FRISCO, Texas — Petar Musa and defender Nkosi Tafari scored in the second half and FC Dallas turned a late own goal by Portland midfielder Cristhian Paredes into a 3-2 victory, snapping the Timbers' seven-match unbeaten run in a Fourth of July thriller on Thursday night.
Antony Alves Santos took a pass from Evander da Silva Ferreira and scored in the 8th minute with a right-footed shot from the right side of the box to give Portland (8-8-6) a 1-0 lead that stood until halftime. It was the fourth goal of the season for Antony and the 12th assist for Evander.
Musa scored four minutes into the second half to pull Dallas (6-10-5) even. Tsiki Ntsabeleng and Sebastian Lletget had assists on Musa's 10th goal in his rookie campaign.
“I am happy with my goals but for me, it's not about just the goals. We want to win every single game and I want to help the team," Musa said. "I'm more focused on winning every game. So if I score I'm happy, but it's more important that we won.”
Tafari gave Dallas a 2-1 lead in the 61st minute, using Lletget's fifth assist of the season to score his second goal.
“Oh man, we’re loving that play right now," Lletget said. "It is something that we work on in training and it set up that way and I’m so glad that the ball left my foot and went exactly where I wanted it to and Nkosi with the header.”
Evander answered with the equalizer two minutes later for the Timbers with an assist from Antony. It was Evander's 10th goal this season and the third assist for Antony.
Paredes' own goal came in the 87th minute.
Maarten Paes saved three shots — all in the first half — in goal for Dallas. James Pantemis stopped two shots with both coming in the second half for the Timbers.
Portland had won three straight entering play, going 5-0-2 during its unbeaten run.
Dallas takes an 11-9-9 lead in the all-time series and improves to 10-1-5 at home against the Timbers. The club snaps a two-match losing streak after winning its first two matches under interim manager Peter Luccin.
“Resilience, resilience from the team. That was huge today," FC Dallas interim head coach Peter Luccin said. After the first half, we were very passive with nothing offensively. The only thing about the first half that I liked was the compactness of the team. We were compact, but no one making runs, no one even putting more pressure on the ball or playing with the ball. When Evander is on the ball, we need to put more pressure, because he's a high level, quality player.”
Evander had a goal and an assist in the same match for the eighth time this season. He became the third Timbers player to reach double figures in goals and assists in a single season. Diego Valeri did it four times and Sebastián Blanco accomplished the feat in 2018.
The Timbers have scored multiple goals in six of their last seven matches.
Portland returns home to play Nashville SC on Sunday. Dallas travels to take on Sporting Kansas City on Sunday.
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