After Gage Guerra's late heroics and a classic penalty shootout at Providence Park, the Timbers travel back to SoCal with a head of steam for game 3/3 of their first round series against San Diego (Kickoff set for 6:00 p.m. PT, streaming on MLS Season Pass on Apple TV).
Game 1 went San Diego's way after the hosts scored two first-half goals before Kristoffer Velde pulled one back, and Jimer Fory's sending off after two yellow cards in two minutes. Game 2 was an all-time classic at Providence Park, with Portland winning the penalty shootout 3-2 after Velde's second of the post-season and Guerra's 90+8' equalizer cancelled out a pair of San Diego goals.
With Velde finally starting to show us all the player that Ned Grabavoy and co. hoped he would be when they spent ~$6 million dollars on him this summer, anything is possible in a win-or-go-home game. The offensive gameplan should be "Get the ball to the Norwegian" and let him go to work against Ian Pilcher and/or Luca Bombino on the flanks.
Defensively Finn Surman and Kamal Miller have to perform at the level they're capable of to keep MVP-candidate Anders Dreyer, Amahl Pellegrino, and Hirving "Chucky" Lozano off the scoresheet – something the Timbers have only been able to do once in San Diego during the regular season.
Injuries
Unsurprisingly San Diego's starting goalkeeper CJ Dos Santos is out tonight after taking the full force of Kevin Kelsy's left boot to the head in game 2, an injury that required a stretcher and ambulance trip to the hospital.
For the Timbers, Omir Fernandez is the only new injury to pop up for Phil Neville's squad – listed as "questionable" with an illness. Fernandez has come off the bench an provided a real spark both matches against San Diego so far, and would be an unfortunate miss if he's not able to go.
Jimer Fory will be available for selection after serving his one-match suspension picked up in the first match of the series, but I'm not sure Neville will be quick to put him back in the starting lineup based on how well the backline played last weekend.
We now know who the winner of game three will face in the second round after 10-man Minnesota United took down the Seattle Sounders on penalties in the final match of their series last night. All the Timbers have to do is something they've already done twice this season: win a game with their season on the line.
And you know what? I think they have a strong opportunity to do so. Truth be told I haven't really been impressed by San Diego for 90 minutes in any of the four meetings the Timbers have had with them this season, and all of the pressure is on San Diego tonight. Could you imagine winning the Western Conference in your inaugural season and being knocked out of the playoffs in the first round by the eighth-seed? At home? As opposed to Portland, who are already playing with house money taking this series to a third game.
And how fun would it be if the Sounders were the only Cascadia team to not reach the second round of the playoffs in 2025?
