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Two penalties in two minutes lead Rapids past Timbers

DonovanRicketts (USA Today)

By MIKE DONOVAN 

The Portland Timbers saw their hopes of a road result disappear as the Colorado Rapids scored twice in a three-minute span to beat their Western Conference foe on a cold, snowy Saturday afternoon.

Vicente Sanchez and Deshorn Brown scored the goals, while Timbers goalkeeper Donovan Ricketts was sent off as Colorado defeated Portland, 2-0, in front of 15,135 at Dick’s Sporting Goods Park.

After 72 minutes of action, the match turned when Deshorn Brown was taken down by his fellow Jamaican Ricketts after getting behind the Timbers defense. Ricketts was stretchered off the field, while backup Andrew Weber came on as a sub for Diego Valeri.

In his first action as a Timber, Weber guessed incorrectly as Sanchez blasted his spot-kick home. It was the second consecutive match that Sanchez has scored on a penalty kick.

Less than a minute after the first penalty, Weber took down Sanchez in the box and referee Mark Geiger, again, pointed to the spot. This time, Brown took the kick, which was saved by a diving Weber. However, Brown pounced on the rebound and gave Colorado its final margin.

While possession remained fairly even throughout the match, it was the Rapids who had the majority of good chances with seven shots on target and forcing Ricketts into multiple diving saves.

On the one-year anniversary of the “SnowClassico” match between the U.S. and Costa Rica at Dick’s Sporting Goods Park, the snow was a major talking point pre-match, but it failed to accumulate during the game. The wind, however, did seem to have some effect as numerous clearances and long-balls seemed to get held up by Mother Nature.

Brown was a constant threat for Colorado and used his speed to get around Timbers defenders. He forced Ricketts into two saves in the first five minutes of the match, which set the tone for what was to come.

Colorado’s Jose Mari received a second yellow in the 90th minute, but it was too little, too late for the Timbers. Will Johnson’s attempted Olympico corner kick almost provided some consolation for Portland, but John Berner saved the ball onto the crossbar. Berner had three saves on the afternoon, but only one in the first 90 minutes of play. In fact, Portland had a 78-minute span without a shot on target.

Portland will head on the road again next week to take on FC Dallas, while the Rapids will host defending MLS Cup Champion, Sporting Kansas City.

Here are the match highlights:

 
http://player.ooyala.com/iframe.js#pbid=1217310cfc944c6abc338a459554666&ec=RlMzZjbDrYeBsh4EvvTt7q_DgmGjl2Uz

Comments

  1. What’s going on with Porters master plan to dominate MLS? Shades of his US Youth coaching performance when he had a lot of talent. Portland will improve but in the meantime they may lose more valuable pts without Rickets. The backup up keeper is a liability for an already shaky defense.

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    • Also Timebers players have been sucking the life out of my fantasy team. Nagbe and Valeri haven’t done jack yet and the first two games were supposed to be big for them,

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      • If you got points after a player was fouled a certain # of times then Nagbe would be getting you points. He’s fouled more than anyone in the league. There is a reason why – no one can handle him.

      • I only care about production not excuses. A lot of good players are fouled a lot but manage to produce goals and assists.

      • No one is fouled as much as Nagbe and from behind because he is in on goal and has beaten other players.

      • Actually, Nagbe is not the most fouled player in the league. There are two Sounders ahead of him. They need to get the hacking under control, and in a hurry. 50 fouls committed against Seattle in the first two matches. Unreal.

    • Porter is now seeing the difference between coaching in college versus coaching in MLS. How do you motivate someone who makes more money than you and is protected by a union?

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    • No way. The first, on Ricketts, absolutely. That’s a PK and red card for DOGSO every time. The second one on Weber, not so much. He missed the ball but mostly missed Sanchez too, and Sanchez had to twist his feet to establish the contact. Even the Colorado announcers agreed that Weber was hard done by Geiger on that play. A second red card would have been a colossal error on Geiger’s part.

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      • Don’t see a whole lot of twisting going on in the above highlights. Sanchez touches the ball away and Weber gets even his away foot…

        Anyway, the damage was already done enough to win the game, as it turned out, by Ricketts’ blunder.

      • Never EVER listen to the Commentators, especially those in the MLS, they’re just terrible, they don’t know anything.

    • Not a Red Card because not an obvious goal scoring opportunity. Especially in the US where USSF defines the 4 Ds for Obvious Goal Scoring Opportunity, one of the requirements is Direction, and he’s obviously going away from the goal. Therefore no Red Card.

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    • Yeah — defenses obviously continue to have a problem consistently containing the Rapids on the attack (as numerous other plays in both their games have indicated). And particularly containing Brown, it seems.

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