Portland Timbers @ Sporting Kansas City Match Thread [5:30 pm]

The Portland Timbers face off against Sporting Kansas City this evening, one of the more dominant teams in the league, and first place in the Eastern Conference. It will certainly be one of the Timbers' tougher games of the season. Sporting Park is a hostile stadium to visit, and Sporting KC is a strong, technical side that will certainly be bolstered by their return to home. They haven't lost there yet this season...

Here are all the details you need:

General Information

Watch it on: KPDX

Kick off: 5:30 pm at Sporting Park

Portland Timbers: 10 points in the Western Conference.

Sporting KC: 14 points in the Eastern Conference.

Starting Lineups

Portland Timbers: Donovan Ricketts; Jack Jewsbury, Futty Danso, Mikael Silvestre, Michael Harrington; Diego Chara, Will Johnson; Diego Valeri, Darlington Nagbe, Rodney Wallace; Ryan Johnson

Sporting KC: Jimmy Nielsen; Chance Myers, Aurelien Collin, Matt Besler, Seth Sinovic; Paulo Nagamura, Oriol Rosell, Benny Feilhaber; C.J. Sapong, Claudio Bieler, Graham Zusi

Final Thoughts

The Portland Timbers have an opportunity tonight to gain some ground on FC Dallas. Currently they're only a single point behind the LA Galaxy and Real Salt Lake for that second place position. Given that LA is playing Salt Lake and that Chivas USA is taking on the San Jose Earthquakes, there's a good chance that a win for the Timbers could see them secure in the 2nd place position. Still, in order to do so they need to get their first road win, a tall order against Sporting Kansas City.

NOTE: This thread is a Thorns-free zone. Some fans might be delaying the Thorns game to watch this one. DO NOT POST SPOILERS HERE. Please use the Thorns match thread for Thorns discussion.