PORTLAND, Ore. (July 27, 2019) – Off of a massive victory in Cascadia Cup play, the Portland Timbers have kept their form up. In a back and forth game, Cristhian Paredes helped lead the Timbers to a victory on Saturday night over LA Galaxy.
Cristhian Paredes, Portland Timbers get big win vs LA Galaxy
Goalkeepers Steve Clark and David Bingham were busy in this match, early and often.
After a helter-skelter 36 minutes, Cristhian Paredes opened the scoring. After some good passing to get into the final third, Jorge Moreira crossed the ball into the box from near the endline. Brian Fernandez wasn’t able to get to it, but the late arriving Paredes headed it first time to make it 1-0.
Diego Valeri scored a golazo in the 41st minute against the run of play. Sebastian Blanco sent a long outlet pass to spring the counter. Valeri ran onto goal with passing options, but elected to go alone. He nutmegged Daniel Steres and beat Bingham to make it 2-0.
Cristhian Paredes put the icing on the cake in the 81st minute. Jorge Villafana got in a good position outside the box and found Paredes with space to shoot, who chipped the ball over everyone’s head and into the net.
The Galaxy had several chances when it was still 2-0, but Clark made several great saves, including in the 67th minute against Rolf Feltscher after a crazy sequence.
Substitute Efrain Alvarez was sent off for kicking the ball at an opponent’s head. The match ended 4-0 as Jeremy Ebobisse scored on a header in the 88th minute.
Ooooooh @DiegoDv8. That's just mean. ?#PORvLA | #RCTID pic.twitter.com/0PRKsMYEM9
— Portland Timbers (@TimbersFC) July 28, 2019
Three Takeaways:
No Chara, no problem: The Portland Timbers struggles without Diego Chara starting are well documented. Someone in the middle of the park needed to step up. Cristhian Paredes was just the man, recording a brace and doing good work defensively.
Galaxy attack goes stagnant: While the Galaxy had good attacking moments, the 90 minutes overall was disappointing. Zlatan Ibrahimovic wasn’t the superstar at that beat LAFC last week and the supporting cast was, well nonsupporting.
Rivalry week bounce: Both teams came off of wins against rivals, with Portland beating Seattle Sounders and the Galaxy winning EL Trafico against LAFC. Portland has recently struggled at home, but got a cathartic and needed result.
