The Timbers take on Mexico's U.A.N.L. Tigres in a special exhibition match at PGE Park tonight at 7 p.m. Tickets, starting at $16, are still available at the door. A live broadcast in Spanish is available at 1040 AM "La X."
Click here for tonight's match notes.
Starting Lineups:
POR: GK Knighton, D S. Thompson, D Knowles, D Karalexis, D Griffin, M Poltl, M Dombrowski, M Guante, M Higgins, F Olum, F Alvarez
TIG: GK Talavera, D Jimenez, D Chavez, D Rivas, D E. Martinez, M Sancho, M Marino, M Viniegra, M Pulido, F De Leon, F Aguilar
Match Preview:
The Timbers begin a busy week that includes three matches in a six-day span tonight when they take on Mexico’s U.A.N.L. Tigres at PGE Park. Portland recently played a pair of exhibition matches against another Mexican club, Monarcas Morelia, earlier in the month. One of those, on July 3 at PGE Park, drew a season-high crowd of 11,932.
Tonight marks the Timbers’ fourth match in the month of July and is already the team’s third exhibition match this month. Portland is 1-1-0 in exhibition matches at PGE Park this season.
For tonight’s match, forward Byron Alvarez, the Timbers modern-franchise scoring leader (41g, 9a) will take the field as a guest player for the Timbers. The last time Alvarez suited up for Portland was the 2006 season. He scored eight goals for the Charleston Battery in 2007.
In league play, the Timbers are 1-2-1 in their last four matches, including at 2-0 win over the Atlanta Silverbacks on June 28 in Atlanta. In its last match, Portland allowed two first-half goals in a 2-0 loss the Puerto Rico Islanders at PGE Park to drop its home record in league fixtures to 3-3-3 on the season. The Timbers have not recorded a regular-season home victory since April 26 with a 2-0 win over the Seattle Sounders.
The Timbers currently sit in fifth place in the USL First Division with 21 points, but still are just six points behind table leader Charleston. The top eight teams in the league advance to the postseason in the USL First Division.
Following tonight’s match, the Timbers hit the road for a pair of road matches this weekend and will face two of the top scoring teams in the league on back-to-back nights. On Friday, Portland visits the Atlanta Silverbacks for the second and final time during the regular season at 4:55 p.m. (Pacific) before taking on the Battery for the first time this season at 4:30 p.m. (Pacific) on Saturday. Atlanta and Charleston have each scored 21 goals so far this season. Both matches can be heard live at
www.portlandtimbers.com
and a live video webcast is avaialble through USL Live at www.usllive.com.
TIMBERS PLAYER NOTES
* New GK Chase Harrison arrived in Portland on Sunday and trained with the team on Monday in preparation for tonight’s match. He was acquired in the three-team trade last week from Rochester.
* GK Brad Knighton made his 2008 USL First Division debut with the Timbers on Thursday. His first two matches as a Timbers were in exhibition contests.
* Def. Cameron Knowles played in his 49th consecutve league match for the Timbers against Puerto Rico July 10.
* Mid. Tom Poltl finished his league-imposed, three-match suspension on Thursday against Puerto Rico. He received the disciplinary action for a red card issued on June 12 against Atlanta at home.
* For. Chris Brown is the only Timbers player to have scored a goal in an exhibition match at PGE Park in 2008. He netted the game-winner against Juventus Primavera on June 14. In total, he has seven total goals this season - five in league matches, one in the U.S. Open Cup and one in exhibition play. He leads the league in shots with 40.
* Mid. Miguel Guante is a distant cousin of Tigres forward Blas Perez of Panama.
