{"id":2684,"date":"2017-03-04T12:41:51","date_gmt":"2017-03-04T20:41:51","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.pdxcite.net\/soccercityusa\/?p=2684"},"modified":"2017-03-04T12:58:36","modified_gmt":"2017-03-04T20:58:36","slug":"timbers-give-minnesota-a-rude-mls-welcome-in-5-1-opening-day-rout","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.pdxcite.net\/soccercityusa\/2017\/03\/04\/timbers-give-minnesota-a-rude-mls-welcome-in-5-1-opening-day-rout\/","title":{"rendered":"Timbers give Minnesota a rude MLS welcome in 5-1 opening day rout"},"content":{"rendered":"

(Clicking underlined text takes you to a photo of the corresponding event)<\/p>\n

The Portland Timbers opened up their seventh Major League Soccer season on a rainy, chilly night at Providence Park with a 5-1 win over the expansion club Minnesota United, who were playing their first MLS match. Former USL Timber and recent signee Lawrence Olum<\/strong> had the opener while Diego Valeri<\/strong> and Fanendo Adi<\/strong> would each score twice while Christian Ramire<\/strong>z had the lone Minnesota goal.<\/p>\n

The Timbers would have much of the early possession and would take the lead in the 14th minute when a Diego Valeri<\/strong> free kick from near the corner was flicked on by Vytautas Andriuskevicius<\/strong> to the foot of Lawrence Olum<\/strong>, who scuffed<\/a> a shot<\/a> up<\/a> and over<\/a> Minnesota goalkeeper John Alvbage<\/strong> and into the upper right had corner for the 1-0 lead.<\/p>\n

The Timbers nearly doubled their lead in the 30th minute when a weak header by Minnesota’s Justin Davis<\/strong> back to his keeper was intercepted by Fanendo Adi<\/strong>, who attempted to find Valeri open in front of the net but Alvbage was able to deflect the cross<\/a> just enough to kill the scoring attempt.<\/p>\n

The home side would score again just after the break when Sebasti\u00e1n Blanco<\/strong>‘s cross from the right side found Valeri open near the penalty spot<\/a>, and his header slipped just inside the left post<\/a> for the 2-0 lead.<\/p>\n

In the 78th minute the visitors would pull a goal back, scoring their first MLS goal when Johan Venegas<\/strong> slotted a nice pass between the legs of Diego Chara<\/strong> and Christian Ramirez<\/strong> turned on the ball at the top of the Timbers box, and slid a low shot low and inside the right post to pull the Loons within a goal at 2-1.<\/p>\n

But it only took two minutes for the Timbers to re-establish their two-goal lead when Vadim Demidov<\/strong> was called for a foul in the box on Adi when he appeared to pull the Timbers forward down by his arm, and Valeri put the penalty kick just inside the left post<\/a> to put the Timbers up 3-1.<\/p>\n

Just seconds into stoppage time, the Timbers added a fourth when Darlington Nagble<\/strong> led a length-of-the-field 4-on-3<\/a> counterattack and slipped a pass to Adi at the top of the box, who faked Alvbage to the turf<\/a>, then waited for a space between the two retreated defenders before calmly slotting the ball into the net for a 4-1 Timbers lead.<\/p>\n

The home side weren’t finished yet as Adi would turn a forty-yard run and a 1-on-3 break into a fifth Timbers goal as he chipped Alvbage from a tight angle<\/a> to add a fifth goal<\/a> just before the final whistle for the 5-1 final, the first time in their Major League Soccer history that the Timbers have scored five goals at home.<\/p>\n

Timbers goalkeeper Jake Gleeson<\/strong> and Minnesota keeper John Alvbage<\/strong> each recorded one save each on the night.<\/p>\n

Timbers official match report<\/a> | Video Highlights<\/a><\/p>\nngg_shortcode_0_placeholder\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

(Clicking underlined text takes you to a photo of the corresponding event) The Portland Timbers opened up their seventh Major League Soccer season on a rainy, chilly night at Providence Park with a 5-1 win over the expansion club Minnesota United, who were playing their first MLS match. Former USL Timber and recent signee Lawrence […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":2685,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[12],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2684","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-match-reports"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/www.pdxcite.net\/soccercityusa\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/03\/min030317-44s.jpg","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.pdxcite.net\/soccercityusa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2684","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.pdxcite.net\/soccercityusa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.pdxcite.net\/soccercityusa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.pdxcite.net\/soccercityusa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.pdxcite.net\/soccercityusa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2684"}],"version-history":[{"count":8,"href":"https:\/\/www.pdxcite.net\/soccercityusa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2684\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2693,"href":"https:\/\/www.pdxcite.net\/soccercityusa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2684\/revisions\/2693"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.pdxcite.net\/soccercityusa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2685"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.pdxcite.net\/soccercityusa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2684"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.pdxcite.net\/soccercityusa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2684"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.pdxcite.net\/soccercityusa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2684"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}