📊 Form Guide

Sporting Kansas City

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Sporting Kansas City will be looking for a repeat result of a 1-3 MLS success against Toronto FC.

In that game, Sporting Kansas City managed 38% possession and 17 shots on goal with 10 of them on target. For Sporting Kansas City, the goalscorers were Rémi Walter (57'), Jake Davis (64') and Alenis Vargas (83'). Toronto FC had 12 attempts on goal with 2 of them on target. Jonathan Osorio (97') scored for Toronto FC.

It’s been seldom in recent games that Sporting Kansas City have kept a clean sheet. The reality is that Sporting Kansas City have failed to prevent opponents from scoring in 5 of their previous 6 matches, leaking 7 goals on the way.

Portland Timbers

WDWLLL 📉

Following on from being beaten in their last game against Vancouver Whitecaps in MLS competition, Portland Timbers and their travelling fans will hope for a better result here.

In that game, Portland Timbers had 56% possession and 11 shots on goal with 4 of them on target. For Portland Timbers, the scorers were Evander (52') and Felipe Mora (77'). For their opponents, Vancouver Whitecaps got 13 shots at goal with 5 of them on target. Ryan Gauld (2'), Fafà Picault (29') and Ryan Raposo (87') scored for Vancouver Whitecaps.

In as many as 5 out of the previous 6 clashes involving Portland Timbers, three or more goals have been struck. The average goals scored per match during that spell is 3.67, with the average number of goals for Portland Timbers equalling 1.83. Such a trend isn’t assured to be continued into this next game, though.

👥 Head to head

A look at their most recent head to head meetings stretching back to 20/06/2021 shows us that Sporting Kansas City have won 2 of these & Portland Timbers 3, with the number of drawn results standing at 1.

Those games weren’t short on goals, either, with 25 in total which averages out at 4.17 goals per meeting.

The previous league fixture between these sides was MLS match day 21 on 28/05/2023 when it finished Sporting Kansas City 4-1 Portland Timbers.

On that occasion, Sporting Kansas City had 63% possession and 15 shots on goal with 7 on target. The goals were scored by Erik Thommy (33'), Dániel Sallói (66') and Felipe Hernández (93').

Portland Timbers had 9 shots on goal with 3 on target. Franck Boli (8') and Larrys Mabiala (68' Own goal) scored.

The referee was Rubiel Vazquez.

🗞️ Team News: Sporting Kansas City

It doesn’t get much better regarding selection, with just a single fitness concern for the Sporting Kansas City manager Peter Vermes to be concerned with from an otherwise fully-primed squad. Khiry Shelton (Ankle surgery) misses out.

In all likelihood, SKC could employ a 4-3-3 system for this game featuring Tim Melia, Jacob Davis, Daniel Rosero, Robert Voloder, Tim Leibold, Remi Walter, Nemanja Radoja, Memo Rodriguez, Erik Thommy, William Agada and Daniel Salloi.

📰 Team News: Portland Timbers

Out of a mainly healthy group, there’s just a single fitness problem for the Portland Timbers boss Phil Neville to contend with. Marvin Loría (Knee surgery) won’t be playing here.

We are inclined to think that The Timbers might utilise a 4-2-3-1 lineup, giving starts to Maxime Crepeau, Juan Mosquera, Miguel Araujo, Kamal Miller, Eric Miller, Cristhian Paredes, David Ayala, Santiago Moreno, Evander Ferreira, Antony and Jonathan Rodriguez.

💭 Prediction

For this match, we think that Portland Timbers will manage to breach the defence of this Sporting Kansas City team, but it possibly won’t be enough to avoid a loss.

We’re going for a very close game with a 2-1 winning margin for Sporting Kansas City after the 90. We’ll have to see what happens.

Our expert partners are tipping under 3.5 goals for this match. Check out their VIP predictions here.

Peter Guest, 17:03 07/04/2024