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.
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.
- MOMENT OF THE MATCH: Andres Flores earned Portland's penalty when he took Sebastian Blanco's feed and made a darting run into the area, pushing the ball past Jorgen Skjelvik before absorbing a shoulder and an arm from the Norwegian.Though Skjelvik's shoulder was in front of Flores', referee Alan Kelly ruled he was playing the man, not the ball.
- MAN OF THE MATCH: For a brief moment, it looked like David Bingham might not even start Saturday's game after an apparent injury in pregame warmups. But he ended up making the start and making three crucial first-half stops to deny Chara, Samuel Armenteros and Blanco, and then pushed away Bill Tuiloma's header late in the second.
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