Magee’s First Goal Of Season Sparks 1-0 Overtime Victory

 Amos Magee’s golden goal in the 92nd minute helped the Minnesota Thunder snap a two-game scoreless drought and defeat the red-hot Portland Timbers 1-0 Friday at the National Sports Center. The match was played in front of the 7,568 fans, the largest crowd to see a Thunder match this season and the 12th largest crowd in Thunder history. The match was preceded by the Chevy Cup Minnesota Youth Soccer Association State Tournament Opening Ceremonies.

Magee, playing his thirteenth season and first as a player/assistant coach with the Thunder, entered the match in the 81st minute. After receiving a centering pass from midfielder Johnny Menyongar on the right side, Magee fired a left-footed shot into the upper right corner sending the crowd into a frenzy for his first goal of the season.

“I needed that one and our team needed that one,” Magee said. “I’ve always been a goal scorer and I needed one to get over the hump.”

Throughout a scoreless first 90 minutes the Thunder held constant pressure on Timbers’ goalkeeper Joe Saunders harassing him with 20 shots. The Thunder finished the match outshooting Portland 21-10.

Minnesota (11-6-0, 33 points) finished off its season long eight-game home stand at 4-4-0 and improved its overall home record to 6-5-0. The Thunder had been held scoreless by Seattle July 16 in the U.S. Open Cup and Charlotte July 19.

“It was important to win since we were on the wrong side of 1-0 losses and needed a win,” Magee said.

The overtime was the first for the Thunder at home this season. On May 18, the Thunder beat Cincinnati 2-1 on the road in double overtime. Neither team had a tie prior to this game. Milwaukee and Cincinnati are the only other A-League teams without a tie yet.

The Timbers (11-9-0, 33 points), entered Friday night’s match as one of the A-League’s hottest teams having won four consecutive games and 9 of their last 11 since losing to the Thunder in May.

With the victory the Thunder earned a two-game season sweep of Portland having defeated the Timbers 3-0 in Portland on May 27.

Minnesota was able to effectively cool off the Timbers forward tandem McKinley Tennyson and Byron Alvarez. The two have shouldered the team’s offensive output producing 19 of the Timber’s 28 goals this season.

Article from WayBack Machine