The Portland Timbers look to continue their excellent road form on Saturday when they visit a San Jose Earthquakes side that feels it has been playing better than the results have shown.
The Timbers (5-2-3, 18 points) have already won three times on the road, one reason they’ve been able to generate a seven-match unbeaten run.
Most recently, Antony racked up three assists to three different goal-scorers in a 4-2 victory at the Los Angeles Galaxy last Sunday.
All three away wins have featured at least three Timbers goals. And coach Phil Neville believes that the success is becoming a mental edge.
“The away performances and the away games in this league are so difficult,” Neville said. “But it feels like we actually raise our game a little bit more away from home than we do at home. We play with a little bit more freedom away from home than we do at home. So they’re enjoying that challenge.”
Antony has four goals and five assists, and Felipe Mora and Kevin Kelsy have also scored four times. As a team, Portland has 20 goals – tied with San Jose and Vancouver for the league lead – and 17 have come in its last six matches.
Meanwhile, the Earthquakes (3-6-1, 10 points) are losers of three in a row, including a 2-1 defeat at the Columbus Crew on Saturday.
Josef Martinez scored his sixth goal to pull even for the team lead with Cristian Arango. But the defensive issues from a year ago — when the Quakes set an MLS record for most goals conceded — have returned.
Bruce Arena’s squad has allowed 15 goals in its last six matches, even though they’ve had some encouraging performances in that stretch. That includes narrow defeats to Columbus and LAFC, two teams that have played multiple Cup finals in the last couple seasons.
“It was just frustrating not to get a result there,” San Jose defender Dave Romney said of the trip to Columbus. “I think we’ve played well in a lot of games where we haven’t gotten points, and it’s just a matter of us being better defensively in our own 18 and kind of finishing those chances.”
–Field Level Media
