Rose City Forecast 16: Portland Timbers vs FC Dallas

Welcome back to another Forecast here at Stumptown Footy!

Alas, this weekend we return to the predictions after a loss. Faced with approximately 6000 miles of midweek travel, the Portland Timbers elected to send a reserve lineup, and so we saw mostly kids attempt to steal a point or three from the Montreal Impact. Though they had their shots, the young lineup ultimately fell short, losing by 2-1. Serie A loanee Orji Okwonkwo had both of the goals for the Impact while Tomas Conechny scored his first MLS goal to put the Timbers on the board.

Even if the Timbers were unable to earn points, some of you will be walking away with a few. MindfulCyclist, STYLES34, and MofoOG all get props for calling a Montreal win by a scoreline of 2-1. A special shoutout to MofoOG who also correctly predicted that Conechny would open his Timbers scoring account!

The bonus of no result on Wednesday in Montreal is that the Timbers come into today’s match against FC Dallas with starters fully rested. That said, three key pieces for the Timbers are either questionable due to injury or out altogether. Zarek Valentin and Sebastian Blanco are both looking like game-time decisions, while Bill Tuiloma is still out. In addition, Andy Polo is still with Peru, so despite the presence of Diego Valeri and Brian Fernandez, the Timbers may still have to lean on their depth. FC Dallas meanwhile is missing Reggie Cannon to international duty, but expect to have a full strength side otherwise. Will the Timbers be able to take advantage of their fresh legs and third home game of the season to secure all three points?

Total Cards O/U: 4.5

The Scoring Format:

• Correct score: 5 points
• Correct result (draw/win/loss): 3 points
• Each clean sheet: 2 points
• Each goal-scorer: 1 point
• Each FK/PK/assist/lack of assist: 1 point
• Goal/assist bonus: 1 point
• Player with the first yellow card of the match: 1 point
• Each player with a red card: 1 point (Cannot earn points for predicting 0 red cards, but you may predict up to 3 players with a red.)
• Over/under on total cards: 1 point

Some ground rules and explanations/clarifications (the fine print):

You may amend your prediction at any point up to kickoff to account for game day 18 announcements. I recommend at least getting an initial prediction sooner, just in case you forget to come back in that hour or two before the game.

Keep your scoreline predictions realistic. Basically, if you’re predicting lots of goals all the time to just earn points on goals and assists and ignoring the score, I feel that goes against the spirit of this thread. This hasn’t been at all a problem in the last few years, so let’s keep it that way!

The goal/assist bonus is an additional point if you correctly get the correct scorer and assistant on the same goal. (For example, if Blanco scores, assisted by Valeri, and you predicted that exact combination, you get a total of three points: 1 goal, 1 assist, 1 bonus.)

Please be clear whether you think a goal will be unassisted, assisted, or from a PK/FK: Unassisted = no assist, run of play; Assisted = player who got the assist; PK/FK = directly from a free kick. For the purposes of this thread, a PK counts as an FK, and an FK as a PK. Just like predicting a player assist, you earn an assist point if you correctly predict an unassisted or free kick goal. If you just leave the assist section blank, I will assume you’re declining to make an assist prediction.

Even though a player can be awarded a secondary assist by OPTA, I will award a maximum of one assist point per goal. But that point can come from either the primary or secondary assist in the box score. However, please keep your predictions to one assist per goal.

For the over/under on cards, a second yellow leading to a red counts as two cards, not three.

You may predict more than one red card if you’re expecting a chippy match, but only up to three total.

If you’re looking for where I set the over/under on total cards, check the end of the preview paragraph after the standings.

Format:

In the comment title, post your predicted score with the winners; for example, 4-2 Timbers

In the body of your comment, start with the goals and assists, like so:

Blanco (Valeri)

Valeri (Free kick)

Ebo (PK)

Blanco (Unassisted)

Graham Zusi (Free kick)

Krisztian Nemeth (Johnny Russel)

Next, choose your first yellow card, and that means picking only one person:

First yellow to Matt Besler

Then reds, if any. (NOTE: No points awarded for correctly calling a red-card-free match, so take a guess.):

Roger Espinoza gets a red card for stomping Blanco.

Clearly note whether you’re predicting over or under on total cards. Don’t leave me to try and figure it out!