Sporting Kansas dropped the Portland Timbers 1-0 on Friday night in the former's final game of the 2013 Desert Friendlies in Tucson, Ariz., thanks to a second-half goal from trialist Mechack Jérôme.
The match, Portland's first-ever preseason loss in the their MLS existence, was choppy in the early goings, but settled down in the first half without many clear-cut chances for either side.
The game was stopped for over 20 minutes early in the second half due to an injury to Sporting's Soony Saad, who was eventually stretchered off the field. The club later tweeted that he was taken to the hospital with a bruised tailbone.
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The clock was reset to 60 minutes after following the resumption of play and Sporting wasted no time getting on the scoreboard. Jérôme rifled in a free kick from the top corner of the area that appeared to take a deflection before sneaking into the far corner of the goal.
Portland were not without their chances, and Bright Dike went close twice after the goal. He narrowly missed a square ball from José Valencia that would've resulted in an empty net chance, and then had a one-on-one chance saved by Eric Kronberg and then cleared off the line.
Hanyer Mosquera had a pair of late chances to equalize, but saw his header from a set piece loop just wide before narrowly missing again with a well-hit curling shot in stoppage time.
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Sporting will now travel to Orlando for Disney Pro Soccer Classic, with their first game coming against the Montreal Impact on Feb. 9. The Timbers have two games left in Tucson, against the rival Seattle Sounders on Feb. 5 and against local outfit FC Tucson on Feb. 8.
The Desert Friendlies will resume on Saturday, with San Jose taking on Colorado at 1 pm ET followed by a 6 pm ET clash between the Houston Dynamo and Vancouver Whitecaps. Both matches will be streamed live on MLSsoccer.com.
