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VANCOUVER, BC - the Vancouver Whitecaps FC2 continued their winning ways on Friday night defeating the Portland Timbers FC2 by a score of 2-1 at UBC's Thunderbird Stadium.
Vancouver played a largely uninspired first half, but did have an excellent opportunity to go ahead through Victor Blasco after half an hour played. Striker Billy Schuler made another of his trademark surging runs before laying off a nice pass to Blasco, who had made a timely run to the edge of the six-yard box. Blasco's shot, however, was partially blocked and was easily gathered by T2 goalkeeper Justin Luthy to keep the match scoreless.
The lackluster performance in the opening half came back to haunt Vancouver when T2 opened the scoring in the thirty-fifth minute care of Fatawu Safiu's rocket that beat Paolo Tornaghi from about twenty-five yards out.
WFC2 came out of the locker room flying, and managed to draw level two minutes after the restart thanks to Tyler Rosenlund. Andre Lewis first saved the ball from crossing over the byline, and sent it back to the top of the box. Rosenlund was quick to react, and darted around the referee to hit a nice shot that took Luthy completely by surprise. The Port Coquitlam native's goal was his first of the season, and his first tally for WFC2.
Blasco had an opportunity to put the Caps ahead several minutes later, but chose to take a tight angle shot rather than pass the ball to Schuler, who was left completely unmarked inside the six-yard box.
The pair of Blasco and Schuler combined again just after the hour mark when Schuler did some outstanding work to release the Spaniard. Blasco then sidestepped a defender and curled a beautiful shot to put WFC2 ahead by a score of two to one. The goal was Blasco's third in two matches, and all three goals, of course, were assisted in every case by the unselfish Schuler.
It was a lead that the Thundercaps would not surrender, and when the lights went off at the 'Bird a Cascadia rival went home empty handed for the second week running, and I, for one, could get used to that.
POST MATCH INTERVIEWS
MATCH DETAILS
Attendance: 1,128
Scoring Summary
35' - POR - Fatawu Safiu
47' - VAN - Tyler Rosenlund (Andre Lewis)
63' - VAN - Victor Blasco (Billy Schuler)
Match Stats
Shots: VAN 14 - POR 13
Saves: VAN 3 - POR 3
Corners: VAN 3 - POR 5
Cautions
16' - POR - Brent Richards
40' - VAN - Tyler Rosenlund
48' - VAN - Marco Bustos
61' - VAN - Billy Schuler
88' - VAN - Sahil Sandhu
Whitecaps FC 2
70.Paolo Tornaghi; 27.Ethen Sampson, 54.Craig Nitti, 18.Diego Rodriguez, 55.Chris Serban; 45.Tyler Rosenlund, 30. Ben McKendry; 25. Andre Lewis (50.Sahil Sandhu 78'), 32.Marco Bustos (49.Mackenzie Pridham 85'), 48.Victor Blasco (46.Brett Levis 73') (47.Jovan Blagojevic 78'); 51.Billy Schuler
Substitutes not used
39.Spencer Richey; 58.Will Seymore
Timbers 2
29.Justin Luthy; 38.Matt Rose, 44.Harrison Delbridge, 47.Rennico Clarke, 55.Brent Richards; 52.Blair Gavin, 40.Tim Payne, 49.Fatawu Safiu, 84.Seth Casiple (73.Santiago Biglieri 75'); 50.Blake Bodily (32.Schillo Tshuma 61'), 30.Kharlton Belmar
Substitutes
76.Daniel Withrow, 85.Steven Evans, 95.Marco Farfan, 97.Terrell Lowe