A late header ends Portland’s slump
Alexander Aravena waited until the sixth minute of second-half stoppage time. Then he got his head on Ian Smith’s corner and the Portland Timbers beat Charlotte FC 3-2 overnight. Cole Bassett won the first touch, Aravena finished it, and a seven-match winless run (0-4-3) was over.
Ariel Lassiter had already scored twice for Portland, in the 11th and 40th minutes. Charlotte answered through Pep Biel after three minutes and Idan Toklomati in the 69th. Toklomati has nine goals in his last 11 matches, and the strike stretched his own franchise-record total to 14.
no renewal
Free for 2 weeks.
27 shots, and Kahlina kept them out for a while
The scoreline hid how one-sided the game was. Portland had 27 shots to Charlotte’s six, and put 11 of them on target against four. Kristijan Kahlina made eight saves in the Charlotte goal. His best came in the 87th minute, when he stopped Ronald Hernandez and then got down again to deny David Da Costa on the rebound. James Pantemis only had two saves to make at the other end.
The table is still tight
Portland are 10-14-7 with 37 points, 11th in the West and three points behind the last playoff place. The LA Galaxy hold ninth with 40 and Real Salt Lake are tenth with 39, so one result can reshuffle that picture quickly.
Charlotte are 13-10-8 on 47 points and did not clinch an Eastern Conference playoff spot. They have taken one win from their last five.
Discover the rest of our football news on MathODDS!
in your pocket.
Real-time notifications & alerts
Leave a Reply