Atlanta United will try to keep their fading playoff hopes alive on Saturday night when they visit the Portland Timbers, who are mired in their own battle for postseason positioning.
Atlanta (6-14-5, 23 points) has gone four matches without a victory following a season-best winning streak of three games. It enters the weekend nine points beneath the playoff line and second-to-last in the Eastern Conference.
If there’s any silver lining, it may be that the better performances of that winless stretch came on the road.
Breel Embolo scored his first MLS goal and Miguel Almiron also scored in a 2-2 draw at Lionel Messi’s Inter Miami on Sept. 5. Against D.C. United last Saturday, the visitors held 64% of possession and dominated chance creation while keeping only their second clean sheet of the season.
“The team pressed well up top and took the ball very quickly,” coach Tata Martino said this week through an interpreter. “It was a match in which we had a lot of possession of the ball, and that also makes the defense not have to be permanently defending.”
But D.C. United have averaged the lowest possession share in MLS this season. Portland (9-11-5, 32 points) plays a far different style, particularly in the seven games since new manager Marti Cifuentes took over.
The Timbers have taken eight points from that stretch while holding at least half the possession in five of those matches. But the two exceptions were also positive results, a 3-1 home win over San Diego and a 1-1 draw at LAFC.
“I said many times that usually the best way for me to defend is having the ball and keeping the ball and not giving them the chance to enjoy it, but at the same time punish a little bit on the things that are perhaps suffering, or they have not been as good at during the season,” Cifuentes said.
The Timbers begin the weekend eighth in the West. They continue to navigate the remainder of the season without leading scorer Kevin Kelsy, whom Glasgow Rangers pried away this summer for a reported $13 million transfer fee. Kristoffer Velde is the top scorer remaining with the team at eight goals.
–Field Level Media
