Portland vs. Real Salt Lake — High-Pitched Live Blog Action

• Timbers FC
• Timbers fans lay roses on the seat of Giselle Currier, who passed away last week.

The Timbers are undefeated at home, while Real Salt Lake is the last unbeaten team in MLS. One of those statements will no longer be true 90 minutes from now under bright skies at the House of Pane.

Join me after the jump for some live-blogging, won’t you?

Pregame—A solemn bag-piped rendition of “Amazing Grace” honored lifelong Portland fan and Timbers Army royalty Giselle Currier, who passed away last week at age 55. Fans held a moment of silence before the match and placed roses on her seat at the top of Timbers Army. Capt. Jack Jewsbury, meanwhile, laid a jersey at the log on the north end in honor of Currier.

Your starters:
For Portland—Perkins in goal, Cooper and Perlaza up front, Alhassan, Chará, Jewsbury and Nagbe at midfield, Wallace, Futty, Brunner and Hall on defense. Chará and Nagbe get their first starts, while Hall starts on defense for Purdy. Timbers sporting their green jerseys and white shorts.
For Salt Lake—Nick Rimando in goal, Alvaro Saborio and Arturo Alvarez up front, Javier Morales, Collen Warner, Kyle Beckerman, Jean Alexandre at mid, Chris Wingert, Nat Borchers, Chris Schuler and Tony Beltran on defense.

1st Minute—And, we’re underway…

3rd Minute—Timbers’ first corner of the night (taken by Jewsbury, of course) becomes a Jeremy Hall header, but it’s wide left.

5th Minute—Diego Chará’s first touch of the night. Nothing to shout about.

9th Minute—Cooper catches an errant arm to the face. That’ll be a free kick and another lump for the Timbers forward, who’s taken a few shots and set a physical tone for Portland early on this season.

15th Minute—Chará and Perlaza hook up for Portland’s first legit chance of the night. Perlaza manages a shot, but it goes wide after a nice pass from his fellow Colombian and childhood pal. Something tells me that’s not the first time we’ll see that combo put something together.

21st Minute—A quiet one so far, with possession favoring the Timbers at this point. No early goal surrendered, so that’s one small victory for Portland thus far.

22nd Minute—Cooper GOAL! Alhassan takes a short free kick down the left side and places a cross right up front. Cooper’s on the spot and nets his third goal of the season. Just the second goal RSL has given up this year (the first they’ve yielded in 213 minutes) and the first time they’ve trailed all season. Portland 1, RSL 0. Alhassan’s fourth assist of the season, by the way, which ties him for third league-wide.

25th Minute—Cooper leaps over the video advertising boards after a hard run as smoke billows onto the field from the North end. Real Salt Lake in unfamiliar territory: It’ll be interesting to see how they respond being down a goal … they certainly don’t want to give up another and be pegged as “soft.”

30th Minute—Perkins gets a hand on a dangerous cross and Nagbe quickly clears it out. RSL’s best chance of the night thus far.

32nd Minute—RSL nets one on a Borchers header, but the ref whistles a foul in the box to keep it off the scoreboard.

35th Minute—Hall delivers a good ball into the box to Perlaza, but it’s nicely defended by RSL.

41st Minute—Jewsbury launches from distance and tests Rimando, who gets a hand on it and deflects it wide left. Capt. Jack must’ve had some extra juice from the laser on the ensuing corner, as it sails well over the pack in front of the net.

43rd Minute—Wingert fires from 25 yards. Easy pickings for Perkins.

44th Minute—Hall again plays another fine ball to Perlaza, who just misses the net on a header. That would’ve been a big score just before the half.

45th Minute—One minute of stoppage time. Alhassan tries to curl one into the upper right corner, but Rimando just gets a finger on it. Another close call for RSL.

Halftime—Timbers lead 1-0. A nice half for Portland and a great way to bounce back from the rough going at Los Angeles. Cooper gets the goal and gets all up in Schuler’s business as the pair walked off the field. Should make for a physical, testy second half. If Portland can maintain its aggression, (they out-shot RSL 8-2 in the first half) a few Salt Lake streaks could end tonight. Hat-tip to Timbers Insider Kelly McLain, who pointed out there’s been no offisides called or yellow cards pulled on Portland.

46th Minute—Back at it … No subs for Portland. For RSL, Williams in for Warner, and Johnson in for Alexandre.

58th Minute—Wallace fires one, but a bit of a mis-kick sails high and wide left.

60th Minute—Alvarez pops one up in front of the net, but Perkins punches it away as we head into the final half-hour.

62nd Minute—Brunner goes low to head a free kick out of the box and out of danger. Has anyone in green been as consistent as Brunner this season? Also, Ryan Pore warming up on the sideline.

64th Minute—Nagbe fires one that’s deflected off Beckerman. RSL continues to give the rookie lots of space out there. Respect. Jewsbury corner nearly goes through the six-yard box and a Brunner flying header sails wide.

68th Minute—Hall clears one high and into the crowd after an RSL corner. Do the fans get to keep it?

70th Minute—Chará and Perlaza get the crowd into it with a long run and nifty pass that led to a two-on-two opportunity. This pair is going to need a nickname. The Colombian Connection?

72nd Minute—Hall picks up a yellow card. Dangerous free kick coming from 25 yards out.

73rd Minute—Corner hits the wall but earns RSL a corner. It’s cleared out, but less than a minute later, RSL gets another solid chance on a pretty cross from Morales to a flying Saborio. RSL is picking things up with possession here.

74th Minute—Marcelin in for Perlaza. Great match for the 27-year-old. He looks completely comfortable and settled in out there. Night and day from the first two matches.

80th Minute—A couple of nutmegs on another nice Timbers run. Chará to Nagbe and vice-versa. Nagbe’s feed back to Chará nabbed by Rimando. Nifty stuff, though.

82nd Minute—Zizzo in for Nagbe. A solid outing for the Timbers’ top SuperDraft pick.

86th Minute—P-T-F-C chant is echoing through the park. Timbers holding on to the 1-0 lead as RSL seems to get closer and closer to breaking one.

87th Minute—Mark that RSL corner as the ugliest I’ve seen this season.

88th Minute—Cooper with a long run down the west sideline. Attempts to serve one up to Chará. Timbers keeping up the aggression in the waning moments.

90th Minute—Desperation time for RSL. A header in front by Borchers goes right to Perkins. Three minutes of stoppage.

Stoppage—RSL keeps lobbing the ball toward the goal, and the Timbers keep clearing. Pore entering for Cooper, who gets a huge ovation and loud round of Cooooooooooper cheers.

Zizzo makes a nice run down the west sideline and tries to feed Alhassan. But it’s cleared away.

FULL TIME—Timbers hang on to win this one, 1-0 to earn the franchise’s first clean sheet in MLS. Talk about an upset: RSL’s streak of 18 consecutive results ends in the House of Pane. Spencer is fist-pumping and pointing at fans as the team celebrates on the field, while Jewsbury and Futty are both on their backs getting stretched out. The whole team looks gassed. Smoke bombs are going off and flags are waving in Timbers Army. Certainly a surprising result for a Timbers team that had been labeled “soft” earlier in the week. The rest of MLS might have to re-think that whole rep.