Sporting KC brings lengthy losing streak to Portland

The Portland Timbers and Sporting Kansas City will be searching for more consistency when they meet on Saturday night in the Pacific Northwest.

The Timbers (3-6-1, 10 points) have won two of their last four with defeats of LAFC and San Diego FC, a pair of teams expected to be among the Western Conference elite when the season began.

But manager Phil Neville has been concerned by the response to those victories, particularly last weekend’s 2-0 defeat at Real Salt Lake that followed the win in San Diego.

The Timbers found themselves nearly out of the contest by the opening half-hour after early goals from Zavier Gozo and Diego Luna.

“It’s not a reflection of what I want from the team,” Neville said. “It’s definitely not a reflection of what this group of players are capable of. We’re taking one step forward and a couple back in the last month. We are seeing positive signs, but that consistency now needs to start coming very quickly.”

Despite a respectable 13-goal output as a team, only Kristoffer Velde (three) and Kevin Kelsy (two) have scored multiple times this season for the Timbers.

Kansas City (1-7-2, 5 points) faces the opposite problem. While striker Dejan Joveljic scored his fifth goal in last Saturday’s 1-1 home draw with the Seattle Sounders, his teammates have combined for only three.

That said, first-year manager Raphael Wicky hopes last weekend represents the beginning of a sustained improvement after a five-match MLS losing streak landed his side in the basement of the Western Conference.

In particular, Wicky was impressed by the response to going behind in the second minute, considering they had leaked 18 goals over that losing streak.

“I think the team reacted really well on that early goal, stayed in the game, stuck with the game plan, and was there for 90-plus minutes,” Wicky said. “And I think we felt that this was a pretty mature performance from the team. We saw some good football as well, attacking-wise. So this is what I want to see again.”

–Field Level Media