Tonight is the second meeting in four days for the Portland Timbers and the San Jose Earthquakes. Last Saturday Rodney Wallace led his club to a 2-1 win thanks to two deflected goals. They weren’t particularly pretty, but points are points and each one matters with the MLS regular season coming to a close. Having ended the Quakes’ playoff hopes last week, Portland needs to get things done at home and be cautious of injury while facing a young team with nothing to lose.
The Earthquakes are donezo, they’ve nothing but pride to fight for now. Besides that, five of their players are out tonight. Pablo Pintos is suspended following a red card late in the last match and Wondo, Victor Bernardez, Cordell Cato, and Atiba Harris are all out on international duty. While this means things should be easier for Portland, it also means that the risk of injury is heightened. (Possibly) Going into the the playoffs and with more CCL matches coming up, Portland has to be aware of their surroundings tonight.
On the Timbers side of things, Diego Valeri will be back in action after his yellow card accumulation suspension. With the Maestro starting again I don’t see anything but a Portland win. On the topic of yellow cards, both Kah and Chara are suspended after one more. Hopefully Chara won’t pick one up and be forced to miss next week’s match against RSL.
Lineups:
Portland Timbers: Portland Timbers: Donovan Ricketts; Jorge Villafana, Liam Ridgewell, Norberto Paparatto, Michael Harrington; Ben Zemanski, Diego Chara; Rodney Wallace, Diego Valeri, Darlington Nagbe; Fanendo Adi
San Jose Earthquakes: Jon Busch; JJ Koval, Jason Hernandez, Ty Harden, Shaun Francis; Shea Salinas, Jean-Baptiste Pierazzi, Sam Cronin, Yannick Djalo; Tommy Thompson; Adam Jahn
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