Onni Valakari and Anders Dreyer scored first-half goals and top-seeded San Diego FC recorded a 2-1 victory over the visiting Portland Timbers to win the opening match of the Round One first-round series on Sunday night.
CJ dos Santos made two saves as expansion San Diego FC prevailed in their initial playoff match.
Kristoffer Velde scored a first-half goal for the Timbers, who had their second-half momentum halted after Jimer Fory’s red card in the 66th minute left them a man short for the rest of the match.
The second match in the best-of-three series is Saturday night in Portland.
San Diego FC star Hirving “Chucky” Lozano didn’t dress for the match in the wake of a heated locker room altercation earlier this month. Lozano hasn’t appeared in a game since the Oct. 4 incident against the Houston Dynamo when he angrily reacted after being informed he was being pulled from the game.
James Pantemis stood out with six saves for the Timbers.
San Diego tallied twice in the first half before Portland answered with one of its own.
San Diego struck in the 23rd minute. Manu Duah ripped a right-footer from outside the box that smacked off the right goal post with Pantemis stationed at the center of the net. The ball bounced directly to Valakari, who easily knocked the left-footed rebound shot past Pantemis and into the net.
Seven minutes later, San Diego scored again when Luca Bombino sent a cross toward Dreyer, who knocked a header into the net to make it 2-0. The goal was Dreyer’s 20th of the season, counting the regular season.
Portland got on the board in the 36th minute as Antony fed the ball to Velde, who creased space and sent a right-footed shot into the left corner of the net.
That was the Timbers’ first goal of the season against San Diego. Portland was scoreless in one loss and one draw in the regular season.
The Timbers had two big chances to tie the score in a three-minute span of the second half.
First, Antony was wide open on the right and sent a right-footed shot just wide of the net in the 61st minute.
Two minutes later, Kamal Miller sent a close-range header just over the crossbar.
But Fory received yellow cards for fouls in back-to-back minutes and the automatic upgrade to red left the Timbers short-handed.
San Diego outshot Portland 14-5, including an 8-3 edge in shots on target. San Diego also had a 7-0 advantage in corner kicks.
–Field Level Media
