Portland Timbers 2-Houston Dynamo 1
Very few athletes ever get the chance for a curtain call. Either the game passes them by too early or too late and so when a moment clearly does happen where a player can leave at the top and on their own terms it is a special moment. Such was the case for Fanendo Adi last week with the Portland Timbers. Last Saturday, Adi bid adieu to the Timbers faithful with a game-winning goal to lift Portland past the Houston Dynamo 2-1.
The Timbers initially took the lead in just the seventh minute when Sebastian Blanco smashed home a cross from Alvas Powell giving his side the early advantage. But Houston responded just five minutes later with Romell Quioto knocking home his fourth of the season. The two sides continued to trade chances throughout the next hour and eight minutes with goalkeepers Joe Willis and Jeff Attinella having to stand on their head to keep the score level.
But credit to Timbers coach Giovani Savarese for making the tactical substitution of Adi in the 75th minute. Adi had a bit of an interesting week in the lead up to the match, having been heavily rumored to making a move to FC Cincinnati, a deal which would come to fruition on Monday. Despite playing some interesting circumstances Adi made the most of his 15 minutes of action scoring on his lone shot on goal in the 80th minute to put Portland ahead for good.
You can read Fern McOistigan’s recap of the match below. In the meantime please enjoy some of our photos courtesy of photographer Mark Hoffman. If you want to look at more of our Portland photos from the 2018 season please check out our team page on SmugMug.
Portland Timbers
