Galaxy end Timbers’ nine-game unbeaten streak with 2-1 victory in Portland
If the Galaxy make another deep run in the MLS playoffs this fall, they’re likely to look back on gut-checks like Saturday’s 2-1 win over the Portland Timbers as an important another step on that journey.
Playing the defending champions under difficult conditions before a hostile crowd, they raced to a 2-0 lead after 11 minutes on goals by Robbie Keane and Gyasi Zardes. Then over the next 79 minutes they hunkered down, facing a barrage 18 of shots without breaking to close out a game they might have lost a month ago.
Instead they were rewarded with their fourth straight win, their second straight victory on the road and the third in a row by a single goal, while ending Portland’s nine-game unbeaten streak.
“Slowly, slowly all the pieces are coming together,” midfielder Nigel de Jong said. “The streak that we are having says a lot about the team’s mentality. And the character as well.”
That coming together started in late May, after goalkeeper Brian Rowe gave up a game-winning goal on the last kick in Montreal. It was the second time Rowe allowed a game-winning goal five minutes into extra time. And after starting the season as a backup, he feared he was headed back to the bench.
Instead that goal became a rallying point for the Galaxy, who have lost just once since. And Rowe, who feared for his job, has given up only three scores in his last eight starts, pitching five shutouts.
“The response from my teammates and the coaches having my back and supporting me and coming up and talking to me show me that they still had confidence and still trusted me,” Rowe said.
Rowe rewarded that confidence late in the second half Saturday, saving the win by charging off his line to deny Portland’s Fanendo Adi a tying goal.
“If I had been a split second too late, it probably would have been a [penalty kick],” Rowe said. “You just kind of trust yourself. It’s all reaction.”
But if Rowe has overcome a crisis of confidence in recent weeks, so have the Galaxy, who have given up leads or ties in the final 15 minutes five times this season.
“Mentally is the biggest difference,” Rowe said. “Once you start knowing that we’ve closed it out before, we can do this, it’s huge.
“That’s what it really comes down [at] the end of the season. It’s just showing that grit and not conceding in the end.”
Keane got the scoring started in the seventh minute, taking a pass from Gio dos Santos at the far post and flicking it into the net for his seventh goal of the season and his 24th in his last 24 games. In the six games in which Keane has scored this season, the Galaxy are unbeaten.
Four minutes later, Zardes doubled the lead. The sequence started with a long through ball from Jelle Van Damme in the Galaxy end that found Emmanuel Boateng up the left wing. Boateng took the ball to the end line before trying to cross it in for Zardes from a difficult angle, only to have it hit Portland defender Nat Borchers instead. The attempted clearance deflected toward the goal, though, where Zardes was in perfect position to nod it in.
Borchers later left the field on a stretcher after suffering an apparent Achilles injury.
Portland got one of those goals back just before the half, with Zarek Valentin beating Rowe on a right-footed shot from the top of the penalty area. But Rowe was tough when it counted most, taking the ball off Adi’s foot in the 74th minute with nothing but open net behind him.
“The team is developing a personality,” Dos Santos said in Spanish. “We’re a very solid team. We’ve shown a great attitude, more like a team and not individuals.
“Winning on the road in this league is difficult. And coming away with three points is something to be happy about At the end of the season, these points are going to count.”
kevin.baxter@latimes.com
Twitter: @kbaxter11
