PORTLAND, Ore. -- Diego Valeri and Fanendo Adi scored second-half goals to give the Portland Timbers a 2-1 victory over the Philadelphia Union on SaturdayThe victory gave Portland (11-11-8) 41 points and moved it ahead of Sporting Kansas City for fifth place in the Western Conference. The loss kept Philadelphia (11-11-8) at 41 points. The Union are fourth in the Eastern Conference.I couldnt be more proud of these guys, Portland coach Caleb Porter said. The nice thing is were starting to get that continuity and that consistency, like we always do. We smell the postseason and you can see it in the performances at home.In the first minute of the half, Portlands Darren Mattocks turned past defender Keegan Rosenberry on the Philadelphia end line, then delivered a driven pass to Valeri a couple yards from goal. From that close, it was a simple task for the forward to redirect the ball past goalkeeper Andre Blake for his 12th goal of the season.You see how hard (Mattocks) works. Three or four times, he was able to press the back line. If you look at the first goal, it all comes from his workrate, Porter said.Less than a minute later, Philadelphia evened the score. Fabian Herbers drove toward the edge of the Portland penalty area, where two defenders forced him into overrunning the ball. Fortunately for the Union, Chris Pontius was following the play and jumped on the stationary ball, slamming a left-footed shot past Portland goalkeeper Jake Gleeson for his 11th goal.Portland regained the lead in the 53rd minute, with Mattocks again setting things up. After collecting a poor clearance by Rosenberry, Mattocks attempted a 12-yard shot, which deflected off Adi standing on the 6-yard line and into the goal for his 15th goal of the year.Even with two assists, Mattocks admitted he would have really enjoyed scoring. Its special against Andre Blake. We get together with the (Jamaican) National Team. That would have been icing on the cake, said Mattocks.A lot of chances created on the day. We made a couple mistakes. I think they made a couple mistakes. We got punished for ours, Philadelphia coach Jim Curtin said. Adi and Valeri were a handful and they made us pay.Valeri and Adi have scored 27 of Portlands 45 goals this season. The next highest scorer on the team is Jack McInerney with five, the last on July 13.Philadelphia finished the match with 10 players, after defender Joshua Yaro received his second yellow card of the game in the 85th minute.Disappointing that Josh gets sent off. If you watched, the first yellow card is a mistake, Curtin said. Darryl Dawkins Jersey . Malkin got tangled up with Detroits Luke Glendening early in the third period and his left skate took the brunt of collision with the boards behind Pittsburghs net. Wilt Chamberlain Jersey .C. Lions has come to an end. Banks told TSN on Jan 2 that he had no interest in playing out the option year of his contract with the Lions in 2014, and he again made that clear in a conversation with Lions GM Wally Buono last week. http://www.official76ersproshop.com/customized/ . Capitals head coach Adam Oates said Ovechkin was injured in the first period against the Vancouver Canucks on Monday and clarified it was not a head injury. Julius Erving Jersey . Ronaldo produced a spectacular individual performance on Tuesday, scoring all three goals and guiding Portugal into the next years World Cup in Brazil with a 3-2 victory in Sweden. The Real Madrid forward has scored 66 goals in 2013, but the last three may be the boost he needs to upstage Messi after FIFA unexpectedly extended the voting period for the Ballon dOr to Nov. Justin Anderson Jersey . JOHNS, N. EAST RUTHERFORD, N.J. -- When the New Orleans Saints are limited to 13 points, its easy to point a finger at No. 9 and say its Drew Brees fault.Well guess what? The 37-year-old quarterback wasnt all that bad Sunday in a 16-13 loss to the New York Giants.Brees didnt throw any interceptions and the Saints didnt turn the ball over. The offense just could not get it going against a revamped Giants defense.Big bucks went a long way in fixing a unit that allowed 52 points and surrendered seven touchdown passes to Brees and the Saints last year in a 52-49 win by New Orleans.And just maybe, the Giants defense is that good this year after spending $100 million in the offseason to sign sack threat Olivier Vernon, run stopper Damon Harrison and shutdown cornerback Janoris Jenkins. Add in cornerback Eli Apple and safety Darian Thompson in the draft, and this unit held its own against Brees.Both teams went out and made improvements on the defensive side of the ball, said Brees, who completed 29 of 44 passes for 263 yards and a touchdown. Both sides came in with a great game plan and so we knew it was going to be a hard-fought game. We thought our output would be better offensively than it was today.The Saints had chances, but they did not capitalize. They were 3 of 13 on third down and that was a major factor in the game. The Saints only had the ball for 59 plays and just under 26 minutes in time of possession, gaining 288 yards.In last years game, New Orleans had a combined 79 runs and passes and 35 minutes of possession. They gained 614 net yards.Thats 20 extra plays and Brees can do a lot with that.It wasnt pretty, but we got the job done as a defense. Im happy, and its going to get better, Giants defensive end Jason Pierre-Paul said. Were still trying to get chemistry with each other. As a unit, we still have a lot of work to do. The vibe is totally different. We know what it takes and its not an individual goal but to correct the mistakes that we made.Brees was frustrated, especially wasting a great effort by his own defense, which forced three turnoovers and did not allow a touchdown.dddddddddddd New Yorks TD came on Jenkins return of a blocked field goal.If you told me prior to the game that we would get three takeaways defensively and not allow an offensive touchdown, Id say our chances today are pretty good, Brees said. The unfortunate thing is that the blocked field goal that gets returned for a touchdown is a 10-point swing. So thats pretty devastating when you look at the way the game unfolded and then the way it finished.The Giants did an outstanding job of keeping the Saints receivers in front of them. In last years game, Brees three longest touchdowns were 53, 34 and 26 yards. His longest completion on Sunday was 23 yards.New York also made the Saints one-dimensional, limiting their running game to 41 yards on 13 carries. The Saints had 103 on 26 carries last season.We stopped the run and we were definitely getting Brees off of his spot, so that he doesnt see those open receivers if he has any and just make a play when he throws the ball, said safety Landon Collins, who had one of the Giants two sacks.Giants coach Ben McAdoo said the key for the Giants was keeping the ball away from Brees.They played fantastic, whistle-to-snap, McAdoo said of his defense. We got lined up quickly. We made sure we had our eyes where they needed to be. They played the call and they played with confidence.Brees had a couple of chances against the defense, but he did not come through.I think that I didnt do a great job of handling some of their third-down pressure stuff to sustain drives, Brees said. We got into some third-and-long situations, or third-and-longer than probably we should have. So first- and second-down efficiency can be better and then, obviously, just the ability to sustain drives and keep them on the field and keep our defense off the field and get points at the end of it.---AP NFL website: www.pro32.ap.org and AP NFL Twitter feed: www.twitter.com/AP-NFLWholesale HoodiesNFL Shirts OutletJerseys NFL WholesaleCheap NFL Jerseys Free ShippingWholesale Jerseys CheapCheap NFL Jerseys ChinaWholesale JerseysWholesale NFL JerseysCheap NFL Jerseys ChinaCheap NFL Jerseys ' ' '