The Battery and Timbers listening to the (very long) anthem.

As these teams had not met since 2001, they spent the first few minutes feeling each other out. Then in the 5th minute, the Battery came within inches of grabbing an early lead when a shot by Greg Simmonds deflected off a Timbers defender, but then went off the right post as it eluded the reach of Timbers goalkeeper Josh Saunders, who was able to push away a follow up shot by Aleksey Korol, and the Timbers defense was then able to clear.

In the 18th minute, a header off a corner kick by Charleston's Jason Kutney forced Timbers midfielder Hugo Alcaraz-Cuellar to clear it off the line. Then a few minutes later the Timbers had a good opportunity when Alex Bengard had a good look just inside the top of the box, but he couldn't get anything on the shot and it was easily controlled.

In the 26th minute, the home side had another good opportunity when Korol hit a shot from a tight angle towards the far post that was barely tipped wide by Saunders, who barely got a finger on the ball.

Then in the 28th minute, the Timbers used a counterattack to open the scoring, when after Charleston had been controlling play for much of the match to that point, a through ball from Alcaraz-Cuellar to a charging Alan Gordon had the Timbers rookie in alone, and he slipped a nice shot low to the bottom right corner of the goal to put the Timbers up 1-0.

In the 31st and 32nd minutes, the Battery had a few more good chances with play between Simmonds and Paul Conway keeping the Timbers goalkeeper busy. In the 34th minute, they had their best opportunity to break through up to that point, when Conway attempted to chip over a charging Saunders from near the top of the box, but his shot went into the top of the net instead.

But then in the 42nd minute, the Battery leveled the score when after stealing a ball from the Timbers deep in the Timbers end of the field, Simmonds made a nice cross from the right side that was put inside the right post on a header from Conway, and the teams would go to the locker room tied at 1-1.

In the 47th minute, Saunders was once again forced to come off his line to cut down the angle on a Battery shot, this time from Simmonds the Battery striker had slipped in behind the Timbers defense. In the 57th minute, the Timbers had a good opportunity of their own when Alcaraz-Cuellar managed to get an open shot after a few jukes had him past the Battery defense, but his low shot was saved by Battery goalkeeper Dusty Hudock. Then in the 63rd minute, a seemingly minor collision in the box between Timbers forward Byron Alvarez and Charleston's Mark Watson had the Battery defender on the pitch, and a red card issued to Alvarez, who was carrying a yellow already. But it appeared the referee showed a straight red to the Timbers striker for the foul, so the Timbers would play down a man for the rest of the match.

A few minutes later, Simmonds had a good look at the Timbers goal but his volley from 15 yards out was just over the bar. The match seemed destined for overtime as the Timbers were doing their best to keep control of the ball late, but the Battery did get one last chance when second-half substitute Wolde Harris headed just over the bar as the match entered stoppage time.

But then two minutes into an announced three minutes of stoppage time, a Timbers cross in the box was met with the referee unexpectedly pointing to the spot, with the call apparently being that Watson had held Gordon in the box. Bengard took the spot kick for the Timbers, and calmly chipped it into the upper left corner just seconds before the whistle blew, and a match that appeared headed for overtime was suddenly over, with the Timbers stealing a 2-1 win at Blackbaud, and remain perfect on the 2004 season with a 6-0-0 record while the defending A-League Champion Battery are still struggling at 2-4-3.