Vancouver makes their final regular season trip to Providence Park on Saturday.
by Matt Hoffman
Dating back to May 27th, the Portland Timbers have won five straight home games at Providence Park. With a win on Saturday against Vancouver (7:30 PM Root Sports, MLS Live), Portland could potentially hold the top spot in the Western Conference.
Not bad for a team that was bottom of that same table a mere six weeks ago.
“Squad rotation” has been the maudlin descriptor Timbers beat writers gave to last weeks loss against Philadelphia where three Timbers players made their 2015 MLS debuts. Coach Caleb Porter bemoaned the loss but added:
“…but with the injuries we did look at it as an opportunity to continue to build our depth in several positions. We really haven’t rotated our left back, right back or goalkeeper so we were able to get Taylor Peay in at right back, Jeanderson at left back, and [Andrew] Weber in goal, to get these guys a game. Perhaps it didn’t help us get the result tonight but it’ll help us in the big picture, in the long run that we were able to get some minutes for some guys to see where our depth lies for the final stretch of league play.”
Adi will be testing the depth of the Caps back-line.
Yet Adam Larson Kwarasey is still tied for the league lead in shut-outs with eight. Helping him in this regard is t1he rumored return of Alvas Powell. Powell hasn’t played for Jamaica and is reportedly coming back to Portland and may be able to play on Saturday as will presumably Jorge Villafana.
Vancouver has had the better run of form against the Timbers so far this season winning 2-1 in March and drawing at the previous match in Portland. However the Caps are also on a two-game losing streak most recently losing 1-0 at home to Sporting Kansas City.
Despite the loses, the Whitecaps, along with Seattle, remain atop the Western Conference table on 32 points, just one better than the Timbers but only three points out of 7th place in what has become a packed house with six teams standing between 30 and 32 points.
The Whitecaps meanwhile look to be playing on the road without either of their starting center-backs.Kendall Waston will be joining the team in New Jersey, while Pa Modou Kah is sidelined with an injury.
That’s welcome news for the Timbers who despite signing a new striker currently trail only Columbus MLS in shots. But relying on less capable defenders will likely result in more fouls: a category Vancouver is dominating against an opponent in the Timbers who have drawn more fouls than any other team in MLS.
Recent circumstances and a look at the the big picture would conspire to convince you that the day will be carried by the home-side as the Whitecaps have only twice in 13 all-time MLS meetings between the teams.
However, the short-term would disagree: Both Whitecaps victories came in the last five meetings. In fact, Caps have come away with points in three of the last four encounters at Providence Park.
With the temperature spiking late Saturday afternoon, the evening game will be a hot blooded affair, with both the Cascadia Cup and the possible capture of first place in the conference up for grabs.
