(6) Portland Timbers (13, 13, 6, 45 points) vs (11) Sporting Kansas City (10, 15, 7, 37 points)
Sunday, September 29, 2019 4:30 PM PST/7:30 PM EST
Children’s Mercy Park, Kansas City, Kansas
Portland Timbers at a glance
Forget Wednesday night, as this match is already in the books for the Portland Timbers, the need to seal their ticket for the postseason is with a win against a decimated Sporting Kansas City.
Finally, the Portland Timbers are being considered as a team to seize a spot for the playoffs by the league experts, but with a win, in what has been known in the past as their house of horrors.
Still nothing is impossible and after a great game played in midweek against the Revolution, this team still has proven hungry to win, despite being victims of controversial refereeing.
Furthermore, for manager Giovanni Savarese, he is aware of the reason his team needs to step up its game and be extremely careful of its foes, after being eliminated from playoff contention.
Consequently, for SKC this upcoming game means a lot for them, one to put a stop to their four-game losing skid and another reason to play the hated role of spoilers.
For that reason, this game will have all the elements like a grand finale.
No time for mistakes for the Portland Timbers, as a win probably can put them in the grand fete of the playoffs, as they Timbers already defeated SKC at Providence Park on September 7.
Despite Benny Feilhaber opening beautiful goal, this was canceled later by Jeremy Ebobisse equalizer and Brian Fernandez scoring the game winner, Portland got a valuable 2-1 win.
GK Steve Clark, Jorge Moreira, Larry’s Mabiala, Bill Tuiloma, Jorge Villafaña; Cristhian Paredes, Diego Chara; Sebastian Blanco, Diego Valeri, Jeremy Ebobisse; Brian Fernandez
Sporting Kansas City at a glance
Not a season envisioned by manager Peter Vermes after his squad making the playoffs in eight consecutive years, this season Children’s Mercy Park, this year will not live its excitement.
A blueprint and project filled with several setbacks, for manager Vermes and company, as their only consolation, is to get even against the Portland Timbers, and spoil their party with a win.
For the Midwest Boys a win will be somehow a sweet taste of revenge for a team that in the past has eliminated them from the postseason, a rematch will be put in the field come Sunday.
In the end, this Sunday match will be one contested affair between these two sides, for the Timbers a tie is not in their minds but a win, as the question arises if SKC will go down that easily.
GK Tim Melia, Graham Zusi, Botond Barath, Ilie Sanchez, Luis Martins; Felipe Gutierrez, Roger Espinoza; Johnny Russell, Gianluca Busio, Daniel Salloi; Krisztian Nemeth
Meetings
September 7, 2019 Portland Timbers 2-1 SKC
November 29, 2018 SKC 2-3 Portland Timbers
November 25, 2018 Portland Timbers 0-0 SKC
August 18, 2018 SKC 3-0 Portland Timbers
June 19, 2018 Portland Timbers 0-0 SKC
Forecast
The Portland Timbers, come as overall favorites but SKC can play the spoiler
Portland Timbers
Sporting Kansas City
