Timbers taken down by Impact

The Montreal Impact traveled to Jeld-Wen Field to face off against the Portland Timbers on Saturday. As the blue jerseys of Montreal made their way out onto the field, the Timbers Army began their chants to welcome back the former Timber and current Impact goalkeeper Troy Perkins, to which Perkins responded with a quick wave to the crowd.

Portland drove down the field right away in the first minute, earning a corner kick from the far sideline that led to a shot on goal, but the attempt was broken up by Perkins in what would become a common occurrence in this meeting. The Timbers demonstrated their passing skills with a couple of pretty combinations but fell just short of the goal.

In the 29th minute, Andrea Pisanu of the Impact sold slight contact to the referee that resulted in a yellow card for Darlington Nagbe. Pisanu was awarded a free kick that he placed perfectly near the goal, and Hassoun Camara performed a brilliant bicycle kick for the first score of the night. The Timbers failed to find the net in eight attempts on goal, despite holding possession for 61 percent of the first half.

The first four minutes of second half saw the Timbers come out revved up, pushing the ball into the Impact’s box four times. Each drive brought the sold-out crowd of 20,674 to their feet, but Portland was thwarted by the Impact defenders each time.

In the 59th minute, Andres Romero entered the game for Montreal and got right to work, breaking away and slipping the ball over to the crossing midfielder Felipe Martins for an easy goal, putting Montreal up by two. Romero got another opportunity four minutes later when he crossed up Timbers goalkeeper Donovan Ricketts to create an opening, but Michael Harrington glided in to clear the ball away, saving the Timbers from falling behind even further. Finally, in the 79th minute, Portland’s Ben Zemanski shot a pass from the right side over to streaking forward Ryan Johnson, who put the ball past Perkins to bring the score within one with 10 minutes left to play.

“Just a great ball by Ben,” Johnson said. “I got the piece on it that I needed to get the ball in the net.”

While the Timbers had a staggering 19 attempts on goal and controlled possession 63 percent of the time, the goal by Johnson was the only one that Perkins would give up, holding on for the 2-1 victory.

“Well, certainly, it’s disappointing not to get the result,” head coach Caleb Porter said after the game. “You know we had prepared thoroughly to face Montreal…We had chances, we had the ball. I have to credit Montreal with how organized they were. They weren’t easy to break down.”

The Timbers will hit the road this weekend for a showdown with rivals the Seattle Sounders on Saturday.