After suffering through a scoring slump to begin the season, Timbers forward McKinley Tennyson has found the scoring touch recently, putting in four goals in the last two games, and accounting for both goals in Portland's 2-1 come-from-behind victory over the Calgary Storm in front of 6,289 at PGE Park. Conrad Chala had the lone Calgary goal.

As they have done in most of their games, the Timbers had control of the match early on, and in the first 15 minutes, had a few dangerous crosses into the Calgary box that could not be put on net. But on their first push downfield, Calgary made their first scoring chance count. In the 19th minute, off a corner kick, the ball completely cleared two Calgary attackers and a Timbers defender who went high for the ball, and avoided the tip attempt by Timbers goalkeeper Matt Napoleon, but it did find Calgary defender Conrad Chala unmarked at the back post, and Chala headed the ball home, and the visitors had taken an early lead.

Calgary's defense was clearly focused on keeping Timbers attacker McKinley Tennyson in check, and every time Tennyson had the ball he was being tightly marked, bumped, held, and double-teamed to shut him down. But the Timbers kept pushing forward with even more pressure, and it nearly paid off in the 26th minute when Tennyson fought off tight hand-checking to get off a shot from just 8 yards out that was saved at point-blank range by Calgary goalkeeper Wotjek Zarzycki, but Tennyson stretched to keep it from going over the line and his cross tricked back to Vadim Tolstolutsky, whose rocket from 20 yards out went barely a yard over the bar.

Vadim Tolstolutsky steals from Waldo Dutra

Just a minute later, the Timbers missed another golden opportunity to score when a cross from the right from Hugo Alcaraz-Cuellar found Fadi Afash in front of the net only 8 yards out, but he couldn't free himself from the Calgary defender and never touched the ball which trickled harmlessly though the box.

But the Timbers' pressure finally did pay off in the 31st minute when a corner kick by Alcaraz-Cuellar curled nicely to Tennyson, who ran onto the ball and hit a perfect header into the bottom right corner from 12 yards out, and the Timbers had their first goal off a set play of the year, and had evened the score at 1-1.

Just seven minutes later, Tennyson was at it again, when Afash dropped a pass to Brian Winters, who put a perfect through ball to the top of the box found Tennyson, and he got to the ball just before Zarzycki, and flicked a wildly spinning shot from 8 yards out towards the left post, which the ball struck and rocketed into the net and the Timbers had a 2-1 lead.

In the 40th minute, it appeared that the Timbers were going to have a golden opportunity to tie the score when Afash went down in the box after apparently being kicked on the foot, but the referee did not agree, and Afash was given a yellow-card for diving. The half ended with the Timbers up 2-1.

Fadi Afash on the attack, shortly before Portland's 2nd goal

Early in the 2nd half the Timbers were keeping control of the ball almost the entire time, but were not having any luck in making a serious threat. But after about 10 minutes, Calgary began to push extra players forward, and in the 59th minute, a loose ball in the box had Napoleon and Calgary striker Jordan Gillespie both got to the ball at the same time, but Gillespie went down in the collision as Napoleon controlled the ball, and Calgary was awarded a penalty kick.

But Calgary could not convert the penalty, in fact the ball wasn't even on net as Chala put the ball over the bar, and the Storm had missed their chance to level the score.

The Timbers had another good chance to earn the bonus point in the 76th minute when Tennyson flicked the ball over Zarzycki's head as he charged to the top of the box, but Tennyson was unable shake off the hard checking by the Calgary defender, and in the end, Tennyson was called for a foul when ended the threat.

Calgary was controlling most of the run of play, and in the 78th minute, they had two good chances, first on a shot by Damir Jesic from 18 that was right into Napoleon's chest, and the second on a run into the box from the left side by Chris Lemire that was blocked as it came off his feet by Timbers defender Brent Sancho.

In the 85th and 87th minutes, the Storm had two more good chances, the first on a shot from 20 from Orlin Chalmers that was once again right at Napoleon, and the second on a nice strike from Chalmers from 25 yards out that trickled just wide left. But the Storm were unable to threaten again, and in the end, the two Tennyson goals had been enough as the Timbers held on for a 2-1 victory.

Wotjek Zarzycki goes high to collect the ball

MATCH INFO Time: Thursday, July 11, 2002. 7:05 pm PDT Venue: PGE Park, Portland, Oregon Weather: 89 degrees, clear, humid Attendance: 6,289 Referees: MATCH STATISTICS Portland Calgary 10 SHOTS 4 2 SAVES 4 10 FOULS 11 4 OFFSIDE 3 4 CORNERS 2 CAUTIONS Portland Calgary Afash (40') Dive   Dutra (20') Dangerous play   Tennyson (87') Bumped player on header   Sestico (32') Hard tackle

Zarzycki smothered this fick-on by Gavin Wilkinson

STARTERS Portland (4-4-2) (Green and white stiped jersey, White shorts, White socks) McKinley Tennyson Fadi Afash (Greg Howes 70') Jake Sagare Vadim Tolstolutsky Ben Somoza Hugo Alcaraz-Cuellar Brian Winters Keith Costigan Gavin Wilkinson Brent Sancho Matt Napoleon Bench Chris Smith, Chugger Adair, Bryn Ritchie, Scott Benedetti Calgary (5-3-2) (Red jersey with white trim, Black shorts, Black socks) Chris Lemire (Orlin Chalmers 83') Jordan Gillespie (Damir Jesic 73') Waldo Dutra Kurt Bosch (Matthew O'Connor 62') Nik Ledgerwood (Nic Zuniga 79') Sal Borgh Angelo Sestito Liam DeSilva Jamie Auvigne Conrad Chala Wotjek Zarzycki Bench James Glasnovic

Conrad Chala goes high...

..and gives Calgary the lead with this header

Jake Sagare's shot is blocked by Angelo Sestito

Dangerous play? Nope

Tennyson celebrates his second goal...

...as does The Woodshed