Antony Alves Santos scored the tying goal in the 85th minute and Evander Da Silva Ferreira scored in the seventh minute of stoppage time as the Portland Timbers rallied for a 2-1 victory over New York City Football Club Saturday afternoon at Yankee Stadium.
After struggling to produce any kind of offense for most of the opening half, Portland (2-0-1 7 points) pressured throughout the second half and finally cashed in.
Juan Mosquera gained possession and dribbled past New York midfielder Andres Perea to the area adjacent to the goal on the right side. As Perea went over to defend, Mosquera saw Santos cutting through the penalty area.
Santos’ right-footed shot beat New York goalkeeper Matt Freese.
After Santos scored his third goal of the season on Portland’s second shot on goal, the Timbers stunned the crowd when Ferreria blasted a shot from about 25 yards out after easily getting the ball without a defender near him.
Santiago Rodriguez scored in the 10th and Mounsef Bakrar had a goal disallowed in the second half after NYCFC (0-3-0, 0 points) entered the game along with Orlando and Atlanta as the only teams without a goal.
Portland goalkeeper Maxime Crepeau gave his offense a chance by making five saves.
Freese made one save as NYCFC lost for the first time in 14 games when leading at halftime and fell to 0-3-0 for the first time in team history.
NYCFC got its elusive goal by keeping the ball alive after a successful corner kick by Rodriguez.
Keaton Parks and Thiago Martins had shots blocked by Eric Miller and Diego Chara, respectively, but Portland could not clear.
After the ball slightly caromed off Chara’s leg, Rodriguez emerged untouched at the left side and gained possession. He finished the sequence by lifting a low, right-footed shot past Crepeau and into the bottom right corner from about six yards out.
Portland nearly tied it early in the second, but an attempt by Santos off a corner kick missed the net in the 58th.
NYCFC had a goal disallowed in the 66th when Bakrar dribbled around two defenders and was deemed offside.
-Field Level Media