Portland Timbers produced a complete performance to register the first victory of the season against FC Dallas.
The club had managed only a couple of draws and defeats up until now. They are not expected to get a win against Dallas, who have made a strong start to the season. When Akindele came up with the equaliser just six minutes after Borchers had given the lead for Portland Timbers, it looked like the same story once again for the home team. This was not the case after an inspired second-half performance saw them register a first win of the campaign.
Despite not having won a single match until now, Portland Timbers have moved into the play-off places with this victory. They have jumped above the likes of San Jose and Houston Dynamo. Manager Caleb Porter was extremely satisfied with the performance in all areas of the pitch. Dallas have a direct style of play and they have so far been able to take advantage of the explosive speed within Fabian Castillo.Porter appears to have targeted Castillo as the opposition’s major threat and negating this advantage has helped them get this victory according to the manager. Without the threat fromCastillo, Dallas could only manage three shots on target.
“I thought we managed them very well through the run of play. I thought we managed Castillo extremely well; he didn’t get loose much at all. … We knew this game was going to be about them going direct, playing off second balls, looking for the counter attack to Castillo and set pieces. And I thought we managed the counter, we managed Castillo and we managed the crosses in the box to [center forwards Blas] Perez and [David] Texeira. I don’t think we played great football tonight, but a lot of that was them, the way that Dallas plays,” said Porter.