A really exciting game that had a perfect ending, just before 9pm, from the Syrian Scimitar. But that would be over an hour and a half later. Backup and the game started with Chris Goos and Thabiso Khumalo attacking down the right for Charleston, Gavin Wilkinson covering for Portland.

In front of 107 on 2' Lines and Heinzen (who worked together all night, but at times were sloppy) got Byron Alvarez a chance for a shot at goal, but his effort was deflected away.

The Battery were a quick, skillful side making the game one of the more enjoyable ones I can remember at PGE Park and, against a team not boasting Scot Thompson (who marked tall forward Greg Simmonds tightly all night) and Josh Saunders (who again was solid as a rock in goal), they would have surely notched up a goal or three.

On 5' Alavanja moved forward, leaving Heinzen stranded in midfield, setting up the small (although that was maybe only in comparison to the huge Simmonds!) Khumalo, but his shot deflected off Wilkinson.

On 8' great play out on the left by Charleston’s Joshua Smith, but his cross was claimed safely by Josh Saunders (one of many safe catches on the night).

A great move on 9'. Heinzen-Lines-Alvarez back to Lines and his cross was flicked just wide right by Antoniuk.

It was proving to be a great game so far.

Danger for the Timbers on 14' as Khumalo shot across goal after Aaron Heinzen failed to clear and then on 17' the first of 3 times when Scot Thompson went down after a challenge leaving everyone more that slightly worried.

Lunging for a tackle on Simmonds, Scot seemed to bang his knee into the turf, but was able to run off the knock.

Edwin Miranda got a yellow and a minute later struck a wild shot from 25yds after the timberlog (and I’m sure others) thought he would nail it.

22 minutes gone and Antoniuk’s header was tantalizingly over after Alcaraz had got to the line to cross.

Thompson went down again on 26' this time holding his elbow and then one of those small bizarre incidents that I always like to highlight!

While Thompson lay on the turf, Gavin Wilkinson kicked the ball into touch to stop play. After Thompson had recovered and the Battery throw-in found Khumalo, he (instead of giving it back to the Timbers) kicked the ball back into touch deep, deep in Timbers territory.

I don’t need to tell you dear reader that Mr. Wilkinson exercised his vocal cords on THAT particular play!!

Anyway...on with the game.

Brian Winters (no doubt spurred on by his almost-goal a few games ago) had a volley go wide from a cleared Lines corner on 30' and Thompson and S. Saunders defended well against Simmonds and Khumalo on 32’.

Heinzen cleared at the post on 33’ after a nice Charleston attack and Simmonds, no doubt frustrated at being marked by Scot Thompson, shot wildly from 30 yds on 34'.

Thompson was effective at the attacking end as well, heading Hugo Alcaraz’ free kick wide right on 35'.

Alavanja's free kick went amusingly astray on 36' hitting the PGE light-bulb, Shaun Saunders got a yellow on 38' and strangely the Battery seemed at times to be involved in some...well not exactly time-wasting, but slow play certainly.

On 41' Dizzy headed Alcaraz' cross across the face of goal and then Josh Saunders was required to pull out a save at the other end. Simmonds and Alavanja broke and with Khumalo free Simmonds blasted from 18yds straight into Saunders’ safe hands.

A minute later Khumalo drifted left across the box and shot off Wilkinson for the corner and the Battery finished the half stronger after Wilkinson had to cover Khumalo after Heinzen had lost the ball to Goos.


Nil-Nil at half-time


The second half started with a lot of tooing and froing, and a wasted chance on 49' when Alcaraz blasted a free kick into the wall after Antoniuk was tripped at the top left corner of the box.

Saunders had to dive and save Smith’s shot from 20yds on 55' and the Battery were stepping up the pressure.

On 58' Chronopoulos-Evans-Khumalo back to Chronopoulos, but his shot was again straight at Josh Saunders. A minute later Saunders again, this time making an amazing point-blank stop from Khumalo after stopping a shot from Simmonds, the referee waving for offside after the event.

Saunders had to touch Alavanja’s cross/shot over the bar on 61' and Saunders was again in the thick of the action a minute later when he misjudged Kutney’s sky-high lob under pressure from Simmonds, but luckily there were 3 Timbers players behind him protecting his goal.

Evans got Smith away free on the left on 64', but his cross was across goal and Scot Thompson went down again under a challenge from Simmonds, this time holding his back.

On 67' Lines got Heinzen in down the line on the overlap (something that should have happened a lot more in my estimation) and from his cross Byron Alvarez headed straight to Doyle in the Battery goal.

By this time everyone was looking fatigued. Vasquez replaced Simmonds sporting a cast on his left hand that amusingly (at least to me) looked like a large comedy glove!!

With a few chants of “Sub Now Howe” coming from the sidelines the game looked to be fading out into stalemate and the early promise of the game seemed to have died a little.

After Goos went down under a challenge from Winters on 80' and Morrison replaced Wilkinson, Alavanja curled the 35yd free kick just wide left.

With 5 minutes remaining (plus a few more guaranteed by Scot Thompson’s injury stoppage) Fadi Afash replaced Antoniuk. It took him only 4 minutes to win the game. A deep throw by Heinzen, Lines back to Heinzen. His cross to the back post towards Alcaraz. The ball off his head, to where Miranda blasted his shot from just inside the box. The save by Doyle, the header by Alvarez, the save again by Doyle again and the punch in at the right hand post by Afash.

The crowd...as they say...went wild.

5 minutes of extra time held no surprises and, apart from one run from Goos where everyone backed off forcing Saunders to get down to stop Martinez’ cross/shot, that was all she wrote.

1-nil Timbers

A nice fast paced game which to be honest either side could have won and had the game ended...say...2-2 everyone would have gone home (fairly) happy.

Scot Thompson nullified Simmonds almost entirely and when called to make the saves and hold the crosses Josh Saunders was again on top of things.

Personally I would have liked to see a bit quicker build up down the wings seeing as we have Lines and Heinzen who were each good in their own ways, but worked well together infrequently. The difference this season it seems to me is that everyone is playing their part. No bad performances...not really any stand-out ones, but the team is playing well as a whole and thus pulling results like tonight’s out of the bag.

It’s getting to the point when Fadi is getting a little TOO clinical. It’s almost where Bobby could say. "OK, 2 minutes and 17 seconds. Let’s go Fadi" and he’d still pull it off. Super-Sub or what??!!


[Teams]

Portland
J. Saunders, S. Saunders, Wilkinson (Morrison 84'), Thompson, Heinzen, Alcaraz-Cuellar, Winters, Lines, Miranda, Antoniuk (Afash 85'), Alvarez.

Charleston
Doyle, Kutney, Karalexis, Woods, Chronopoulos, Smith, Evans, Alavanja, Goos, Simmonds (Vasquez 73'), Khumalo (Martinez 85')