Seeking to bounce back from an opening-day defeat, the Portland Timbers are back in MLS action on Saturday as they welcome Austin FC to Providence Park.
Austin FC, meanwhile, will make the journey to Oregon with a second straight win in sight after securing maximum points in their curtain-raiser last time out.
Match preview
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Portland Timbers could have hardly asked for a worse start to the campaign than their 4-1 thrashing at the hands of the Vancouver Whitecaps in Saturday's meeting between the teams.
An early bath for Kamal Miller left Phil Neville's men up against it for the remaining 80 minutes of the contest, during which Ryan Gauld, Pedro Vite, Sam Adekugbe and Jayden Nelson all netted to settle a one-sided affair.
That was a second straight defeat against the Whitecaps for the Portland Timbers, who also bowed out to the same opponents courtesy of a 5-0 shellacking during the play-in tournament for a place in last season's playoffs.
A chance to get themselves back on track now awaits the Timbers this weekend, and their record in this fixture certainly makes for good reading with five wins and only one defeat from the last seven editions.
However, it is worth noting that the aforementioned solitary loss for Saturday's hosts against their visitors did come in their most recent encounter back in October 2024, when Daniel Pereira grabbed the all-important strike three minutes from the break.
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Having failed to make it through to the postseason, Austin FC were one of the biggest underperformers during the last campaign and headed into the new season with a point to prove.
A fairly active winter window signalled the level of ambition for Nico Estevez's men following the arrivals of Brandon Vazquez, Myrto Uzuni, Besard Sabovic and Nicolas Dubersarsky.
After wrapping up their preparations for the new footballing year with a 2-1 triumph over Nashville SC, Los Verdes kicked off the real business with a narrow 1-0 win over Sporting Kansas City at the Q2 Stadium on Saturday.
Osman Bukari provided the game's decisive moment half an hour into the second half, much to the relief of a man seeking to put behind him an underwhelming start to life in Texas since his move from Belgian outfit Red Star Belgrade.
Picking up just 16 points from their 17 away matches last time out, Saturday's visitors massively struggled on the road and will need to address their away woes if they are to enjoy a more successful campaign this time around.
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Team News
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Portland Timbers' Santiago Moreno picked up a muscle injury in his side's final outing of last season and is still a considerable way off returning to action.
Jonathan Rodriguez and Dario Zuparic are also ruled out for the hosts due to respective knee injuries, but the latter is expected to make a comeback over the coming weeks.
Kamal Miller will serve a suspension this weekend having been sent off against the Whitecaps, and that should see Eric Miller earn a recall to the starting lineup.
Bryant Farkarlun is Austin FC's only guaranteed absentee for this one as he continues to nurse a leg injury he picked up while on preseason duty.
Osman Bukari has found the back of the net three times across his last two matches, and the Ghanaian is definitely one to keep an eye on for the away side.
Portland Timbers possible starting lineup:
Crepeau; Surman, McGraw, Miller, Fory; Ayala, Ortiz, Chara; Antony, Mora, Kelsy
Austin FC possible starting lineup:
Stuver; Desler, Hines-Ike, Cascante, Biro; Obrian, Pereira, Sanchez, Bukari; Wolff, Vazquez
We say: Portland Timbers 2-1 Austin FC
Given their opening victory, Austin FC will head into this weekend's affair with the wind in their sails, but the Portland Timbers will back themselves to make home advantage count.
Albeit by only a narrow margin, we are backing the hosts to come away with maximum points when all is said and done.
For data analysis of the most likely results, scorelines and more for this match please click here.
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