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Streaking San Jose tangles with struggling Timbers

Jul 2, 2012 - 6:29 PM Portland, OR (Sports Network) - San Jose's 4-3 comeback win over the Los Angeles Galaxy is the type of result that can turn around a season.

Or in the case of the Earthquakes, add even more momentum to an already good one.

San Jose entered its showdown with the Galaxy on Saturday atop the Western Conference and having won three of its last four games.

But the 'Quakes fell behind 3-1 in the first half before getting a goal from Victor Bernardez in the 44th minute to spark the rally.

"Without that goal, they probably bunker in a bit, having that two-goal lead, and make it really, really difficult for us to break them down, like they have in the past," Earthquakes defender Jason Hernandez said of the goal from Bernardez.

"Coming into halftime, we're feeling like we have the game in our hands. We can do what we want with the match."

What San Jose did was come out and score two more goals after the break to secure an impressive win, which moves the club four points clear at the top of the Western table.

But Frank Yallop's men will face a quick turnaround on the road on Tuesday as they travel to Jeld-Wen Field to take on a struggling Portland Timbers side.

Portland is just two points from the bottom of the West after getting off to a poor start which the club has yet to recover from.

One win from six games to start the year pushed Portland toward the bottom early on, and with just three wins from its subsequent nine games, the club is still sitting in a bad spot.

A 2-1 win over Seattle two games ago was reason for optimism, but Portland came crashing back down again on Saturday, suffering a 3-0 defeat at Colorado.

"I thought that we came out slow from the get-go," Portland captain Jack Jewsbury said of the loss to the Rapids. "We were second to everything. Bottom line, it wasn't good enough. Now we've got to pick our heads up, we've got a quick turnaround, which for us I think is a good thing. Look back on this one; it's not a good memory. It's one of those things where now we've got to get back against a tough team on Tuesday, in San Jose and pick our heads up and move on."

Portland has been shutout six times already this season, so there is no real question as to where improvement needs to be made.

There is still a lot of time left in the season, but goalkeeper Troy Perkins is already putting pressure on his team to come up with a big result on Tuesday in order to put the poor start behind them.

"You can't linger about things," said Perkins. "We've got a game in a little over 48 hours now. If we don't get points in this game, we're in a really bad spot. We've got to keep pushing and keep pressing."