When the Timbers lost their third straight game on April 4th to Chivas USA, things looked about as bad for the club as at any time in recent memory, not just because of their record, but because of their upcoming schedule. The two games after that loss – away at the Galaxy and home against Sporting Kansas City – looked like two of the hardest fixtures of the season, for nearly opposite reasons. LA is a side that was playing far below their potential, and was eventually going to break out. Sporting is a team playing to the limit of theirs.
Despite a generally good performance in LA, with vast improvements across our defensive play in particular, we lost to two perfectly placed shots from Juninho and David Beckham. Now, we face a Kansas City side on seven wins from seven games, perfect despite having to play some of their most difficult games already – away at Real Salt Lake, the Galaxy and Vancouver. If they beat us, their reign continues to an incredible 8-game perfect streak. If we pull out the win, we not only show again that we can beat anyone on our day, but we avoid a fifth straight loss.
In one sense, the pressure is certainly on Portland. We sit in last place in the West, five points from the nearest playoff spot, while Kansas City is eleven points above the second place side in the East, and holds a fifteen-point playoff buffer. On the other hand, though, this is a game that no one expects us to win. We are the underdog, but we get to be the underdog in our stadium, in front of our fans, and with a team that is improving in their worst areas. That makes us dangerous.
Kansas City has been a defensive powerhouse this season. Though they are by far the best team in MLS 2012 so far, they have had a pretty unremarkable attack. Twelve goals in seven games isn’t bad – we’d take it, in a second – but it’s hardly dominating. But when Sebastian Le Toux poached his headed goal in the Whitecaps’ loss to KC on Wednesday, it was only the second goal Sporting had conceded in seven games. That’s dominance. They have five clean sheets in seven games, four of which were 1-0 wins.
Last season, we also hosted the best team in the league at Jeld-Wen Field. The LA Galaxy had lost one game in two months leading up to their visit. They were coming off of two straight clean sheets in the league. The Timbers had sustained our first back-to-back home losses of the season, and were feeling like the opening shine of JWF had come off. We couldn’t even beat Toronto at home, drawing 2-2.
Everyone who wears green on Saturdays in Portland remembers what happened. 3-0 to the Timbers, on goals from Chabala, Perlaza and Brunner. We completely shut down the most dominant team in MLS that night, and afterward, we went on to win our next three at home.
It can be done. Kansas City is tired, coming off of a mid-week fixture in which they started all of their stars. They did concede on Wednesday, confirming that they are in fact mortal. If we are going to go one better than Vancouver and hold KC to a draw or even a loss, we need a few things. First, we need Jack Jewsbury to either step up and be a captain or get off the pitch. I love the guy – he’s a class act and no one in MLS will say a word against his character – but he’s been really disappointing and if he can’t get it together for this game, against his old club, he needs to sit. Second, we need Kris Boyd and Darlington Nagbe to be on at the same time. Boyd has shown signs of his old poaching self, taking every advantage given to him, but he hasn’t really created much for himself yet. Nagbe has done nothing but create, giving us our best goal of the campaign so far, but the two have yet to score in the same match. No one has scored two on KC, and only Dallas has scored first against them. Despite our problems holding leads, we need to open strong and take them out of this comfort zone. That will be largely up to Nagbe and Boyd, though if Jorge Perlaza wants to pull something out that I’m not expecting, that’s all right too.
For a prediction, I think we’re actually in store for a surprise. The Timbers are improving, and desperate for a result. It’s a funny old game, and a team this talented doesn’t stay down forever. I’m calling for a 2-1 Timbers win. See you Saturday. RCTID.
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