Match Preview: Portland Timbers @ Sporting Kansas City

A wild afternoon in St. Paul, two draws at home and then some Italians in Canada.

The past few weeks have been a bit rough for the Portland Timbers, who are without a win in their last four games. They just watched their unbeaten summer streak come to an end and are still treading water below the playoff line.

The time Portland has to rise above the line is running out fast. The pressure is on as they face their second straight away game when they head to Children’s Mercy Park to take on Sporting Kansas City.

A look at the opposition

The last time the Timbers played Sporting a few months ago, they ethered them at home, producing this amazing content in the process:

Unfortunately for this brave but poor fan, things haven’t been much better for Sporting since then. The once-steadfast contenders for the trophy are bottom of the Western Conference and are on course to finish near or at the bottom of the table for the second time in four years.

The reason for their troubles was pretty simple: SKC didn’t score enough goals and they are unable to keep their opponents off the scoreboard. Sporting have the worst goal difference in the entire league (-22) and also have the fewest goals in the league (26). They don’t hate the underlying numbers as much as their record would suggest (San Jose and the few teams in the Eastern Conference have worse expected goals difference per 90 minutes), but the conclusion the stats suggest is hard to refute. Sporting Kansas City is one of the worst teams in MLS this season.

Jay Biggerstaff-USA TODAY Sports

With all that said, we have to remember that this is still Sporting Kansas City. They have a masterful pedigree, a masterful coach and players who still have quality. Attackers Johnny Russel and Daniel Salloi have tried to play their part, scoring seven and five goals respectively this season. Recently acquired forward William Agada has also scored three goals in his last two games.

Indeed, Sporting seem to have found their goalscoring shoes lately. After going goalless for three games in a row, their last two encounters were a 4-2 win over LA Galaxy and a narrow 4-3 loss to Austin FC, where Austin had to come from a deficit and score two goals in the final five minutes plus Overtime to steal the win.

All in all, Sporting Kansas City is a bad team that could be capable of an offensive explosion if the stars are right. And because this is MLS, you never know when these stars will align and when some chaos will be unleashed.

Timber’s Team News & Outlook

*Takes a deep breath, knocks on wood, fingers crossed.* The Timbers are finally healthy (again). The injury report lists only Felipe Mora and Nathan Fogaca out for the game and rookie Diego Gutierrez, who was recovering from foot surgery, as doubtful.

Of course, that makes Portland skinny — but that’s basically been the story all year. At this point, the Timbers’ only real forward for the rest of the year will be Jaroslaw Niezgoda. So as long as he’s healthy, getting to the top is probably as good as it gets.

More importantly, Portland’s midfield appears to be back at 100%. Cristhian Paredes is said to be available on Sunday and Eryk Williamson is keen to return to the starting XI. Both players are increasing the ceiling of Portland’s midfield and with more momentum from that area, more space is likely to be created for the likes of Sebastian Blanco, Yimmi Chara and Santiago Moreno against SKC.

After a game last week in which the Timbers struggled to create clear chances, getting the offensive going again is probably the top priority for Giovanni Savarese and Co. And when Portland is able to shoot against an opponent who couldn’t keep the ball out of the net, then a win at a venue Portland hasn’t won in the regular season since 2013(!) could be easy be ok the cards.

forecast

Dear reader, I am faced with a dilemma here.

On the one hand, this is a game that Portland should win on paper by all means. The now healthy Timbers have too many good players and Sporting have been just plain bad this year.

But on the other hand…how much confidence do I have that Portland can get things together (again)? Times have been rough lately and Portland’s hot start to the summer has decidedly cooled. I could just as easily watch them lose a winnable game as come out victorious.

But in the end I’ll ride with the guys – but it won’t be nice. I’m predicting a 3-2 decision in favor of the Timbers with Sebastian Blanco scoring a brace and Eryk Williamson adding another. Sporting will score in the last ten minutes, leaving the Timbers defending for their lives at the end of the game, but then we can all breathe a sigh of relief (and exhaustion) the whole time.