Portland Timbers enters his home conflict against Los Angeles FC on Saturday night at a unscrupulous run in five matches.
Nevertheless, Portland -Manager Phil Neville said he thinks it can take something extra to earn a result against the best side of the Western conference in recent seasons.
Yes, the timber (4-2-2, 14 points) enters the weekend tied for third place in the Western Conference, two points before LAFC. But it is based on about a quarter of the season that was played, and during a time when LAFC’s attention has been shared between MLS and Concacaf Champions Cup competition.
It is LAFC (4-4-0, 12 points) that has first ended in the West for the past three years and has stars like 2023 ML’s top scores Denis Bouanga and the French national team leader, Olivier Giroud.
So Neville treats Saturday’s match with an all-hand-on-deck mentality and asks the same from his team’s fans.
“We will need the supporters with us,” he said. “We will have to make it scary. We will have to make it one of the special providence park nights, I feel.”
All as I said, Portland has earned its higher place in the table and won three times during his five-match run (3-0-2) and scored 11 goals.
In last weekend’s 4-2 victory in Sporting Kansas City, Kevin Kelsy became the latest Timber’s attacker who shines with two goals and a cross that contributed to a third goal.
At the same time, Bouanga only scored his first goal this season in LAFC’s 2-1 home victory over San Jose last Saturday. Giroud still has not done in league, although he looked much more threatening in last week’s victory than in previous excursions.
“Judging after the past few weeks, we have not been as productive as we would like to be,” said LAFC manager Steve Cherundolo. “We do not feel that we do not have the players or the game model to start scoring again. So we feel it is just a matter of time.”
Cherundolo also hopes that his site looks much fresher on Saturday after a whole week free. At this point, LAFC has already played six extra Champions Cup games before being eliminated in the quarter finals by Miami earlier this month.
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