Sporting Kc Face a Disheartened Portland Timbers Side

Sporting Kc will travel to the pacific northwest on Saturday night to take on the Portland Timbers at Jeld-Wen Field. Sporting will have to make the long trip to Portland without "Mr.Captain Fantastic" Davy Arnaud, who has a hernia injury and will likely miss 6 weeks. Despite their captain being injured Sporting Kc will enter the match with high hopes, going undefeated in the past 8 league games. While Portland haven't won a game since May 21st. Both teams are 7th place in their respective conferences, but Sporting Kc seem to be the more dominant side heading in to the match.

Should Sporting Kc win their match on Saturday it could push them up to 4th  place, depending on the other results around the league on Friday and Saturday.

Projected Lineup

Key Match-Ups


Sapong vs. Brunner/Danso
Sapong will have to come up against two of the biggest center backs in all of MLS. However Sapong himself will impose a threat to Portland's back line. Whoever can win most of the aerial challenges should be able to control the ball.

Myers vs. Alhassan 
The speedy Ghanaian will look to go at Sporting's back line all night. Myers will have the difficult task of marking him, but Alhassan will have to be mindful Myers runs down the flank. 

Collin vs. Cooper
It seems as if Collin is in the key match-ups every week, but yet again he will have to mark another strong CF in Kenny Cooper. Both players are quite strong but Cooper likes to play with the ball at his feet instead of getting flicks on to other players like Hassli or Lenhart. Collin will have to be careful when diving in to tackle the ball away from Cooper, he's a skillful player.


Prediction
Sporting Kc - 2 (Sapong, Bravo)
Portland Timbers - 2 (Jewsbury, Cooper)