Early in the match, it was clearly the visiting Rhinos who were controlling the pace of the match. The Timbers have been suffering from weak play on the outside of their defense, and the Rhinos were attacking the flanks right from the start, with Chris Carrieri going wide and cutting inside, getting a good chance 10 minutes into the match that was saved by Portland goalkeeper Josh Saunders, and then Saunders being called on to deflect another good chance wide one minute later when Corey Woolfolk tested him from only 15 yards out.

After those two early chances for the Rhinos, the Timbers seemed to settle down a bit, making better passes through midfield, and attempting to use their quick outside midfielders to stretch the Rhinos defense, and a good run by Hugo Alcaraz-Cuellar down the right side in the 21st minute left Scott Benedetti open when the ball was dropped back to him near the top of the box, but his shot from 15 yards out was a bit high and to the right. Three minutes later, off a Timbers free kick, the Timbers thought they had taken an early lead when a header from Alan Gordon hit the left post, spun off the post into the goal mouth and was snagged by Rochester goalkeeper Theo Zagar who reached back to pull it off the line, and the assistant referee ruled that the ball had not fully crossed the goal line and the game remained scoreless.

Less than a minute later, the Timbers nearly gift-wrapped a goal for the Rhinos when Aaron Heinzen's attempt to chest the ball back to Saunders did not make it back to the keeper, but the Timbers defense recovered and were able to clear the ball before the Rhinos could put a shot on net.

After the Timbers had controlled play for about twenty minutes, the momentum swung back towards the visiting side as they continued to attempt to attack the Timbers wide, a strategy they would use all night, and which led to the Rhinos ending up with a dominating 10-1 advantage on corner kicks on the night. In the 34th minute, Shawn Tsakiris had an open chance on a header from 10 yards out on a cross from the corner, but put it just wide to the left. Two minutes later, Tsakiris once again found a seam in the Timbers defense and had a good look, but his hard shot from 25 yards out was also wide to the left.

In the 38th minute, a Timbers defensive error on their right side had Carrieri making an open run from the left attacking wing, avoiding a sliding Heinzen to go one-on-one with Saunders, who made a spectacular diving save on a point-blank shot. But the ball rebounded to midfielder Kirk Wilson, who had slipped into the box unmarked, and Wilson buried the shot into the empty net to give the Rhinos a 1-0 lead, which is how the match would stand at the half.

Early in the second half, it was the Rhinos who continued to carry the run of play, finding little luck attacking down the middle, where the Timbers midfielders and inside defenders were shutting down the Rhinos effectively, but still finding success when they could push the ball wide. In the 47th minute, a cross from deep in the corner found Carrieri wide open near the top of the box, and only a diving save from Saunders to his right deflected Carrieri's shot barely past the post. Two minutes later, Woolfolk had gone wide then cut back into the box and had time enough to attempt a chip to the far side of the goal, which hit the right post and rebounded directly across the goal mouth, between the end line and the Timbers keeper, but missed the left post by a foot or two and ended up going harmlessly over the touchline only a yard from the corner flag.

In the 53rd minute, the Timbers finally started to show some life when Gordon broke through free into the box, and his cross barely missed a charging Alcaraz-Cuellar, and then a cross back into the box shortly afterwards by Heinzen dropped to the feet of Gordon, but his attempt to toe-poke the shot was blocked off his foot by defender David Wright, and then collected by Zagar.

In the 55th minute, a scary situation arose for the Timbers when after a Carrieri shot had hit Saunders in the face, the Timbers goalkeeper had then fallen hard directly on his left hip onto the hard turf. Wilson had a wide-open net to shoot at with Saunders down, missing the net when the shot hit off the right post, but Saunders stayed down and had to be removed from the pitch by a stretcher. "At the time I thought I had broken my hip," Saunders would tell me after the match, but he was up and walking after the match so the injury doesn't appear to be as serious as first thought as it appears to be only a deep contusion, but Saunders had to be replaced by Timbers backup goalkeeper in rookie Bayard Elfvin, who entered his first game as a professional. Saunders is scheduled to have X-Rays on Friday to confirm the severity of the injury.

For much of the rest of the second half, it would be the Timbers that were controlling the tempo of the match. Unable to push the ball wide as the Rhinos were now constantly double-teaming outside midfielders Alcaraz-Cuellar and Jake Sagare, the Timbers started to use their inside midfielders, especially Alex Bengard, to push the ball forward, with help from Alcaraz and Gordon, who were dropping back a bit to help. In the 66th minute, a chip from Bengard to Gordon was dropped to Byron Alvarez, who turned on the ball and shot from 15 yards, but shot high. Two minutes later, Sagare cut inside from the left side and a diagonal pass into the box found Alvarez once again with a chance to turn on the ball inside the box, but just like the previous chance, the shot was just over the bar.

In the 76th minute, with the Timbers still controlling much of the flow of play, two Timbers shots inside the box that were both blocked by Rhinos defenders apparently resulted in one of the shots being played by a handball by Rochester defender Carlos Mendes, and though the Timbers fans and players seemed as surprised as the Rhinos players as the Timbers were awarded the spot kick, the Timbers took advantage of the call as Bengard buried the shot low and just inside the left post to level the score at 1-1.

Still carrying the momentum, the Timbers appeared ready to take the lead in the 81st minute when Alvarez beat an offside trap and broke in alone on the Rhinos keeper, coming in on an angle from the keeper's right. Alvarez either tried to chip the keeper, or may have been trying to play the ball to a charging Gordon, who was making a run at the far post with a Rhinos defender hot on his heels, but the result was that Alvarez's ball curved wide to the right and over the end line, behind Gordon and well wide of goal. Six minutes later, finding a soft spot in the Rhinos defense, which for most of the night was near the top of the box, Benedetti briefly had an open look, but his shot was saved by a diving save by Zagar to the keeper's right.

Near the end of regulation, with seven minutes of stoppage time to come as the clock had continued to run while Saunders was taken off earlier in the half, Rochester had used most of their substitutions, while the Timbers had used only one sub at halftime, and the result was a fresher Rhinos team reclaimed the momentum, and in the 89th minute, a chip from near the corner of the box by Doug Miller (who had just entered the match) was only kept out by a high stretch by Elfin, who barely snared a ball that was almost out of his reach. Two minutes into stoppage time, with a tired Timbers team attempted to brave a rejuvenated Rhinos attack, Elfvin was once again called on to make a spectacular save to keep the game level, this time a full-extension save as a shot from Woolfolk seemed destined for the upper left corner.

But five minutes into stoppage time, a well-timed diagonal pass from Wilson into the run of Miller had the Rhinos striker behind the Timbers defense, and though Elfvin charged out and nearly got to the ball before Miller as both players reached the top of the box simultaneously, it was Miller who got a foot on the ball first, pushing it past Elfvin and directly into the middle of the net to give the Rhinos a late 2-1 lead.

The Timbers were not able to put another shot on net and the Miller goal would be the difference as the Rhinos got their first trip out west in four years off to a successful start with a 2-1 victory over the Timbers.

Saunders had six saves in the losing effort, while Elfvin recorded three saves in his first ever A-League game. Zagar had four saves in the winning effort for the Rhinos.