UPDATE - Central Defender Nas Koubourous, the #13 who went out injured in the second half was diagnosed with a torn ACL and MCL in his right knee this morning.

Once again, big thanks to Micheal Janosz for his photos from last nights Lamar Hunt Open Cup match against the Portland Timbers.

Great glancing header on the goal by Portland’s Arsene Oka.

Junior cutting it back against Portland’s Dombrowski.

I never could keep my mouth shut.

Earl Alexander scoring the winner off a deflection with his second touch of the match.

While it’s a heartbreaking and frustrating result for the Portland Timbers (especially with 6 games in 9 days), if you knew the guys on this team, you’d be pretty amazed by their stories.

The players that make up Hollywood United come from all walks of life. From well off to struggling, from guys who’ve had a few opportunities to guys that had none, these guys show up twice a week to train and on for games on the weekends because they love the game.

They don’t play for money and to be honest, they lose money by making the sacrifice to be a part of this team to play.

Last night we lost our defensive leader Nas Koubourous to either a torn ACL or PCL when Takayuki Suzuki bungled into him just outside the 18 yard box. This morning at 4am, Nas headed to the airport to wait standby for a flight, caught it and by 8am was on site working this morning as a high rise welder.

I can’t even imagine..

I can never truly find the right words to express the admiration I have for these guys and I can’t even begin to tell you what that game meant to them. It was their one chance to play at the highest level, if only for one match.

For this group to come from behind twice and pull out a victory showed how bad the players wanted to prove themselves against a much higher standard.

They will always know that Portland didn’t field their first 11, but when they pulled that gold shirt over their heads last night before kickoff, they were pros for that 92+ minutes.