Portland Timbers vs. Real Salt Lake: How to watch, preview, match chat [2:00]

After a long week off, the Portland Timbers are back at Providence Park today where they will host Real Salt Lake in the final home match of the regular season. The Timbers are coming off a long rest and are set to face off against an RSL side that should be tired but confident following Thursday night’s 4-1 thrashing of the New England Revolution.

A single point puts the Timbers into the playoffs, but if they want any sort of shot at a home berth in the knockout round, then the Timbers will need to take all three. Currently in fifth place, the Timbers have dropped below the Seattle Sounders in the standings as the mid-Cascadian side have made good use of the games in hand that they held during their late-season climb up the ladder. The Sounders could still stumble in their final two matches of the season, but they would need to drop at least three points for the Timbers to pass them and retake fourth place.

The visitors, meanwhile, come into today’s match in desperate need of points to stave off the resurgent LA Galaxy and hold on to a playoff spot. With 23 teams in the league this season, RSL are the odd man out. Today’s match is the last of the season for RSL and anything less than a win leaves the door open for the Galaxy to pass them up and steal the final playoff spot in the west out from under them.

Preview

Storylines: “Mike Petke’s crew roll into town on minimal rest, so I’d expect to see some rotation on Sunday afternoon, though they will have the services of both Kyle Beckerman and Sunny, who sat out their suspensions against the Revolution. They’re currently working on a 2-2-2 record in their last six, a pretty even run of form.”

Make sure to stop by the Rose City Forecast to make your predictions about today’s match.

Match Information

Watch it on: ROOT Sports

Where: Providence Park in Portland, OR

When: Sunday, October 21st at 2:00 p.m. PT

Portland Timbers: 14-9-9, 5th place in the Western Conference, won 4-1 at Real Salt Lake

Real Salt Lake: 14-12-7, 6th place in the Western Conference, won 4-1 vs. New England Revolution