Mora scores in stoppage time, Timbers beat LAFC 2-1

PORTLAND — Felipe Mora scored in stoppage time to give the Portland Timbers a 2-1 victory over Los Angeles FC on Wednesday night.

Diego Valeri opened scoring for the Timbers in the second minute with his 100th career goal. But LAFC (6-5-3) tied it in the 16th on Carlos Vela’s fifth goal of the season.

Mora, who came off the bench in the 74th minute, scored amid a scramble by both teams in the final moments. He got an assist from Sebastian Blanco, also a second-half sub who has been working his way back from injury this season.

“I feel really happy for (Blanco). We talked about it, while we were on the bench, about passing,” Mora said through a translator. “It was a great pass that he centered to me and it was a great goal.”

The loss snapped LAFC’s three-game winning streak.

“Overall if you take the beginning out and then the end, we played well. But that’s not how that works, unless you take advantage of more of the advantages that you create, then your margin to take three points becomes too small,” LAFC coach Bob Bradley said.

With Wednesday’s victory, the Timbers sit on a two-game winning streak heading into a match Saturday at Minnesota United.

Valeri, who joined the Timbers in 2013, is the team’s top goal scorer.

“This is really special for me, here with these colors. It’s not easy. I’m very happy about it, and I’m obviously happy about winning tonight,” Valeri said following his milestone goal “It means that I did my best,” He said. “I’m always trying to be better as a professional, in my role, trying to be what the team needs. So its really special for me to achieve this in this jersey, these colors.

The Timbers were without defender Claudio Bravo and midfielder Eryk Williamson. Bravo, is with Argentina in the Tokyo Olympics, and Williamson with the U.S. national team in the Gold Cup.

Timbers coach Giovanni Savarese said getting the last-minute victory before a capacity crowd after many of the Timbers earlier games had restricted attendance was special.

“It was a magic night because we really played well and we got a very good result,” Savarese said. “When our fans are in full capacity, you can sense the passion, you can sense the energy. Just the celebration at the end was incredible.”

TIMBERS 2, LOS ANGELES FC 1

Los Angeles FC 1 0 —1

Portland 1 1 —2

First Half—1, Portland, Valeri, 2 (Van Rankin), 2nd minute; 2, Los Angeles FC, Vela, 3 (Rossi), 17th.

Second Half—3, Portland, Mora, 3 (Blanco), 90th+3.

Goalies—Los Angeles FC, Tomas Romero, Pablo Sisniega; Portland, Steve Clark, Aljaz Ivacic, Hunter Sulte.

Yellow Cards—Paredes, Portland, 86th.

Referee—Victor Rivas. Assistant Referees—Corey Rockwell, Chris Elliott, Alejandro Mariscal. 4th Official—Ismir Pekmic.

Lineups

Los Angeles FC—Tomas Romero; Tristan Blackmon, Marco Farfan, Kim Moon-hwan (Corey Baird, 67th), Diego Palacios (Raheem Edwards, 67th), Eddie Segura; Jose Cifuentes, Francisco Ginella (Bryce Duke, 68th); Latif Blessing, Diego Rossi, Carlos Vela (Brian Rodriguez, 79th).

Portland—Steve Clark; Pablo Bonilla (Blake Bodily, 86th), Larrys Mabiala, Bill Tuiloma, Jose Van Rankin; Diego Chara, George Fochive (Cristhian Paredes, 67th), Diego Valeri; Yimmi Chara (Sebastian Blanco, 74th), Jeremy Ebobisse (Felipe Mora, 74th), Marvin Loria (Dairon Asprilla, 67th).