PortlandTimbers

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The Portland Tribune, May 25, 2004, Updated Oct 30, 2009

• There’s no mystery to Portland’s best start (4-0-0) in four A-League soccer seasons. The Timbers are more mobile than ever, they’re hungry, and they enjoy playing together. “Everybody gets on very, very well and works hard for one another,” coach Bobby Howe says. “Last year, as the season went on we began outworking teams. This year, we’re doing that from the start.”

nThe next game is at 7 p.m. Saturday at PGE Park against Milwaukee Wave United.

• The Timbers’ most impressive victory came Sunday, 3-1 at Vancouver, where they had never beaten the Whitecaps (3-1-1) in an A-League match. After giving up a goal, the Timbers got first-half scores from Alan Gordon and Hugo Alcaraz-Cuellar and an early second-half goal from Gordon. “It was kind of weird Ñ nobody panicked after Vancouver scored,” Gordon says. “We just got back at it and worked very hard. We knew they’d played at Calgary the night before and their legs were going to be a little tired. Our game plan was to take it to them.”

• Gordon’s first goal was set up by the combination play of Aaron Heinzen and Jake Sagare, with Sagare playing a ball into the box for the rookie from Oregon State. Alcaraz-Cuellar’s free kick was the assist on Gordon’s second goal. “I was being man-marked, but I saw Hugo look at me, and I ran to an open space in front of me,” Gordon says. Both of Gordon’s goals came on headers. “It’s funny, when I was in junior college, I was supposed to be this big target man, and I only scored two header goals out of 38,” he says. “But I worked on it in Division I and got to where about half my goals came in the air.”

• Veteran midfielder Brian Winters, who missed the first three games with plantar fasciitis, got to play the final 10 minutes at Vancouver. É The Timbers hope to finalize a contract this week with midfielder Andrew Gregor, the former Sunset High and University of Portland star who left the Whitecaps a couple of weeks ago.

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