PORTLAND, Ore. – It took nearly six months, but the Portland Timbers are finally above the red line in the Western Conference.
And the last thing they want to do after the long climb out of their early season hole – dug in their first eight games in which they earned just five points – is make their current MLS Cup Playoff positioning short lived. Which is why head coach Caleb Porter spoke of building momentum on last weekend’s 3-0 away victory over the Vancouver Whitecaps, a result he called his team’s best of the season.
“It’s funny, sometimes people want to play on the letdown game; I’ve never worried about that,” Porter said after Friday’s training session at Providence Park. “When you have a good game like we had there are many more positives than there are negatives in terms of confidence. So I’m hoping we can build on that in a good way.”
Portland face the San Jose Earthquakes on Sunday in the first of three meetings between the Western Conference foes over the next four and a half weeks, with the Timbers sitting just a point above Vancouver in the fifth and final playoff spot in the conference standings. And with 8th-place San Jose trying to break their current five-game winless streak and resurrect their playoff chances, as Portland tries to put some space between them and the red line, it’s an important game for both teams, Porter said.
“That win last week really propelled us, up the league and the confidence of the boys as well,” center back Liam Ridgewell said. “… So it was a big win, and hopefully we can maintain that and build on that on Sunday.”
Porter said the fact that San Jose need three points could open the game up, benefiting Portland’s high-powered attack.
“We’re going to try to adopt a similar plan as last game – even though we were on the road, now we’re at home,” Porter said. “We’re not going to be reckless, we’re going to be smart in how we manage our lines and our shape. And we’re going to do what we do, which is score goals.”
With that similar game plan, Porter said, will come a similar lineup.
Against Vancouver, the Timbers reshuffled their backline with Alvas Powell and Jorge Villafana coming in at the two outside back positions and Pa Modou Kah re-establishing his starting center back role, alongside Ridgewell.
There is one change, however, that Porter will be forced to make thanks to the absence of winger Rodney Wallace, who was named to Costa Rica’s Copa Centroamericana roster. Wallace’s call-up comes at an inopportune time from Portland’s perspective, considering he scored his second goal of the season in the Vancouver game after returning from offseason knee injury earlier this summer. Porter said it was the first time Wallace looked like he was “100 percent.”
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Considering the deep nature of Portland’s attack – with any combination of Darlington Nagbe, Gaston Fernandez, Diego Valeri, Maximilano Urruti and Fanendo Adi available for selection – Porter shouldn’t have a hard time picking Wallace’s replacement.
“When you’ve had a good performance like we had you want to keep the same guys out there,” Porter said. “Nobody is going to change a team when you win 3-0 on the road; that would be counterintuitive. But we have to make a change because Rodney is not here.”
Dan Itel covers the Timbers for MLSsoccer.com.
