GOripCity "TICKETS"

April 4, 2011
EXTRA TIME
Thrust into lineup, Timbers GK up to the task

Portland Timbers goalkeeper Jake Gleeson had an interesting week. Listed on the team’s depth chart as the third goalkeeper at the start of the season, the 20-year old found himself thrust into the lineup midway into the second game of the season .

Gleeson, a New Zealand youth international who entered the game at Toronto at halftime after Aidin Brown suffered a hamstring injury, stopped three of four shots and won Save of the Week honors from MLS for his 49th-minute diving stop of a left-footed shot on a breakaway by Toronto FC forward Javier Martina.

Three days later, Gleeson turned in a clean sheet in a U.S. Open Cup play-in game against Chivas USA, then got his first MLS start against the New England Revolution and helped the Timbers pick up their first points of the maiden season in a 1-1 tie.

Straight-shooting Timbers coach John Spencer expected nothing less of the rookie, who is one of the youngest goalkeepers ever to get an MLS start.

“(Backup goalkeepers) are paid to perform well,” said Spencer. We don’t pay guys to play poorly. I keep saying this. Jake Gleeson pulls off an unbelievable save. He’ll probably get save of the week again, for that one that skinned the top corner in the first half from (Sainey) Nyassi - a wonderful save.”

For Gleeson, who helped the Timbers U-23s to a perfect 20-0-0 record in the United Soccer Leagues’ Premier Development League (PDL) and to the league’s championship in 2010, performing under pressure seems old hat.

“Coming in young, there’s probably a lot of pressure on me to perform as well as Adin (Brown) or Troy (Perkins), but I put a lot of pressure on myself,” he said. “To come out and hold the goalkeeping standard up high and playing well, so I think most of the pressure actually comes from myself because I want to be as good as those guys at the moment, which is tough.”

For Gleeson, perhaps the most difficult part of being thrust into the starting job was having to play his first two league games on the road while the team’s Jeld-Wen Field is getting fixed up for the home opener.

“It’s hard if the crowd’s yelling. I’m not used to the noise level, but I’m getting better,” he said. “Each game I go out and play, I’m learning more and more. [Confidence is] something you definitely get with experience, with age and more playing time. Hopefully, I can just keep getting better week in and week out.”

If he keeps turning in the kind of performances he has to date, the crowd noise is likely to be off the chart when the Timbers, who are close to selling out every home game, finally get into the friendly confines of the former Civic Stadium.

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While Gleeson was keeping Portland in the game against New England, another MLS newcomer was engineering a heroic turnaround for the league’s other expansion team, Vancouver Whitecaps FC. Camilo Sanvezzo, who in the fashion of his native Brazil goes by the single name Camilo, set up a 73rd –minute goal by Atiba Harris and scored twice in stoppage time to bring the Whitecaps back from three goals down into a 3-3 draw with Sporting Kansas City. It was his first MLS start, after playing the final seven minutes of the team’s 4-2 season-opening win over Toronto.