Timbers Top Five: Own Goals and Deflections

I love own goals. Deflections too. After Chance Myers' unfortunate effort granted the Timbers the lead on Saturday, I could not stop laughing as I jumped and cheered and hugged everyone around me.

Schadenfreude. It's the best.

Anyway, here are my top five "oh no" moments to go the Timbers way since the team joined Major League Soccer.

5) Tyson Wahl, Seattle Sounders, 7/10/2011

A goal against the Sounders counts extra, no matter what we are talking about (the wailing and gnashing of teeth from our brothers to the north is a sweet, sweet sound). That this gave the Timbers the lead at home in a Cascadia Cup match, even if they could not hold on to it, made it a fantastic deflection to witness. Despite scoring the Timbers' opening goal (on what some called a Jeff Parke own goal), Perlaza missed some golden opportunities in this game, and, without a touch from Wahl, would have missed this one as well.

4) Chance Myers, Sporting Kansas City, 4/21/12

Myers' header snapped a four game Timbers losing streak and, more amusingly, a seven game SKC winning streak. With both Myers and midfielder Julio Cesar attempting to clear Kris Boyd's back post cross, a rare moment of defensive infirmity by the league leaders gifted the Timbers a win in a game where Portland rarely looked like scoring.

3) Logan Pause, Chicago Fire, 4/2/2011

It wasn't the first goal the MLS Timbers scored at Jeld-Wen and it wasn't the game winner either, both of those efforts belonged to Jorge Perlaza, but Rodney Wallace's rocket of a shot took a lucky bounce off of the rear end of Pause at the top of the box and helped kick start a run of home form that defined the Timbers first season in the league.

2) Stephen Keel, New York Red Bulls, 6/19/2011

"Stephen Keel is one of us, one of us, one of us.

Stephen Keel is one of us, he's a Timber."

Keel's own goal seemed like the final nail in the coffin. Up two goals and playing well against an overrated Red Bulls team, the fact that the goal was scored by a former Timber, and one with such fantastic hair at that, was just the icing on the cake.

1) Kosuke Kimura, Colorado Rapids, 3/19/2011

In the Timbers first game in Major League Soccer, the team looked every bit the expansion side that they were until, down 3-0, Kenny Cooper struck a ferocious free kick that would sure have been saved if not for a slight deflection off of Kimura. The Timbers first MLS goal was emblematic of the team's first season: almost pretty, almost awesome, and it makes you feel good to think about, even if it just wasn't quite enough.