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Portland Timbers draw LA Galaxy 1-1 in hot afternoon game in Portland

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PORTLAND, OR. (June 2, 2018) – Goalkeeper David Bingham and the LA Galaxy got an earned point on the road. They drew Portland Timbers in Portland 1-1 on Saturday afternoon. Chris Pontius and Diego Valeri scored the goals.

Portland Timbers draw LA Galaxy 1-1 in hot afternoon game in Portland

Despite the hot temperatures at Providence Park for the afternoon kick-off, the match started off at a good pace. The Timbers pressured the Galaxy as they were building out of the back to create chances.

On the other side, the Galaxy looked to counter with speed through Romain Alessandrini and Emmanuel Boateng. Portland forced Galaxy goalkeeper David Bingham to make several big saves early and often.

It was the visitors scoring first against the run of play in the 20th minute. Alessandrini found Boateng who made a move send a through ball to Chris Pontius. Pontius ran onto the ball and hit a perfect ball inside the post to score. This was after the Galaxy had several good attacking sequences, including a play where Pontius his the post.

After the goal, the Timbers pored on the pressure with lots of shots and corners. Diego Valeri, Sebastian Blanco, and Samuel Armenteros were all denied by Bingham.

Portland finally got a break in the 56th minute when they were awarded a PK. Andrés Flores was run into by Jørgen Skjelvik and went down. Captain Valeri stepped up and forced Bingham the wrong way on the PK to score and tie the match 1-1.

Portland pushed with Armenteros and Fanedo Adi getting chances, but the match ended 1-1.

Three takeaways:

Bingham comes up big: David Bingham made 10 saves in this game, several of them spectacular. Michal Ciani and Skjelvik had issues at times and he bailed his team out. This was hands down his best match as a member of the Galaxy.

Valeri leads, leaves early: Valeri scored the lone goal for Portland and led the way in offensive creative as expected. He converted on the PK for the Timbers but was subbed out in the 75th minute after the training staff checked on his calf area. This could be something to watch for next week.

No Zlatan no problem(?): Since his first start with the club, this was Zlatan Ibrahimovic’s first game starting on the bench. He came on in the 72nd minute with the score tied 1-1. All things considered, the Galaxy looked ok without him offensively.

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