Chris Pontius scored in a surprising start at center forward and the LA Galaxy earned a 1-1 away draw against the surging Portland Timbers on an afternoon when Zlatan Ibrahimovic played only as a late-game sub.
The Galaxy's Ibrahimovic came on in the 72nd minute in a game played on Providence Park's artificial surface, three days after the Swedish superstar went 90 minutes and scored twice in a 3-2 loss to FC Dallas.
Diego Valeri equalized from the penalty spot for Portland, who saw their six-match winning streak snapped but have still lost just once in their last 10 under first-year boss Giovanni Savarese.
Goals:
Three Things:
THE BIG PICTURE:
Portland are now 6-1-3 this season when midfield wrecking ball
Diego Chara
starts this season. They'll have to find a way to get a result without the Colombian in Week 15. He'll be serving a yellow-card accumulation suspension when
Sporting Kansas City
come to town next Saturday (10:30 pm ET |
TV & streaming info
).
MAN OF THE MATCH:
For a brief moment, it looked like
David Bingham
might not even start Saturday's game
. But he was cleared and eventually made nine saves, including quality denials of Chara, Samuel Armenteros and Valeri in the first half and
Bill Tuiloma
late in the second.
Up Next:
- POR: Wednesday, June 6 vs. San Jose Earthquakes, US Open Cup 4th round (10:30 pm ET)
- LA: Wednesday, June 6 vs. Golden State Force, US Open Cup 4th round (10 pm ET)
