POSTGAME: Timbers Blowout AC St Louis 3 - 0

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The Portland Timbers (2-0-0) continued their winning ways Thursday night with a 3 - 0 victory over league newcomers AC St. Louis in what was the first ever meeting between the two franchises. In front of a modest crowd of 5,893 at PGE Park, Portland put on a dominant performance against the first-year expansion team, earning their second shutout in as many games. After experiencing some out-of-sync moments in their season opener, the Timbers had an offensive explosion in their second match, erupting for 3 goals, 3 corners, and 12 total shot attempts. Often the fear of playing "down to your competition level" can be a concern when facing a newly constructed club such as St Louis. Therefore heading into the game, it was important for the Timbers to maintain their intensity level, to not overlook their opponent, and to really try to get off to a quick start. So, that's exactly what the Timbers did.

Only 17 seconds after kickoff, the Timbers would strike. After some nifty passing, the team found OJ Obatola in front of the box, who deftly drew in the St Louis keeper before dropping off an assist to a streaking Ryan Pore, who blasted in the goal from the left side.

"We wanted to get on them early." said Pore. "And that's exactly what we did. We weren't happy about our performance on Saturday, and we wanted to (come out and play better), fortunately, we were able to do that tonight."

Some of AC St Louis' best opportunities would come in the first half. Perhaps their most threatening scoring chance resulted from a crossing corner in the 30th minute, which was aggressively headed towards an open net by a St Louis midfielder, only to be deflected away at the last moment by a diving Tony McManus. Keeper Steve Cronin earned his second shutout of the year, sharing the honor with sub Matt Pyzdrowski, who saw his first action of the season. Overall, the Timbers were absolutely suffocating defensively, really clogging up the passing lanes, and rarely allowing St Louis anything promising in the final third of the field.

Said Cronin on the performance of the backline, "It was solid. Any problems they gave us, I think we put that on ourselves. But for the most part, we were pretty solid tonight."

Team captian Ian Joy was sidelined with an injury this evening - the word on Joy is that the injury is nothing serious and he's basically considered day-to-day. However, the defense was given a boost tonight by the return of 7 year Timber veteran Scot Thompson. Thompson was inserted into the starting lineup and along with defender Steve Purdy (who made his Timbers regular season debut), helped to offset the loss of Joy.

"It felt great." said Thompson, who is the longest tenured member on the Timbers roster. "It's always fun to get back on the field. Whenever I can play, whether it's 5 minutes or 10 minutes, it's great."

The Timbers would score another goal just before halftime on an intercepted pass by Josten, who found an open Pore across the box, who'd knock in his 2nd goal of the match. Portland would continue their pressure in the 2nd half, finding themselves 9 shot attempts, including strikes for James Marcelin and Brian Farber, both who had excellent games applying pressure out of the midfield. It seemed like it was only a matter of time before the Timbers would score again and indeed, during the 62nd minute, more crisp, efficient passing would eventually lead to Pore finding Obatola, who would then find the back of the net on a low, left-footed blast. For Obatola, the goal would not only be his first on the season, but also his first goal as a member of the Portland Timbers.

The team will now turn their attention towards preparing for their next game, as they head up to Montreal for a Sunday, 11am kickoff. It'll be a good early season test for the Timbers, as the Montreal Impact are currently the defending league champions. Will the Timbers be able to keep up their unselfish play? Will they be able to keep improving their chemistry and maintain their teamwork? And sure, the team's offense looked good against the "new guys", but how's it going to look against a legitimately tough defense?

"We'll keep on working on our attack." said Thompson when asked about what the focus might be in practice before Sunday. "We just have so many options, so many weapons."

"Now, we get Montreal on Sunday." said Pore. "So, we gotta go back to work and we'll see what happens."

Extra notes: Coach Gavin Wilkinson finally made his way back from a recruiting trip to England, his return to the sidelines delayed by the infamous Icelandic volcano eruption...... 33 year old veteran Taka Suzuki saw his first playing time of the year, the fan favorite from Japan returning after a minor injury kept him out of the season opener..... Forward Bright Dike also made his regular season debut with the team, subbing in during the 70th minute.... . Ryan Pore has totaled 3 goals and an assist already this year. He'll surely find some consideration for USSF player of the week honors..... Lastly, it should be noted that people in this city are still very loyal to the Blazers. After a near 16,000 sellout on Saturday, seeing under 6,000 people in the stands tonight was a bit disappointing. However, the atmosphere in PGE was awesome as always, the 5,000+ in attendance had enough spirit for a sellout and the team played great as well. That combined with the fact that the Blazers stunk up the joint, should go a long way towards helping the Timbers earn a few more fans, hopefully.

Full Box Score

* Picture provided by Alison @ Timber Mill