by Matt Hoffman
By beating Sporting Kansas City after an extended bout of penalty kicks, the Timbers have now beaten each Western Conference teams save one, the Vancouver Whitecaps.
The Timbers will get two chances to rectify this in the coming home-and-home series that begins Sunday at 2 PM (ESPN).
With ten wins in eighteen matches, the Vancouver Whitecaps were on top of Major League Soccer. Since July, injuries and poor results saw the team flounder going 1-3-2 over their last six games.
Despite seemingly backing into the playoffs Whitecaps Head Coach Carl Robinson mused, “Over 34 games, the league doesn’t lie. It evens itself out. We deserve to be where we are.”
Balanced out alongside the Whitecaps sits the Portland Timbers tied with Vancouver on points (Vancouver won the tie breaker by virtue of having more wins).
The Timbers have a short turnaround following Thursday’s exhilarating win.
The two teams took divergent paths to get here. One spent much of the calendar with the one of the best records in the conference, the other spending much of the season flirting with disaster.
But the teams share much more than just a regional affiliation.
The Whitecaps allowed the fewest goals in MLS this year with 36. The Timbers, tied for third with 39. Their respective goalkeepers, David Ousted and Adam Kwarasey, had 13 shutouts apiece.
Like the Timbers, the ‘Caps have lost key players to injury. Uruguayan midfielder Nicolas Mezquida and Captain Pedro Morales who are both dealing with hamstring issues.
Jewsbury played well on Thursday but fatigue has to be a factor.
Morales has only made two starts since June but many signs point to Mezquida being ready to go on Sunday. The ‘Caps are are 8-2-2 in games which Mezquida starts and 3-1-0 and when the trio of Mezquida, Octavio Rivero and Cristian Techera all start.
Like the Timbers, Vancouver tends to use a 4-2-3-1 set up with Rivero being the target man. The slight Uruguayan started the season with a bang but his production has tapered off. Regardless, tracking him will be a challenge for the entire backline given Rivero’s penchant for switching the field.
Vancouver is a young team. Under Carl Robinson Vancouver has defining wins in both Seattle and on the road to the Galaxy. In that same time they never managed to beat Chivas USA both losing at home and failing to win in another match despite having a man advantage for nearly 80 minutes.
(Tangent: Did you know that Oswaldo Minda took his talents to Barcelona? Not that Barcelona, this one.)
Even if it weren’t a Cascadia match (let alone a playoff game) expect Sunday to be a physical game. Vancouver is scrappy (second in fouls) and the Timbers will be understandably tired.
Defensive midfielder is a position of concern for the Timbers going into the match.
Jack Jewsbury played admirably on Thursday but showed his fatigue on his penalty shot. Will Johnson has been on the bench for a couple of matches now. His insertion would be a surprise but a welcome one. The fact that Chara didn’t even dress is concerning. Ben Zemanski is a good dresser but still on the IR.
That leaves George Fochive who is young, raw, but still offers physicality and is a good marker.
The play of the 23-year-old Fochive could be crucial for the Timber’s playoff ambitions.
It’s too quick a turnaround but it’s worth asking if Porter is pondering shifting one of backline players into the holding role. One possibility being putting Ridgewell in the role and pairing Borchers with Papparatto.
Vancouver will try to get a road goal if possible but would be content with a 0-0 scoreline so it’s worth wondering how strong a lineup Porter will bring out. Perhaps Porter would also be content with a 0-0 scoreline to yield a winner-takes-all showdown in Vancouver.
