PORTLAND, Ore. –
The Portland Timbers play host to a pair of premium matches this week at PGE Park. The club faces the Vancouver Whitecaps on Thursday before welcoming Costa Rican side Puntarenas FC to Portland Saturday for an international exhibition. Kickoff for both matches is scheduled for 7 p.m.
Tickets for each game start at $12 in advance and are available through the PGE Park box office, area Ticketmaster outlets, online at www.ticketmaster.com or by phone at (800) 745-3000. Saturday’s match will also feature food and beverage specials prior to kickoff from 6-7 p.m.
Thursday’s matchup opens a four-game, regular-season series against the Whitecaps in 2010 and features a showdown between the two teams with the top overall records in the USSF Division-2 Pro League. It will be the first meeting between the two clubs since last season’s semifinal playoff series.
In 2009, the Timbers posted a 2-1-0 mark against the Whitecaps during the regular season, with both victories coming at PGE Park. Since 2001, the Northwest rivals have met 37 times during the regular season. While the Vancouver leads the overall series with a 20-9-8 record, the Timbers are 8-5-6 against the Whitecaps at PGE Park. The Whitecaps will join Major League Soccer along with the Timbers in 2011.
On Saturday, one of Costa Rica’s top clubs visits the Northwest. Puntarenas recently finished its 2009-10 Clausura season, falling in the quarterfinal round of the postseason. Since its founding in 2004, the club has quickly become a perennial contender, reaching the semifinals in five of the last 10 tournament seasons. Last winter, Puntarenas reached the championship match of the 2009-10 Apertura season. It has also competed in the CONCACAF Champions League.
Led by head coach
Jorge Walter Gonzalez Estevez
, Puntarenas’s roster features Costa Rica National Team defender
Pedro Leal Valencia
. Forward
Luis Lara
and midfielder
Jose Macotela
finished the overall 2009-10 campaign among the team’s leading scorers.
Portland’s match against Vancouver will be televised live on FSN and broadcast on News Radio 750 KXL, with a live video webstream available at
www.portlandtimbers.com/live
. Saturday’s contest will air on either 750 KXL or Sportsradio 95.5 The Game; broadcast details will be finalized in the coming days.
