[nas] [R] Open Cup: Timbers vs Earthquakes

Timbers 0:3 Earthquakes.

And that about sums it up for the play of the game.  I
was very happy to see that SJ sent the starters and it
made for a good game.  The Earthquakes were slightly
the better team, a shade quicker to the ball, somewhat
more creative in the attack.  It was a good game and
would have been better with 11 v 11.  Unfortunately .
. .

At about the 18 minute mark Gavin Wilkinson, one of
our central defenders, having just come back after a 2
game suspension for violent behaviour, apparently was
afflicted by the sun and heat so that his brain shut
down.  Donovan touched a ball in behind Wilkinson well
timed for Ching and Gavin basically mugged him from
behind.  Not only did he deny a clear goal scoring
opportunity from behind, he did it IN THE PENALTY
AREA.  Grrr.  Idiot.  I said to my seat mate as soon
as Ching went down that Gavin would be headed for the
showers early and sure enough, the referee fully
enforced the pertinent laws of the game.  Eklund put
the PK away and the Timbers played the rest of the
match with 10 men.

The crowd in general believed there was a clear
handball close to the end of the half that would have
given Portland a PK but . . . on turning it over
several times in my mind I do not believe that it was
a blown call on the part of the ref.  One of the SJ
players went through between two Timbers, all three
were jostling for position and when the ball came into
their space it went very clearly directly from the
outstretched arm of the SJ player to the ground at his
feet.  A Timber cleared it out of danger but no call. 
The crowd was pretty hot about it but there appeared
no intent as the SJ player was in the process of being
vertically challenged and trying to maintan his
balance as he fell to the turf along with one of the
two Timbers with whom he'd gotten tangled up.  Made
for some good drama, but the crowd ultimately was
wrong on it to think it was illegal use of hands.

Other than a handfull of offside calls and 50-50 calls
that I wasn't sure of from where I sat way up in the
stands I thought the officials did a pretty good job,
one of the best I've seen this year.

The half ended 0:1.

Second half started and the Timbers clearly had had
some discussions about how to handle the situation
playing a man down.  They did mount some very credible
attacks through the second half and for a while I
thought maybe there was a chance, even after Corales
put in #2 for SJ in the 55th on a long crossing pass
from Ching.  Nice full volley shot that our keeper
couldn't get to.

There was one sequence in which the Timbers got the SJ
defense really scrambled and Alan Gordan took a ball
on the left side of the area.  SJ keeper had leaped
with outstretched hands and missed it, landing in a
heap at Gordon's feet.  Alan pushed it back across the
goal mouth to the 6 yard box line directly in front of
the right post where Byron Alvarez collected and took
a point blank shot at what one moment looked like a
sure goal and then somehow in a blink of an eye the SJ
keeper had teleported from being a heap at Gordon's
feet across 25 feet of space to be standing directly
in the ball's path.  How he got there at all I've no
idea.  That he got there and was standing on both feet
to catch the ball directly in the stomach area is
completely a mystery.  I was speechless.  For those
that might not know, Gordon is the A-League's leading
scorer and Alvarez was in the top 5 last time I
looked.

DeRosario (subbed in for Donovan at the half) squeezed
the ball between GK Saunders and the left post in the
80th minute for the 3rd goal.  

As I said, it was a good game.  SJ won it outright and
the comment I liked most that I've seen in the local
media this morning was this from Timbers midfielder
Andrew Gregor:

"With 11, it would have been difficult.  We did
justice with 10 guys."

He's right.  With 10 guys the Timbers still made a
decent game of it.



=====
-russ
http://home.comcast.net/~rcampb61
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