Sporting Kansas City II (7-7-4, 27 points) will return to the West Coast for a third time in three weeks when they take on Portland Timbers 2 (4-6-8, 23 points) at Providence Park in Portland, Oregon on Thursday night. The match will begin at 10 p.m. CT and can be found on MLS Season Pass on Apple TV.
The weekday matchup will be the one and only meeting between Sporting KC II and T2 in the 2024 MLS NEXT Pro regular season. A year ago, the two sides split results, taking three points in their respective home matches.
Head coach Benny Feilhaber's squad picked up a crucial win last Sunday, defeating St. Louis CITY2 3-1 at Rock Chalk Park in Lawrence, Kansas. The win snapped a two-match losing skid and saw a pair of players tally their first goals of the 2024 season in Cielo Tschantret and Roberto Hategan.
Midfielder Sebastian Cruz assisted on both the Tschantret and Hategan goals, bringing his total to 10 on the campaign, tied for the most in MLS NEXT Pro. The Sporting KC Academy product has also bagged four goals, scoring the opener in the match with St. Louis.
Forward Beto Avila paces the team in goals this season, finding the back of the net on eight occasions. Midfielder Kamron Habibullah has seven goals and five assists this year, his first in Kansas City. Rookie forward and Indiana alum Maoloune Goumballe has six goals in his first season and added an assist vs. CITY2.
On the backline, defender and first-teamer Chris Rindov has the most time on the field this season for SKC II, notching 1395 minutes played. He has been joined on the backline by Academy amateur Leo Christiano, Academy product Mason Visconti and Kansas City native Carson Klein in the last two matches. The team is still missing Academy product Nati Clarke who is out with an injury after appearing in 14 of the team's first 15 matches.
Fellow rookie Academy signee Tschantret has amassed 14 appearances, 10 starts and 977 minutes. His first goal of the season came in first half stoppage time on Sunday and was nominated for Goal of Matchday 19.
Portland is led by Serge Dinkota in his first year at the helm of the ship after serving in the Timbers' organization for six seasons prior. The Congolese manager has his team in ninth place in the Western Conference, four points off the playoff line.
One of their top-performing players is forward Josh Penn who leads the team in goals (five) and assists (four). Kyle Linhares, a 21-year-old forward falls in second for T2 with four goals and three assists. Former Sporting KC Academy player Mataeo Bunbury is in his first year with Timbers 2 and has picked up two goals and an assist.
Following Sporting's road test with the Timbers they will return home for the penultimate match at Rock Chalk Park against Vancouver Whitecaps FC 2. Tickets for both of SKC II's final regular season matches in Lawrence are on sale now at SeatGeek.com.
Match Information:
MLS NEXT Pro: Match 19
Date: Thursday, July 25, 2024
Kickoff: 10 p.m. CT
Location: Providence Park (Portland, Oregon)
Watch: MLS Season Pass on Apple TV
SOCIAL TAGS:
Match-specific hashtag: #PORvSKC
X: @SportingKCII
Instagram: @SportingKCII
X: @TimbersFC2
Instagram: @TimbersFC2
