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Cooper goals lifts Portland past RSL

TimbersCelebrate (GettyImages) 

Real Salt Lake figured to have a little CONCACAF Champions League hangover heading into Saturday's match against Portland Timbers. Little did RSL know just what sort of headache the expansion side would be able to provide.

Riding a first-half goal from Kenny Cooper, the Timbers shut down a Real Salt Lake side that was missing several key starters in a 1-0 triumph at Jeld-Wen Field on Saturday night.

Fresh from its disappointing Champions League Final loss to Monterrey, RSL rested several starters, including Jamison Olave and Fabian Espindola, but still boasted Javier Morales, Kyle Beckerman, Nat Borchers and Nick Rimando.

That collection of standouts still wasn't enough to stop a Portland side that improved to 3-0 at home with Saturday's victory.

Here are the highlights.

What did you think of Portland's win? Surprised that RSL dropped its first match, or think it was inevitable given the letdown?

Share your thoughts below.

Comments

  1. Really 4-0? I’m a huge RSL supporter and I agree the game would’ve been different if all of Salt Lake’s starters played, but Portland had a great game. Give some credit where credit is due.

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  2. If Olave was in that game Portland would not have scored. Even though Warner fell asleep. I love that atmospere in Portland. It looks like a city that deserves a MLS team. RSL are the better side by far, 3 games unbeaten at home isn’t much. I still believe that if Jason would have played the first squad, that game would have been RSL 4 – Timbers 0. Turf fields are crap, and I think the MLS needs to ban them. If Salt Lake can keep a nice pitch with 8 months of Winter, Portland, Vancouver, and Seattle can do it with rain!

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  3. Timber Joey has to be one of the most intimidating mascots out there. After all, he has a real chain saw…

    Maybe opposing teams have to start piping in chain saw noises during practice to get use to it.

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  4. Timber Joey cuts a slab from a log after each Portland goal and for a clean sheet. They are given to the goal scorers and the ‘keeper after the game.

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  5. Our offense has been clearly lagging since we clobbered the Gals a month ago. Espindola works hard but is too predictable with that left foot. Saborio has been MIA all season yet he continues to garner crazy minutes. Everyone’s calling for Paulo but the fact he got only 5 minutes against Monterrey suggest Kreis is not impressed. Not sure who is going to score goals on this team, but hopefully the staff figures out tactically and which personnel to use. It’s s shame with the money paid for Sabo’s loan, we could have kept Yura here.

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  6. Wow, what game were you watching in the first half? Did you hear Kries’ comments on the first half? Even he said we had a terrible 45 minutes followed by a good 45 minutes.

    Possession domination does not equal a better team at least not always.

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  7. Timbers are tough at home. Props for the win against RSL. The weak links in the RSL line up were Warner and Alexandre. When they were subbed off It was a much different game. Sabo is slumping and I suspect it’s because he’s not surprising anyone anymore. We need to see more paolo jr.

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  8. I have to agree, we had nothing going in the middle and our wings aren’t strong enough to attack. So it just ends up being crosses all night long. We don’t have a good enough target man for that to work. Where is Sabario? He’s fallen off the face of the planet.

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  9. They were outplayed for maybe ten to fifteen minutes in the game and only gave up a goal b/c collen warner fell asleep on a free kick, otherwise RSL completely dominated possession and had a decent number of chances despite the fact they weren’t in sync at all and had numerous poor giveaways.

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  10. Yet again (and I don’t give a crap what Man U fans have to say), the ref flubs it by not giving a penalty on the flagrant hand ball on Walcott’s cross.

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  11. Really hoping Arsenal brings it to you Man U today. The “almost” early chance to Walcott, blocked by Evra, is the sort of sharp, through ball Arsenal needs to play more of.

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  12. i know, right? 😉
    6am on the west coast, and i’m up.
    c’mon you gooners!

    arsenal need to quit trying to serve aerial deliveries into the box — won’t work against vidic and ferdinand. better to play quick one-two balls on the ground through the middle. or spring walcott down the wing.

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  13. Good morning Ives

    How bout swiggin some coffee and getting the sunday running commentary up! 🙂

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  14. After watching the replay when I got home from the game, I was really impressed at how Portland managed to control much of the game despite the possession imbalance. They followed the game plan perfectly… score early and close the game out with a clean sheet. We’ve got a great team in the making.

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  15. If you want to beat or at least hold RSl just crowd the middle and leave the wings open, they dont have wingers that attack. If their backs want to go forward they can be easily counterattacked.

    That is how Monterrey beat them. We all saw the result, all crosses and nothing else.

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  16. Thank God Russell, Olave, and Espindola weren’t on the field. It is hard to say what sort of impact they would have had of course but I imagine at the very least Portland would have been less threatening on the break and RSL would have had a few more clear chances at goal. That being said, we took our chance to beat RSL and won’t have to kick ourselves over not performing well enough.

    Oh and I have to say, Hall dropping back made a HUGE difference in defensive organization and Perkins was definitely coordinating the defense well, so hopefully we can build on this. It was also nice to see our defense perform for 90minutes instead of relying on a great save to preserve a almost given away lead.

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  17. from Charra

    On the Portland fans
    “It is very different (than Colombia). Here there is more constant
support throughout the game.”


    Jason Kreis
    On atmosphere at JELD-WEN Field
    “It’s fantastic, Portland should be proud of themselves and the players should be thrilled that they get to play in this environment every week.

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  18. from Charra

    On the Portland fans
    “It is very different (than Colombia). Here there is more constant
support throughout the game.”


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  19. I disagree that RSL were “clearly the better side.” They clearly have class (except Saborio, whine whine) and skill. But they were outplayed on the night.

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  20. Thanks to the RSL fans who came out to the game tonight. Sat with ya’ll when you beat LA for the cup.

    Sad/happy to catch you on the rebound.

    We have some talent here. I like the new line up. I liked defending in the army for the second half.

    I cannot even explain how fun the last 3 games have been.

    Nagbe/Charra/Jewsburry/Alahassan are looking to be a solid midfield.

    My personal fav. Futty gets better every game.

    We are mental and we are green.

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  21. I was at the match tonight. Thought the Timbers held out well for the win. RSL was clearly the better side, especially in the second half, but they actually had very few credible chances on goal during the entire 90 minutes.

    RSL possessed brilliantly and Beckerman was in top form. But PTFC were explosive on their counter attacks, defended well, and were sustained by the raucous crowd at Jeld-Wen.

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