Fort Wayne Cut Portland Down Four to One in League One
Fort Wayne beat Portland Heart of Pine 4-1 on Friday night in Group Stage action of USL League One. The visitors took control early and never really looked back, despite Portland holding more of the ball for much of the game. And here's the thing — you don't need possession to hurt a team if you're ruthless with your chances.
T. Healy opened the scoring in the eighth minute, a quick strike that caught Portland off guard. By then, the home side was already showing signs of frustration — M. Poon-Angeron picked up a booking in the twenty-fourth minute, and A. Camara followed suit seven minutes later. C. Awoudor doubled the advantage just before the break in the forty-first minute, and Portland made four changes at the interval, including bringing on Felipe and S. Faye.
The second half started badly for the hosts. Healy found the net again in the sixty-first minute to complete his brace, and Portland's substitutions didn't change the mood. Then came the moment that really settled it: K. Lacey made it three in the seventy-seventh minute, and O. Wright added a penalty in the eighty-sixth. Fort Wayne even managed to pick up a yellow card for their goalscorer — O. Wright in the ninetieth minute plus one — which tells you they weren't exactly playing conservatively at the end.
The statistics paint an interesting picture. Portland had 61 per cent possession and 96 attacks compared to Fort Wayne's 66, but the visitors shot with far more accuracy. Seven shots on target against three, and four goals to one. To be fair, Portland's 38 per cent shot accuracy wasn't helped by the fact that the visitors were clinical when it mattered.
The result leaves Portland in thirteenth place on 23 points from 23 games, while Fort Wayne move to eighth on 30 points from 21. The visitors arrive here with a poor run — four defeats in a row — but this performance suggests they're finding their feet again. Portland, meanwhile, have drawn two of their last three but still haven't found consistency. By then, you'd expect a team to have worked something out.
