Portland Timbers Down Seattle Sounders 2-1 in Preseason

The Portland Timbers went with their first team side for the first sixty minutes of tonight's match against the Seattle Sounders, but it was the second unit that produced the fireworks, scoring twice in the final half hour of the match to get the win.

For much of the first half the Timbers were in control, generating chance after chance but failing to find the back of the net with any of them. Fanendo Adi was the recipient of most of the Timbers' early opportunities, getting on the end of a number of crosses from the flanks, but he was rarely able to get the ball on goal, sending most of his opportunities wide.

Still, it was the Sounders who struck first in the 53rd minute as homegrown forward Darwin Jones got on the ball out wide on the left and cut inside toward the top of the Timbers box before firing off a shot that skipped off the near post and into the back of the goal.

In the 60th minute, however, the Timbers made wholesale changes to their lineup, bringing in seven different players and changing the complexion of the match.

Channelling their attacks down the flanks, the Timbers' second team were able push the pace of the match and take the game to the Sounders, putting them on the back foot.

Six minutes after the changes, the Timbers pulled one back. Getting ahold of the ball on the left flank, Andrew Thoma curled a ball into the box, dropping it to the foot of Jack McInerney. With the ball falling perfectly for him, McInerney was able to hit a first time ball on goal that skipped past second choice Sounders keeper Tyler Miller.

McInerney struck again in the 84th minute, this time getting on the end of a ball from Taylor Peay coming down the right flank. Peay hit a low cross into the Sounders box for Jack Jewsbury, only for the veteran to let the the ball run on for McInerney. Again McInerney hit the ball on the first touch, sending it inside the far post and giving Miller no chance at making the save.

The Timbers have their final match of their preseason trip to Tucson on Thursday when the play Real Salt Lake.