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Look Back Part: 7 FCTB vs. Portland on July 31
 

The following is part seven of the “Best 10 of 2010” series, which is taking a look back at FC Tampa Bay’s best games of the 2010 inaugural season.

In an exciting match with the MLS-bound Portland Timbers, FC Tampa Bay held the Timbers to a 2-2 draw in the last July home game. Aaron King and Ricardo Sanchez scored the two goals that gave FCTB one point for the standings. The goal and the game were Sanchez’s first with the team.

Perry Van Der Beck on the match:

"We knew that Portland was going to come at us from the start.  They scored an early goal which should have been cleared but none the less we were 1-0 down in the first half.  I thought Aaron King's goal was world class considering where he was when he received the ball and to place it over the keeper's head and in the side netting was fantastic. With the addition of Ricardo Sanchez from Vancouver and his now “lethal’ free kicks put us up by a goal.”
 

Game Recap

Two “world-class” goals by Aaron King and Ricardo Sanchez gave FC Tampa Bay (6-8-5) a lead against the Portland Timbers, but Takayuki Suzuki scored an 81st minute goal to rescue a point for the Timbers (7-7-5).  Bright Dike had put Portland in front with a goal of his own in the 16th minute.

In the 26th minute, King collected a pass from Gyorio in the infield dirt and noticed Timbers goalkeeper Steve Cronin was off his line.  King turned and chipped the ball over Cronin’s head and into the side netting, just inside of the far post for his team-leading sixth goal of the season.  

“The ball took a pretty good bounce for me and I just looked up and saw (Cronin) off his line.  You have to always try to score when you’re a forward, so I just tried to go back post and it worked out for me,” said King.  “I felt like he was going to have to make a pretty good save to keep it out but it went in.”

Making his FCTB debut nine days after arriving in the Tampa Bay area, Sanchez stole the show and gave the home team the lead with a goal in the 57th minute.  Sanchez, who is known around the league for his free kick prowess, took a free kick from distance and beat Cronin to the upper right corner of the goal.   

“I was fouled and my best strength in soccer is my free kick.  I have to take advantage of every free kick I get to take so I just put it in the net,” said Sanchez.

Sanchez became the third player to score in his FC Tampa Bay debut, joining King and Joe Donoho on that list.

Both of Portland’s goals were results of silly mistakes.  Both goals were unassisted after FCTB failed to clear the ball from their box.  Dike’s first half goal came from a corner kick that bounced between legs in the six-yard box and wasn’t cleared to safety.  The game-tying goal was the result of circumstances with defensive confusion allowing Suzuki to get onto the ball and find the back of the net.