Portland Extends Home Unbeaten Streak to Seven Consecutive Matches with First Win of 2015 Season
The Portland Timbers received goals from three players, topping previously unbeaten Western Conference side FC Dallas 3-1 as defender Nat Borchers, forward Maximiliano Urruti and midfielder Diego Chara all scored for the Timbers in front of a sold-out crowd of 21,144 fans on Saturday night at Providence Park.
The win at Providence Park marked Portland’s first victory of the 2015 season and extended the Timbers’ unbeaten streak at home to seven consecutive matches (3-0-4) dating back to Sept. 7, 2014. With the result, Portland also remained unbeaten against FC Dallas at Providence Park in the teams’ MLS series, improving their record against the Texas side to 4-0-2 at home since 2011.
Vaulting Portland (1-1-3, 6pts) into an early lead, Borchers delivered an open header into the back of the net in the 23rd minute, finishing defender Jorge Villafaña’s corner kick to give the Timbers the 1-0 advantage. The goal marked Borchers’ first for the Timbers.
“It felt good to score my first goal with the Timbers,” said Borchers. “We’ve been working on set pieces a lot in training. We got scored on a couple of set pieces this year. So to score one on a set piece I thought was good. A great feeling to get the first goal and open things up.”
After FC Dallas leveled the score on a Tesho Akindele goal off a corner kick in the 29th minute, Timbers forward Urruti netted the eventual game-winning goal for Portland in the 62nd minute. After midfielder Darlington Nagbe held off several defenders and delivered a pass into the right side of the penalty box, midfielder Dairon Asprilla took one touch before sending a strong pass into Urruti in front of goal. Urruti quickly hit a one-time effort out of the air past FC Dallas goalkeeper Chris Seitz for a 2-1 lead. Asprilla registered his first career MLS assist on Urruti’s goal, while Nagbe tallied his second assist of the season.
Finishing off a strong offensive performance that saw Portland outshoot FC Dallas 12-8, including 6-3 on goal, forward Fanendo Adi found Chara for a breakaway opportunity in the 87th minute. Chara calmly beat Seitz with a left-footed shot inside the far right post to cap the scoring. The goal was Chara’s fifth in five seasons with Portland.
“Feels good, feels really good. We are off and running now,” said Portland Timbers head coach Caleb Porter. “I finally figured out why we don’t win in March it’s because we’re not on the training pitch until April. It’s funny because every time we get on the training pitch we start winning. This is the first of many. It feels good. Weights lifted, we will play even better now. We are looking forward to coming back at home because we have to do it again. We need to now accumulate points and accumulate wins.”
Seven different players registered a goal or assist for the Timbers in the match. It is just the third time in the team’s MLS era that the Timbers have seen seven different players record at least one point in a single match (May 17, 2014 vs. Columbus; Aug. 3, 2011 vs. LA Galaxy).
Playing the second of back-to-back matches in the Rose City, the Timbers play host to MLS-expansion side Orlando City SC in a nationally televised match on Sunday, April 12, at Providence Park; kickoff is set for 2 p.m. (Pacific). The match will be carried live on ESPN2 and ESPN Deportes with a local radio broadcast on 750/102.9 The Game and in Spanish on La GranD 93.5 FM.
