{"id":2323,"date":"2016-09-19T15:55:30","date_gmt":"2016-09-19T22:55:30","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.pdxcite.net\/soccercityusa\/?p=2323"},"modified":"2016-09-19T16:01:41","modified_gmt":"2016-09-19T23:01:41","slug":"timbers-edge-union-2-1-to-improve-playoff-chances","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.pdxcite.net\/soccercityusa\/2016\/09\/19\/timbers-edge-union-2-1-to-improve-playoff-chances\/","title":{"rendered":"Timbers edge Union 2-1 to improve playoff chances"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"phi-091716\"<\/a>
Fanendo Adi celebrates his goal that puts the Timbers up 2-1<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

The Portland Timbers won their fourth\u00a0straight home match on a rainy Saturday, a 2-1 win over the Philadelphia Union in a match where all the scoring was in the first seven minutes of the second half. \u00a0Diego Valeri<\/strong> and Fanendo Adi<\/strong> both redirected in Darren Mattocks<\/strong> crosses for the Timbers goals, while Chris Pontius<\/strong> had the lone Philadelphia goal.<\/p>\n

Each team would produce a few good chances in the first half, with the best chances for the visitors being a Fabien Herbers<\/strong> run into the box that forced a reaction save from Timbers goalkeeper Jake Gleeson<\/strong> (who also took an inadvertent boot to the face on the play), and a CJ Sapong<\/strong> shot off the right post. \u00a0The best Timbers chance in the first half was a cross from Alvas Powell<\/strong> that perfectly found the head of Fanendo Adi<\/strong>, but his header slipped just wide of the right post, so the match was scoreless at the half.<\/p>\n

It would take less than 20 seconds for the Timbers to take the lead in the second half when Darren Mattocks<\/strong> was able to beat Union defender Keegan Rosenberry<\/strong> cleanly near the line, and a low cross was cleanly redirected into the \u00a0net by Diego Valeri for the 1-0 Timbers lead.<\/p>\n

It would not last long though when less than a minute after the restart, Philadelphia leveled the score when Herbers made a deep run and dropped the ball back to Chris Pontius<\/strong>, whose blast from near the top of the box beat Gleeson cleanly and slipped inside the right post to level the score at 1-1.<\/p>\n

But five minutes later it would be a near-duplicate effort by Mattocks that would give the Timbers the lead, when Mattocks once again faked out Rosenberry to get a clean low pass into the box, this time finding Adi whose slight redirection cleanly beat Philadelphia goalkeeper Andre Blake<\/strong> to put the Timbers up 2-1.<\/p>\n

Union defender Josh Yaro would be sent off in the 85th minute on a second yellow, and the Timbers nearly widened the lead in stoppage time when Blake made a great save on a Mattocks shot, but the Timbers would hold on for the 2-1 win and move up to 5th place in the Western Conference with four matches remaining.<\/p>\n

Jake Gleeson<\/strong> had seven saves for the Timbers while Andre Blake<\/strong> recorded four saves for the visitors.<\/p>\n

MATCH RECAP | Portland Timbers 2, Philadelphia Union 1<\/a>\u00a0at PortlandTimbers.com<\/p>\n

\n\n\n\t\t

\n\t\t[Show slideshow]<\/a>\n\n\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t