LA Galaxy draw Portland Timbers 1-1

An action-packed match between the LA Galaxy and the Portland Timbers ended in a 1-1 stalemate Saturday afternoon at a sun drenched Providence Park.

LA Galaxy

After a nervy opening ten minutes where the Galaxy were overrun in attack and probably lucky not to concede, LA settled down and began to possess the ball to the frustration of the Timbers. In the 20th minute, Sigi Schmid’s side took the lead off a moment of magic from Chris Pontius, who flicked the ball over a Portland defender with impeccable timing before placing a low left-footed shot that beat the outstretched Jeff Antinella.

Though the Galaxy were missing the individual quality of Zlatan Ibrahimovic, Ola Kamara and the dos Santos brothers, untangling the logjam of attackers simplified things somewhat for LA, while David Bingham’s excellent goalkeeping preserved the Galaxy’s slim lead.

That is until the 57th minute, when Jorgen Skjelvik ran over Andres Flores in the box and Diego Valeri coolly roofed the PK to level the match. However in part thanks to Bingham’s 9 saves, the teams split the points.