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Giovinco's stunner lifts Toronto FC past Portland

Reuters

Toronto - Sebastian Giovinco's first-half laser proved to be the difference on Saturday at Toronto FC claimed a 1-0 victory over the Portland Timbers at BMO Field.

After spending the first seven matches of the season on the road, TFC returned home hoping to please the home fans and did just that as Giovinco netted in the opening five minutes to help the club claim its fourth victory of the season.

Toronto was on the front foot from the outset as Giovinco got on the end of a quick through ball from Luke Moore and uncorked a wicked, curling, left-footed strike that flew past Portland goalkeeper Adam Kwarasey into the side netting for the Italian's fifth goal of the season.

After making it to the halftime break only down by one goal, Portland upped its tempo in the second half and created many more scoring opportunities.

The best of which came with 10 minutes to play as substitute Max Urruti let a strike go with pace that looked ticketed for the bottom right corner, but Toronto goalkeeper Chris Konopka got down quickly to his left to palm it out of play.

Portland sent numbers forward as the fourth official's board showed three minutes of added time, but the visitors could not find a late equalizer to suffer their second consecutive defeat.

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