Phil Neville believes the Portland Timbers haven’t picked up the factors their performances have warranted this season, however he is aware of the time has come for them to place their foot down forward of Sunday’s Cascadia Derby towards the Seattle Sounders.
Portland sit twelfth within the Western Convention standings, beneath the Sounders on purpose distinction, after going eight MLS matches and not using a victory.
Their 10 factors via 11 video games in 2024 represents their joint-worst return at this level of any MLS marketing campaign (alongside 2014).
Neville, nevertheless, believes they’ve deserved extra as they put together for a run of three house video games of their subsequent 4.
“I feel the very first thing to say is we don’t make any excuses – the outcomes haven’t been pretty much as good as we needed,” he stated.
“We’ve not obtained our simply rewards however now we stay up for a stretch the place we’ve obtained to carry out higher and get higher outcomes, we’ve obtained to place our foot down on the fuel.”
The Sounders have additionally struggled this time period, although they’ve taken 4 factors from their final two MLS video games towards the Philadelphia Union (3-2) and LA Galaxy (0-0).
They then overcame Louisville Metropolis on penalties within the U.S. Open Cup in midweek, and coach Brian Schmetzer hopes they’ll keep it up their momentum from that sport on Sunday.
“This membership has had a protracted historical past within the U.S. Open Cup, I just like the event. It was definitely a problem towards an excellent, well-coached Louisville staff,” Schmetzer stated.
“We got here out on high and hopefully this propels us a little bit bit in our league play.”
Get to know the Cascadia Cup
There’s extra than simply three regular-season factors on the road once we face Seattle on Sunday. #RCTID
— Portland Timbers (@TimbersFC) Might 10, 2024
PLAYERS TO WATCH
Portland Timbers – Maxime Crepeau
Portland have conceded a minimum of as soon as in a club-record 17 successive regular-season matches, permitting 37 objectives in that point.
Goalkeeper Crepeau has confronted 41 photographs to date in MLS this time period, stopping 1.13 objectives based on Opta’s anticipated objectives on track (xGoT) mannequin, conceding 14 instances from 15.8 xGoT confronted.
Seattle Sounders – Raul Ruidiaz
Ruidiaz has 12 objectives in 16 earlier MLS matches towards Portland (together with playoffs), essentially the most objectives scored by any participant towards the Timbers in MLS play.
It’s additionally essentially the most objectives scored by any MLS participant towards a single opponent since Ruidiaz made his debut within the competitors in July 2018.
MATCH PREDICTION – PORTLAND TIMBERS WIN
The Timbers are unbeaten in six straight matches towards the Sounders (4 wins, two attracts), the longest streak in all competitions by both staff within the MLS period of their rivalry.
Portland have additionally received their final two house matches towards Seattle after the Sounders received 4 of the earlier 5 conferences at Windfall Park.
Seattle’s 10 factors via 11 matches this season are tied for the second-worst begin in membership historical past, having solely collected eight factors at this stage in 2018. Although the Timbers have been in dismal type themselves recently, this fixture may come at an excellent time for them.
OPTA WIN PROBABILITY
Portland Timbers – 41.5%
Seattle Sounders – 30%
Draw – 28.5%