Timbers draw with Revolution

 It took three games and more than 14,000 miles of travel to earn it, but the Portland Timbers finally got their first MLS point over the weekend.

The Timbers (0-2-1) earned one point in the league standings with a 1-1 draw with the New England Revolution on Saturday before a crowd of 7,114 at Gillette Stadium in Foxborough, Mass.

“It’s great,” Timbers midfielder Jeremy Hall said in a media statement. “This is a tough league to get points on the road, and it’s what you have to do to make the playoffs. It builds momentum into our next game at home.”

Portland head coach John Spencer echoed the importance of his squad’s performance over the weekend in a separate press release.

“[New England is] very powerful, very physical,” Spencer said. “I thought we matched them very well, to be honest with you.”

The Revolution (1-0-2) pressured Portland’s back-line early, and in the 22nd minute it paid off. After the Timbers were three times unable to clear the ball out of their defensive part of the pitch New England midfielder Stephen McCarthy put a right-footed rocket from the top of the penalty arc to the left side of Portland’s goal.

Timbers keeper Jake Gleeson, in his first MLS start between the pipes, dove to his left and was able to get his hands on the ball, but the deflection was not enough to prevent the Revolution from taking a 1-0 lead.

Gleeson signed to the Timbers MLS squad after going 14-0-0 with eight shutouts in last year’s U-23 team.

Portland evened the score in the 39th minute, when midfielder and team captain Jack Jewsbury netted the equalizer from the top of the 18-yard box. Striker Kenny Cooper sparked the attack, making a run into open space up the right side, eventually finding midfielder Jeremy Hall in a crowd at of the box. Fed from Hall, a streaking Jewsbury placed a left-footed shot under the reach of New England keeper Matt Reis, who dove to his left but was unable to make a play at the ball.

Last week, Jewsbury opened the scoring in the Timbers’ 2-0 non-MLS win over Chivas USA in a US Open Cup play-in match. That win, he said, gave the Timbers the confidence they needed going into the match against New England.

“We don’t really put too much into what other team’s think of us,” Jewsbury said. “We try to focus on ourselves and what we can do to make ourselves better. I think this week we progressed a lot, and it gives the guys a good feeling with the two week break before we have our home opener.”

Jewsbury’s goal largely shifted the momentum to Portland’s favor, as the Timbers controlled possession and dominated the action in the second half. The Timbers nearly took the lead in the 70th minute, when a free kick from midfielder Kalif Alhassan curved around the wall of defenders and bounced off the near post.

“Obviously, we gave a goal away, which as disappointing as it is at halftime, I thought in the second half we were very unlucky not to have got a second,” Spencer said. “With [Alhassan’s] free kick off the post and Matt Reis drops one under the cross bar, I think with a little bit of Lady Luck there, we could’ve gone away with the three points.”

Saturday’s match provided several firsts. Not only did it earn Portland its first MLS point, but it was also the first meeting as head coaches for two Scottish natives—Portland’s Spencer and New England’s Steve Nicol.

The match was also the MLS regular-season debut of Darlington Nagbe, the Timbers’ first-round pick and No. 2 overall selection in the MLS SuperDraft. Nagbe, who has been sidelined since preseason play due to a sports hernia, made his return in the 66th minute, although he only had a handful of touches during the match.

In total, the statistics showed Saturday’s match to be fairly even between the two squads. The Revs outshot the Timbers 14-11, but each team put six of its shots on goal. Both teams were booked with three yellow cards, and both earned four corner-kick opportunities. The widest statistical margin came in offside infractions, where Portland was whistled five times to New England’s one.

After opening the season with a three-game road stretch, the Timbers now have the chance to play before a full home crowd at the newly remodeled and renamed JELD-WEN Field. Portland hosts the Chicago Fire on April 14 for their MLS home opener and then host’s FC Dallas on April 17. ?