PORTLAND, Ore.
– A pair of goals by forward George Josten guided the Portland Timbers to a 2-1 victory over the Cleveland City Stars in their regular-season finale before 12,567 Thursday at PGE Park.
Thursday’s win helped the Timbers (16-4-10, 58pts) snap a two-game losing skid. Portland enters the postseason as the USL First Division’s No. 1 seed after capturing the 2009 Commissioner’s Cup as the regular-season champion, earning a first-round bye to the semifinal round slated for Oct. 1-4.
Josten recorded his first two-goal performance of the season, midfielder Johan Claesson and forward Mandjou Keita each earned an assist to lead the Timbers. Goalkeeper Steve Cronin logged two saves to record his 15th win of the campaign, matching a modern-franchise record set in 2004.
With his seventh assist of the season, Keita finished the regular season with 29 points and leads the USL First Division in scoring. He holds a five-point lead in the race as the league’s scoring champion, and he is also in a three-way tie for the league’s goal-scoring title at 11 goals.
Midfielder Ryan Stewart tallied his second goal of the season and forward Teteh Bangura attempted three shots to pace Cleveland (4-18-7, 19pts), which wraps up its inaugural season in the USL First Division Saturday.
The Timbers looked to put the City Stars under pressure from the opening whistle, and finished the match with a 19-15 advantage in shots. Josten opened the scoring with the first shot of the night.
In the sixth minute, Claesson chested down a pass 30 yards out with his back to the goal, and fed Josten a pass up the middle of the park. As the ball bounced towards the box, Cleveland goalkeeper Hunter Gilstrap left his line to challenge the play. Josten got to the ball first and chipped a high arching shot over the goalkeeper and it bounced into an open net to give the Timbers the lead; it was his first strike since July 19.
Josten struck again in the second half, finishing a low shot from near the penalty spot. From the far right edge of the box, Keita slipped a pass through traffic into Josten with his back to goal. Josten quickly turned and fired a low shot inside the left post past the outstretched arms of Gilstrap to double the Timbers lead 2-0 in the 55th minute.
Cleveland pulled one back in the 63rd minute. Off a broken play, Stewart collected the ball 30 yards out along the left post. With time and space, he fired off a shot that bounced its way past Cronin and inside the right post.
It was a night of close chances for the Timbers. In the 15th minute, Josten had a shot from 12 yards out off of a free kick by David Hayes turned away by Gilstrap. Just after the half-hour mark, Josten chased down a ball played over the top to set up shot from the fringe of the box. He fought off his defender and chipped a shot that hit off the crossbar before it was cleared from danger by a City Stars defender.
Portland midfielder Brian Farber opened up the second half with a wide open look on frame from 12 yards out. Gilstrap parried the ball over the crossbar to keep the Timbers from expanding their lead.
With less than 10 minutes left in regulation, Timbers defender Stephen Keel earned an open look from inside the box when he slipped by Cleveland’s offside trap. He collected the through ball, but pushed a one-on-one chance wide of the near post.
With a pair of chances missing just wide in the first half, Keita had a chance to add an insurance goal for the Timbers in the 90th minute. Off a corner kick from the right side, Keita’s shot was ticketed for an open left side of the net, but a Cleveland defender was on the goal line to deny his 12th of the season.
The Timbers will play their next match in the semifinal round of the USL First Division playoffs. They will host one leg of the two-game, aggregate goal series at PGE Park, presented by Spirit Mountain Casino. Match and opponent details will be announced at a later date.
Notes:
The Timbers raised over $6,000 for the Portland Beavers & Portland Timbers Community Fund with the club’s annual Jersey-Off-Our-Back auction Thursday. The jerseys of Cronin, Keel, Ryan Pore and Takayuki Suzuki ranked among those with the highest bids … Hayes and midfielder Keith Savage became the first Timbers players in modern-franchise history to appear in 30 games during the regular season; the league moved to its current 30-game format prior to the 2008 season.
Lineups:
POR: GK Cronin, D Hayes, D Keel, D Thompson, D Nishimura, M Farber (Lopez, 84), M Claesson (Savage, 57), M McManus (Poltl, 57), M Suzuki (Forrest, 72), F Keita, F Josten (Cameron, 89)
CLE: GK Gilstrap, D Roberts, D Stovall, D Kanu, D Ballard, M Gueye (Kljestan, 80), M Stewart, M Oka (Aguilera, 45), M Hotchkin (Gibson, 63), F Bangura (Pierre-Louis, 72), F LaCrone
Scoring Summary:
POR: Josten (Claesson), 6
POR: Josten (Keita), 55
CLE: Stewart, 63
