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The Portland Timbers take to the field once again this evening with a game against Sporting Kansas City, one of the more dominant Eastern Conference clubs last season. This will be the team's second pre-season friendly with the Portland Timbers having played the Colorado Rapids last Tuesday in a 3-1 victory.
Expect to see a different combination of players today. I'm sure Caleb Porter will want to see how players act and react to each other on the field. Personally, I wouldn't mind seeing what Diego Valeri and Jose Adolfo Valencia can do when playing together. Additionally, expect two completely different teams in the first and second half.
General Information
Watch it on: MLSsoccer.com
Kick off: 5:00pm at Kino Sports Complex, Tucson, AZ
Sporting Kansas City: Finished 1sth in the East in 2012
Portland Timbers: Finished 8th in the West in 2012
Timbers Starting XI
Donovan Ricketts; Ryan Miller, Andrew Jean-Baptiste, Mikael Silvestre, Michael Harrington; Diego Chara, Will Johnson; Sal Zizzo, Diego Valeri, Darlington Nagbe; Ryan Johnson
Final Thoughts
This will be an interesting match up. Sporting Kansas City has lost two key players since last season: Kei Kamara to Norwich and Roger Espinoza to Wigan. The full impact of their absence probably won't be decided today, but it should still make for an interesting match up. The Portland Timbers, for their part, played a fairly impressive game last Tuesday against a team that has handily beat them multiple times. In the end, however, today's game is still just about getting match fit and figuring out what combinations work. There is no bad result today, even if the team plays terribly.