Portland Timbers at Colorado Rapids: Match Preview

A quick glance at the Western Conference standings shows Portland sitting nicely in second place on 24 points with the Rapids propping up the table at rock bottom with only a paltry 13 points. Pencil one in the win column for the visitors? If you do then make sure your eraser is at hand.

While Colorado endured a terrible start to the season with only 4 points and 5 goals in their first eight games, there is now mounting evidence of a resurgence – at least when they play at home. In the last 5 league games they have won all 3 of their home fixtures, scoring 6 in the process while conceding only one goal. Add to the mix a thrilling 3-2 comeback win in the Open Cup last Tuesday night, after going 2 down to USL side Oklahoma and you have a very dangerous home side.

Meanwhile, Portland, after breaking their horrendous (zero wins) away record from 2016 with 2 road wins in their first 5 games this season, have not impressed on their travels of late. They took a nice point in Dallas, but have also recorded 4 losses.

So the form guide here favors the home side.

But with Fanendo Adi and Diego Valeri in top form, Portland are always in with a chance. Both men are currently on an impressive 8 goals for the season, with Adi breaking out of a dry spell, scoring 2 on Dallas last weekend. The visitors will also welcome back Darlington Nagbe from USMNT duty, he started and played well in the 2-0 win in Colorado against Trinidad and Tobago and picked up some minutes off the bench in the 1-1 draw in the Azteca stadium. Dairon Asprilla has filled in admirably during Nagbe’s absence, but will likely return to the bench for this game. Nagbe’s return presents Caleb Porter with a little conundrum.

Prior to coming to MLS Sebastian Blanco had a very successful season with San Lorenzo playing on the left wing, but Portland moved him to the right side, in order to try Nagbe on the left.  Both have been playing well, but Blanco had a couple of his best games on the left in Nagbe’s absence, while for the USMNT Nagbe played well on the right – so Porter may be tempted to try a switch.

Considering Colorado’s right flank consists of attack minded fullback Marlon Hairston behind the dangerous Albanian Shkëlzen Gashi this could prove a crucial decision. While nominally a winger, Nagbe likes to drift into a deeper position to run counters – but he doesn’t bring a lot to the table defensively for a player who likes to lurk in that part of the field. Contrast with Blanco’s latest game against Dallas, were he led the team with 3 successful tackles and posted 6 recoveries. Allowing Blanco to continue on the left, while pushing Nagbe up more as an orthodox right winger (making vertical runs like he did for the USMNT recently) could be an interesting look for the visitors.

But the defensive midfield and center back positions are probably causing the Portland staff a little more of a headache right now. In the last game they lost both center-backs Liam Ridgewell (quad) and Roy Miller (foot sprain) to injury. Ridgewell is definitely out for this game but Miller was reported as being back in training during the week. If Miller is good to start he will do so alongside Lawrence Olum and with David Guzman to serve a suspension for yellow card accumulation, expect Amobi Okugo to start in front of the back four with Diego Chara. Olum and Okugo showed the value of flexible players in MLS in the last game, both of them played in defensive midfield positions and ended up in defense. Porter called that transition ‘seamless’ and it would be hard to argue with that as keeping a clean sheet with both center backs going down injured was an impressive feat.

Colorado have been running a 442 with Irish international Kevin Doyle pairing with Senegal’s Dominic Badji up front. They have their own issues in defense with Bobby Burling missing following knee surgery – but they will welcome back 6’7″ Swedish colossus Axel Sjöberg in his place (spell-check wanted to make that jarlsberg – which is a very tasty cheese, but I one I would expect Fanendo Adi to score on). Tim Howard was surprisingly dropped to the bench by Bruce Arena for the USA Mexico qualifier, but should be back to man the net for the Rapids.

Portland’s 4231 should find some ability to hold possession in the middle against Colorado’s 442, as they did successfully against Dallas in a similar formational clash last Saturday. Can Portland click on the attacking side and will their patchwork defense hold-up, or can Colorado make it 5 home wins in a row? This might be a surprisingly high scoring encounter and Portland fans are hereby give a ‘trigger warning’ that a certain Alan Gordon will likely be coming off the bench to attack late set-pieces.