BEAVERTON, Ore. – The Portland Timbers have accomplished their goal of controlling their fate going into #DecisionDay thanks to two consecutive wins.
But there’s still a lot to play for – and they haven’t yet quite locked up a trip to the Audi 2015 MLS Cup Playoffs going into their season finale at home Sunday against the Colorado Rapids (7 pm ET; ESPN3 & MLS LIVE).
In a perfect example of just how tight the Western Conference has been all season, the Timbers can finish anywhere from second place to out of the six postseason spots all together.
“We made a big step the last two games, couple of steps, and now we have one more big step to make, and we need to take care of business,” Timbers head coach Caleb Porter said this week. “We know if we get three points then we’ll have a home game, at the very least in the Knockout [Round], who knows. But we’re going to take care of business and hopefully be able to play a playoff game at home and hopefully more.”
The Timbers currently hold the fourth spot in the West, meaning they would host a Knockout Round match if they maintain that spot. By finishing second, Portland could bypass that round all together.
The most likely scenario, a Knockout Round match, would mean a quick turnaround from Sunday to the Wednesday or Thursday playoff match. Will Porter take that into account when he sets his lineup Sunday?
“No, not at all. Everything is on the line,” Porter said. “We’re in a position like we’d hoped where we control what happens. Not only do we control getting in, but we control hopefully getting a home game. So we don’t want to let that slip through our hands. So we’ve got to go for it.”
Porter will, however, be forced to rest his most important attacking player, Diego Valeri, who will be suspended for the Rapids match on yellow-card accumulation. The good news is that holding midfielders Jack Jewsbury, who has missed the last two matches with a foot injury, and Will Johnson, the team captain who has been out for the last four matches after having screws removed from his broken leg surgery last year, both returned to training this week and have been cleared to play.
Whether they will, Porter said, comes down to their match fitness.
Regardless, Porter will have to tweak the 4-3-3 formation he’s used in Portland’s last two games – a 1-0 over Real Salt Lake on Oct. 14 and then a 5-2 drubbing of the LA Galaxy last Sunday.
“With [Valeri] out, it changes things, it definitely changes things,” Porter said. “… We wish there wasn’t a decision on that; we’d obviously just stick with it. But with Valeri out we have to hash it out again.”
And even though the Timbers are sitting in prime position for their second postseason berth in the last three years, it has nothing to do with them having the luxury of facing the last-place Rapids in the finale. Porter said Colorado’s midweek win over Sporting Kansas City, who are also fighting for a playoff spot, was a reminder for his team that anything can still happen.
“It reminds our guys that these type of results happen every week in MLS,” Porter said.
Dan Itel covers the Timbers for MLSsoccer.com.
