When the Portland Timbers took on Sporting Kansas City at Jeld-Wen Field on Saturday, not many people gave them a chance of winning. Despite having home court advantage, the Timbers were at the bottom of the Western Conference, having lost four successive games.
On the other hand, Kansas City won all seven of their regular season matches and were leading the league and the Eastern Conference with 21 points.
On Saturday, however, the Timbers matched up to their more physical opponents in a tough game. And thanks to a Kansas City own goal in the 41st minute, the Timbers won their second game of the 2012 season 1-0.
“It’s good to see smiles in the dressing room again,” team captain and midfielder Jack Jewsbury said. “We knew it was going to be a hard battle. I think we pushed and pushed and came away with three points.”
With this result, the Timbers improve to seven points in seven games (2-4-1) this season but remain at the bottom of the Western Conference. Sporting KC keep their top spot in the league with 21 points from eight games (7-1-0).
Timbers head coach John Spencer was relieved by the win and the three point gain.
“The staff and the players felt more pressure than they have since we have been here,” Spencer said. “We were playing probably the best team in the country. In the last few games, a few decisions went against us. And today was an ugly performance and an ugly game to watch, but if we get three points, we will take it.
“We got a bit of luck with the own goal. We had a couple of chances to put the game away beyond any reasonable doubt, but we are happy to come away with a clean sheet and three points.”
The team was backed up by a very vocal Timbers Army, which sang team songs throughout the game.
“Tribute to them,” Jewsbury said. “A lot of fan bases would have not showed up or had a few choice words for us. But they continue to support us through this one, and it’s huge for us, and we needed it tonight.”
The two teams were evenly matched in the first half. Both squads had just one shot on target. However, late in the first half, Timbers forward Kris Boyd sent in a cross from the right toward the far post. There was some confusion in the Kansas City defense among two defenders, and the ball ended in the bottom left corner of the Kansas City net.
“I put the ball in the dangerous area, and fortunate for us it proved to be a winning goal,” Boyd said. “It was big relief because the two teams were canceling each other out.”
“We knew it was going to be a physical game and we had to answer the right way,” Timbers defender Steve Purdy said. “They like to play some direct balls, so we needed to match them up physically. As a result we got the win and the shutout.”
The Timbers defended well as a team and limited KC to just two shots on goal. They survived some nervous moments near the end and finished with a 1-0 win.
“Most of their chances came from our mistakes,” Spencer said. “If we don’t mis-kick balls and mis-kick clearances, we can handle them pretty well. It was a good, solid performance work-rate-wise, and we have a lot more quality to come.”
Next up for the Timbers is an away game against Montreal on Saturday.
“We have been in a bad run, and we will take a lot of pride from our performance tonight,” Spencer said. “We got to take a lot of positives from it and go to Montreal next week. There are no easy games in this league.”