the Sounders ahead of the Timbers in the USL First Division standings as teams jockey for playoff position.
The Timbers (5-9-5, 20pts) dropped their fifth league game in a row, as they played without head coach Chris Agnello, who was serving a one-game suspension after receiving a red card in Atlanta last Saturday.
After 76 minutes of scoreless play, Besagno collected a free kick from Andrew Gregor inside the penalty box and sent a strike past goalkeeper Josh Saunders into the right-hand corner of the goal to put the Sounders up 1-0.
One minute later, Weaver collected a ball from Maykel Galindo and sent a hard shot past Saunders to score the eventual game winner.
Hugo Alcaraz-Cuellar scored in stoppage time on a free kick. He sent a well-placed kick into the left hand corner past Sounders goalkeeper Chris Eylander.
Early in stoppage time, the Timbers had two chances at scoring. Byron Alvarez sent a strong header toward the goal, but it was deflected. On the loose ball Scot Thompson got another header on target, but it fell right into the hands of Eylander.
Up next, the Timbers head north to play the Sounders in the second game of the home-and-home series at Qwest Field Saturday night. Kickoff is scheduled for 7 p.m.
HEAD COACH CHRIS AGNELLO ON THE MATCH:
"Gavin did a very good job of keeping the guys organized today. For a good 75 minutes tonight we played very well. But things didn’t go our way. I won’t say that we played well enough to win tonight, but we played very well for 75 minutes and showed a lot of heart in coming back and scoring a goal. Hugo scored a very nice goal there, but we just came up short."
NOTES:
Timbers players wore black and white armbands tonight in honor of Mamba Chisoni’s mother, who passed away recently. Chisoni was not with the team, as he traveled to Zimbabwe to be with his family … Temperatures reached as high as 104 F today in the Portland-metro area … Assistant coach Gavin Wilkinson served as head coach, as Agnello served his one-game suspension.
SCORING SUMMARY:
POR: Alcaraz-Cuellar 90’ (UA); SEA: Besagno 76’ (Gregor), Weaver 77’ (Galindo).
MISCONDUCT SUMMARY:
POR: Goodfellow YC (21’), Alvarez YC (21’), Thompson YC (85’) SEA: S. Abolaji YC (42’).
LINEUPS:
SEATTLE (6-8-4): C. Eylander GK, D. Jackson D, N. Merl D, J. Besagno D, S. Abolaji M (Sagare 64’), A. Gregor M, B. Somoza M (Galindo 58’), J. Harvey M (Sturm 90’), K. Sakuda M, C. Weaver F, R. Levesque F.
PORTLAND (5-9-5): J. Saunders GK, M. Randolph D (Gutierrez 90’), S. Thompson D, M. Nsien D, J. Goodfellow D, H. Alcaraz-Cuellar M, B. Alvarez M, L. Kreamalmeyer M, O. Bullen M (Poltl 59’), L. Morrison M, D. McCathy F (Ready 90’).
