Just four weeks after the Vancouver Whitecaps rolled to a decisive victory over the injury-riddled Portland Timbers, the Cascadia Cup rivals will meet again — and this time, it will be a fairer fight.
When the teams meet Saturday night in Vancouver, Portland (1-3-1, 4 points) expects to be close to full strength, as Cole Bassett and Juan Mosquera are among the players in line to return.
In the Whitecaps 4-1 victory in Portland on March 7, the Timbers had a manpower issue.
“They beat us fair and square,” Portland coach Phil Neville said. “We had eight players out, I think, that day. We competed, but we just didn’t have the quality.”
Along with the recovered players, the Timbers’ newest acquisition, Jose Caicedo, is expected to make his MLS debut on Saturday. The 23-year-old Colombian arrives from Pumas UNAM of Liga MX.
“With the investment in Cole and Caicedo, it means we’ve got competition in central midfield now that we probably haven’t had in two years,” Neville said. “I think the spine of the team now is looking miles stronger.”
After a 3-2 victory over Columbus in its season opener, Portland failed to win any of its next four matches as the injuries piled up.
The Timbers showed progress in their last match before last week’s international break, playing the Los Angeles Galaxy to a 1-1 draw. Portland battled the final 71 minutes a man down after defender Kamal Miller drew a red card.
Vancouver (4-1-0, 12 points), which reached the MLS Cup final last season, is off to another strong start. The Whitecaps have 14 goals and have given up just two, compiling the best goal differential in the league at plus-12.
Before the break, Vancouver sustained its lone loss, 1-0, at home to San Jose despite possessing the ball for 61.4% of the match.
In the first meeting with the Timbers, Vancouver’s Brian White scored two goals and Sebastian Berhalter added a goal and an assist.
“When we had a game just recently where we came out on top convincingly over the 90 minutes, then you also expect that the opposition might have a different approach, and that’s always very tricky,” Vancouver coach Jesper Sorensen said of what he expects from Portland on Saturday.
–Field Level Media
