PORTLAND — Alvas Powell and Diego Valeri scored three minutes apart in the first half as the Portland Timbers earned a 3-2 victory over Minnesota United FC on a rainy Saturday night.
The win is Portland’s first of the season, after going winless on a five-game road trip (0-3-2) to start the season. The extended road trip was due to renovations being done to Providence Park to expand their seating capacity.
“We’ve been working very hard to achieve this result. We were looking forward to coming home,” said Portland head coach Giovanni Savarese. “The energy tonight from the fans gave us what we needed in order to fight all the way to the end.”
“It felt great. Our supporters gave us what we needed, that energy, that support all the time,” said Valeri. “To be honest, it was a long stretch on the road and we couldn’t get results, so we did it today.”