Phil Neville heaped reward on Portland Timbers’ star man Evander and has urged him to convey his combating spirit to their conflict with Actual Salt Lake on Saturday.
The Timbers have misplaced simply one among their final 4 MLS matches, although that did come of their final highway match towards Colorado Rapids.
They sit eighth within the Western Convention after beating leaders LA Galaxy 4-2 in midweek.
Evander was the star of that recreation, and Neville is hoping he could make an identical impression after they journey to Salt Lake.
“In Evander, we’ve received somebody taking part in to an MVP degree,” Neville stated.
“I stated it from in all probability the primary month of the season that he’s one of the best quantity 10 within the league and folks laughed at me, however what I’ve seen is somebody who’s an unbelievable footballer with an unbelievable expertise.
“We’re proud to have him in our organisation. He’s combating like mad for the workforce.”
Otro partido, otra previa#RSLvDAL | @AFCU
— Actual Salt Lake (@realsaltlake) September 20, 2024
In the meantime, RSL are as much as second within the desk following their midweek win over FC Dallas.
They’ve alternated between a win and a loss for the reason that MLS restarted after the Leagues Cup, and head coach Pablo Mastroeni is cautious of the risk they may face from Portland.
“I feel if there’s an early objective it is going to open a little bit bit, however Portland defend very well as a workforce and their entrance 4 are among the finest within the league,” he advised KSL Sports activities.
“The onus is on us to be defensively tight, compact, to not permit simple possibilities for these guys. Extra vital for us is to benefit from our alternatives.
“We have to finetune that defensive mentality as a result of video games are getting tighter, so for us, it’s about doing all the pieces actually good.”
PLAYERS TO WATCH
Actual Salt Lake – Anderson Julio
Anderson Julio notched his second brace of the season in Actual Salt Lake’s win over FC Dallas.
Julio is the third RSL participant with a number of video games with 2+ objectives in 2024 (Cristian Arango – 5, Andres Gomez – 4), making this season the primary time the membership has had three totally different gamers with 2+ multi-goal video games.
Portland Timbers – Evander
Evander had two objectives and an help on Wednesday to maneuver his common season totals for 2024 to 14 objectives and 17 assists.
That is the twenty third time an MLS participant has had 17 or extra assists in a single common season with Evander’s 14 objectives being probably the most throughout any of these (next-most, 12 by Preki in 1997 & 2003).
10 for 10 consis