Sporting Kansas City faces the Portland Timbers twice in four nights—Tuesday at home in the Lamar Hunt U.S. Open Cup round of 16 (7:30 p.m. CT) and Friday on the road (10 p.m. CT) as MLS competition resumes. To preview the Open Cup match at Sporting Park, we spoke with Portland beat writer Dan Itel from MLSsoccer.com
JF: How has Portland been playing leading up to Tuesday’s Open Cup match?
DI: In the last Open Cup match, they had a favorable draw playing a U-23 team (Orlando City U-23). So they were able to come into that game with some confidence. They put out a lineup mixed with some first choice players—both their leading scorers, Gaston Fernandez and Maxi Urruti, started the game—but they also mixed in some guys who are in and out of the lineup. Then in the second half, they brought in three rookies as subs. So they were able to deal with the lineup well, rest some guys who needed it, and also beat a team they really should have handled.
Overall, their form in league play has been hit-or-miss. They’re still coming out of their early-season slump. They’re scoring goals all the sudden after their early scoring troubles and are now the second highest scoring team in the league. They’ve figured it out on offense, but the problems are still there on defense. In the last league match against Dallas, they let in two first half goals and were able to come back and draw. But the frustration still lies in the backline and the mistakes they are making there.
JF: How important is the U.S. Open Cup to the Portland team?
DI: They rank it pretty high. (Manager) Caleb Porter said their main priority is with the league. At the same time, with a spot in the CONCACAF Champions League on the line, they’re not taking this tournament for granted or treating it as a secondary competition at all. In the postgame comments of the last match, Porter said it would be stupid to overlook this (tournament). It’s a chance to get into the Champions League and win a trophy. He also knows that Portland has yet to lift a trophy since joining MLS. So I think they view this as an opportunity to do that. They’re taking it seriously, but they’re also being smart about it.
JF: Portland drew Sporting KC in the round of 16, creating a scenario where the teams would play back-to-back. How did they react to that?
DI: Porter thought it wasn’t too ironic because there are back-to-back games sometimes in the league schedule. He also said it was kind of like a playoff series where you play home and away. So this is kind of a primer for the playoffs. Porter will rotate his squad for both games, especially with the travel. We’re flying out today (Monday), then flying back Wednesday for Friday’s league match. He’ll rotate the lineup, and I would imagine he’ll play quite a few different players in either match. The good thing with Portland’s roster is they are very deep. They have 22 players who have started an MLS game this year. They could literally start two totally different starting lineups with players who have all started games this year. That’s the nice thing about where they are at right now. Rodney Wallace is back from injury and (Norberto) Paparatto is training again, too.
JF: These two teams have similar styles of play and 4-3-3 formations. How do they match up against each other?
DI: Both teams will want to control the match. That’s just their style, and in games they’ve been matched up in the past, both coaches have talked about that. Last year, Peter Vermes said it was two alpha dogs going at it. They’ll want to control the match, dictate the pace, be on the ball and press when they don’t have it to get it back quickly. Watching these two teams play makes for a very entertaining match. There’s going to be a lot of movement off the ball and a lot of quality soccer being played. There won’t be a lot of direct play, which makes for a good match.
JF: Jack Jewsbury and Michael Harrington played important roles for Kansas City in the past. What are their roles with Portland?
DI: You can always count on these guys. You know they’re going to be ready to play well. They’re both leaders and quality veterans who are very consistent. You don’t get a lot of ups or downs with them. Jewsbury is obviously further along in his career, and he’s managed to find a role at the right back spot where he can bring his leadership onto the field. He may not be the player he used to be when he was in Kansas City, but he still knows where to be on the field and knows how to lead the backline. With some of the struggles Portland has had on the backline, those two guys are really important. They’re vocal leaders, they know where to be and they aren’t going to make stupid errors. They both have very similar leadership roles.
JF: What are you looking forward to seeing from Tuesday’s match?
DI: I’m excited to see how both teams deal with this situation. Listening to the coaches talk before this game, they say they’re going to give it everything they have. But it will be interesting to see how they manage the back-to-back aspect and the tight turnaround. Obviously Kansas City has some depth issues with guys gone at the World Cup and some injuries, so it’ll be interesting to see if Portland is able to take advantage of that. What I’m looking forward to is seeing if Portland can continue to perform well in attack regardless of who is out there. Up top, they have Maxi Urruti, Fanendo Adi and Gaston Fernandez as options. It’ll be interesting to see if they can keep scoring goals against a good Kansas City defense.
