Kris Boyd scored on his competitive debut as Portland beat Philadelphia 3-1 on a wet night in Oregon. After a turgid first half, Portland side went 1-0 down six minutes into the second half. The scorer of that goal was a Portland defender, Brooklyn native Andrew-Jean Baptiste, a youngster also making his MLS debut. Within two minutes he leveled at the other end.
Boyd's moment was to come. He rose to angle a perfectly glanced header into the Union net. Kalif Alhassan, the Ghanaian who supplied the cross, added a third. Boyd, still not fully fit, made little impact otherwise but that didn't matter to the 20,438 crowd. He said: "It’s always good to get your first goal, because that’s always the hardest one to get, to get off the mark. I enjoyed tonight. I got my first MLS goal in front of the fans out there. Hopefully, in the next two weeks I can start scoring on a regular basis."His manager John Spencer was appreciative of the effort of the underfit Scotsman. He said: "I'm hoping that he can go on, stay healthy, go on to score a lot of goals and become a legend here. He definitely has the goal-scoring ability to do that, that’s why he’s here.”With the 3-1 win, Portland are the early leaders after one game, equal with Real Salt Lake who shocked David Beckham's LA Galaxy by winning 3-1 in California. The reigning champions from LA went the entire season undefeated at home in 2011. Both Real Salt Lake and Portland will be enjoying leading them by three points, even if it is so early.
Source: FOOTYMAD
