PORTLAND, Ore. –
Forward Mandjou Keita scored two goals and forward George Josten logged two assists to lead the Portland Timbers to a 4-0 win over the Montreal Impact before 7,783 at PGE Park Sunday evening. The win pushes Portland’s unbeaten streak to 12 matches in league play.
Keita opened the scoring early in the match and then completed his brace early in the second half; he has scored five goals over his last three matches. Defender David Hayes tallied an assist and midfielder Brian Farber also added his third goal of the season to help the Timbers (7-1-5, 26pts) snap Montreal’s three game winning streak in league play.
Portland goalkeeper Steve Cronin recorded two saves to lead the team to its seventh shutout of the season and into third place in the USL First Division. The Timbers backline held Montreal to just nine shots on the night.
Midfielder Sandro Grande and forward Eduardo Sebrango teamed up to take five shots for the Impact (5-5-2, 17pts), who contributed to the Timbers’ scoreline with an own goal in the second half. Sunday’s match marked just the fifth time in Impact history that the club surrendered four or more goals; Montreal is winless in Portland since 2006.
Unlike their first meeting earlier this month, Keita put the Timbers on the board early, heading home a shot from six yards out in the ninth minute. Farber chased down a long ball deep in to the right corner to help the Timbers earn a corner kick. Hayes stepped to take the kick and sent an in-swinging ball to the center of the box where Keita was able to leap up and knock in the go-head goal.
Montreal nearly leveled the score entering halftime as midfielder David Testo rattled a shot of the right post in the 28th minute. The ball deflected back into play and Test put the follow up shot over the crossbar.
The Timbers doubled their lead in the 47th minute on Keita’s second strike of the match. The ball was played inside to Josten near the top of the box. Josten then tapped the ball out to Keita on the right side, who unloaded a shot inside the back stick giving Portland a 2-0 lead.
Less than 10 minutes later, it was Josten again who set up another Timbers shot from inside the box. After winning a loose ball down the right touch line, Josten charged his way towards the box. He then laid the ball off for Farber trailing on the play. Farber curled a low shot around the out-stretched arms of Impact goalkeeper Matt Jordan and inside the back post for a 3-0 Timbers advantage at the 56th minute mark.
Portland’s pressure on the Montreal defense in the second half led to the final goal of the night. Timbers midfielder Johan Claesson found Keita with room inside the box. Keita attempted to turn his defender Simon Gatti, but Gatti earned the advantage and went to play the ball back to his goalkeeper. However, Jordan wasn’t in position to receive the ball and it rolled inside the goal, giving the Timbers a 4-0 lead in the 64th minute.
Down by four, Montreal thought it had pulled one back in the 77th minute when second-half sub Mauro Biello took a shot from the top of the box that deflected off Sebrango and looped into the goal. However, Sebrango was ruled offside, cancelling the goal.
The Timbers take their 15-game overall unbeaten streak into a showdown against Major League Soccer’s Seattle Sounders FC on Wednesday at PGE Park in the third round of the 2009 Lamar Hunt U.S. Open Cup; kick off is set for 7 p.m. Tickets start at $12 and can be purchased through the PGE Park box office, area Ticketmaster outlets, online at
www.ticketmaster.com
or by phone at (800) 745-3000.
Notes:
With his two assists Sunday, Josten now paces the team in that category with four … Goalkeeper Brian Visser and midfielder Shaun Higgins each made their regular-season debuts Sunday, entering the match as subs … Earlier in the day, the Timbers U-23s defeated the Vancouver Whitecaps Residency 1-0 in a PDL match up at PGE Park. Forward Collen Warner scored in the 88th minute.
Lineups:
POR: GK Cronin (Visser, 78), D Hayes, D Knowles, D Keel, D Thompson, M Farber, M Claesson (Higgins, 67), M Savage (Cameron, 81), M Suzuki (Nimo, 66), F Keita (McLaughlin, 67), F Josten
MON: GK Jordan, D Gatti (Braz, 73), D Zan Zan (Placentino, 56), D Pizzolitto, D Sakuda, M Grande, M Testo (Donatelli, 67), M Di Lorenzo (Pa, 55), M de Roux, F Gjertsen (Biello, 60), F Sebrango
Scoring Summary:
POR: Keita (Hayes), 9
POR: Keita (Josten), 47
POR: Farber (Josten), 56
POR: Own goal, 64
