The San Jose Earthquakes have never won a regular season match against the Portland Timbers at Providence Park and look to be in prime position to end that streak on Saturday, April 16th. Both teams are coming off of midweek matches with wildly different results and wildly different starts to the 2016 season, now six games in.
San Jose took care of business at home with a 2-0 win over New York Red Bulls on Wednesday with goals from Fatai Alashe and Chris Wondolowski, who now leads the league with five goals in six games. Not only does the win put them in a tie for third in the West, the goal extends the team’s scoring streak to 19 straight games with a goal.
It was a completely different story in Portland as the Timbers came out flat in the first half and found themselves down 3-0 to FC Dallas just 30 minutes into the match. Portland would pull one back in the second half but it wasn’t enough to prevent Dallas from securing their first win in Portland by a score of 3-1. The defending MLS champs sit in a tie for eighth in the West now and with injuries to Darlington Nagbe, Liam Ridgewell, and Darion Asprilla, it looks to be an uphill battle for the Timbers.
Adam Kwarasey and his Timber teammates leave the field disappointed with their 3-1 loss to Dallas.
Ridgewell missed the first meeting between the two sides in San Jose earlier this season and his absence was noticeable as the Quakes scored two goals in the first half as the home side held on to a 2-1 win. It looks as though he’ll miss this match as well and we’re still waiting to hear if Nat Borchers will be ready to go Saturday after taking a boot to the face while diving for a header against Dallas and possibly suffering a broken nose. Portland has already spent four of their six matches down 2-0 this season and if they can’t find effective replacements at defense, they could find themselves down 2-0 again to San Jose.
Dallas took advantage of Portland’s lax midfield play in the first half to force turnovers and create goals. If they can’t remedy that issue against San Jose, expect Quincy Amarikwa to have his way against the Timbers. Amarikwa’s ridiculous goal against Portland in their first meeting came from him muscling the ball off the Timbers’ midfield and then beating a pair of defenders before chipping keeper Adam Kwarasey. Portland will have to be vigilant when Amarikwa is in their area or San Jose is going to get breaks and is going to get behind defenders just like Dallas did on Wednesday.
Chris Wondolowski is now 4th on the MLS career-goals-scored list.
San Jose has been finding success as of late by forcing turnovers in the middle of the field and final third and then getting the ball wide and putting dangerous crosses in the box. Wondolowski tied Ante Razov for fourth on the all-time scoring list with 114 goals thanks to a run of play starting with Matias Perez Garcia forcing a turnover, and finishing with a Wondolowski header in the box off a Shea Salinas cross. If they can continue to put pressure on the Timbers in Portland’s end, they are going to get scoring opportunities and barring a fantastic game from Kwarasey they’re going to score goals.
The Quakes are going to have to stop the Timbers’ attack as well though as Fanendo Adi and Diego Valeri are always going to be dangerous in front of goal. If there were any concerns defensively for San Jose after the Red Bulls match, it’s that keeper David Bingham is prone to being overaggressive when defending crosses. San Jose’s defense is going to have to make sure they clear Bingham’s punches and cover their keepers line in case he makes a costly mistake.
They will also have to make sure the mistakes from last week’s match in Dallas don’t show up again to ruin an otherwise great performance from the Quakes. San Jose could have left Dallas with all three points had it not been for a careless foul in the box from Shaun Francis and an own goal from Victor Bernardez. Clarence Goodson’s injury is part of the problem as he is the leader of that backline and Kofi Sarkodie has yet to see the field since signing with the club.
With the quick turnaround, it’s possible that coach Dominic Kinnear will insert Sarkodie into the starting XI if only to get fresh legs into the lineup but regardless the San Jose defense will have to stay alert for all 90 minutes of the match if they want to keep Portland off the board.
Caleb Porter will have some tough decisions to make this weekend. Image credit Diego G Diaz.
Both coaches are going to have big decisions to make when it comes to their starting lineups on Saturday with both teams having played three games since last Saturday (San Jose 3 in 8 days, Portland 3 in 7 days). It’s possible that even if Borchers doesn’t have a broken nose that he will need the rest as well as Jack Jewsbury who seemed to be lacking fitness on Wednesday.
Coach Caleb Porter could have a few other ideas as well after poor games from Lucas Melano and Ned Grabavoy, who was subbed off at half for the much more effective Jack McInerney. Kinnear seems to have less big decisions to make and more options with his lineup thanks to a deep bench and strong performances from multiple players. Simon Dawkins could be back in the lineup after coming on as a late sub against New York and Alberto Quintero could as well.
Kickoff is scheduled for 7:30 PM and will be broadcast on ROOT Sports-NW in Portland and CSN-CA in San Jose.
San Jose Earthquakes
Portland Timbers
