Spirit Mountain Casino presents the Portland Timbers vs. Bayern Munich II exhibition tonight at PGE Park at 7 p.m. as the Timbers take on the up-and-coming talent of top German club Bayern Munich. Click here for a live broadcast.
Click here for tonight's game notes.
Tonight's Starters:
POR: GK Visser, D Higgins, D Keel, D Danso, D Nishimura, M McManus, M Nimo, M Savage, M Pore, F Jallow, F Forrest
BM II: GK Riedmueller, D Stierle, D Saba, D Haas, D Kopplin, M Riess, M Duhnke, M Ekici, F Saer, F Hajdarovic, F Rohracker
Match Preview:
The Portland Timbers face Germany's Bayern Munich II tonight in an international exhibition at PGE Park. Tonight's contest will be the Timbers’ third game in five days and ends a stretch of four straight games at home. Portland hits the road for its next four matches before returning home on July 23.
Portland surrendered its first loss at home this season last night in a 2-1 result against Major League Soccer's Seattle Sounders FC in the third round of the U.S. Open Cup. Seattle used two first half goals to eliminate the Timbers from the tournament. The loss also ended an overall unbeaten run of 15 matches; the Timbers still have a 12-game unbeaten streak in league play in tact. Forward Mandjou Keita scored for the Timbers.
Tonight's fixture is the second of three international exhibition matches for the Timbers this season. Since 2001, the Timbers are 7-2-1 against international opponents in exhibition contests at PGE Park. The Timbers have played against teams from England, Mexico and Italy in previous exhibition matches, but tonight will mark the first time the Timbers have faced a team from Germany. Earlier this season, the Timbers defeated Mexico's Club America reserves 4-1 at PGE Park.
The Timbers play host to English Premier League club Burnley FC in a friendly on July 25 at PGE Park. Burnley recently earned promotion into the EPL with thrilling promotional-playoff victory at the end of the 2008-09 season. Portland sits in third place in the USL First division and boasts one of the league’s best offenses and toughest defenses. The Timbers rank second in total team goals (20) and share the league lead in fewest goal allowed this season (6).
Following tonight's match, the Timbers travel to face the Minnesota Thunder on Saturday for their fourth match since Sunday. Kickoff is slated for 5:05 p.m. (Pacific). A live broadcast of Saturday’s match will air on 95.5 The Game, as well as www.portlandtimbers.com, with broadcaster John Strongcalling the action.
