Sporting KC supporters put their faith in manager Vermes to deliver victory against Portland Timbers

Sporting KC's stadium, Children's Mercy Park, has a grass surface. Portland Timbers have artifical turf on their own stadium. This might or might not make a difference, and to help evaluate that we give you the recent performance numbers for Portland Timbers when playing on grass; 5 wins, 8 draws and 12 losses from 25 matches. They have scored {29 goals} in these games and conceded 46.

It's quite the trip for Portland Timbers when visiting Sporting KC as the cities are 2800 kilometers apart.

There should be plenty of energy on the pitch in this game, as both sides have had time to recuperate from their last game. Let's hope both teams are ready to give it all.

Sporting KC form and stats

When playing at home in the Major League Soccer, Sporting KC, who have the fewest scored goals (9) in Major League Soccer, have managed 1 win, 1 draw and suffered 3 defeats from 5 games.

No payout for Sporting KC in their previous match, an away game at Saint Louis City that ended in defeat 0-4. The first defeat after going undefeated in three league games. As you see from the result above, Sporting KC suffered greatly in their last game. Thankfully the team has a new chance to prove themselves in this one. The striker Russell bested all others in that game and got a match rating of 8.04 out of 10. Russell hit three key passes and dribled past the opponent 5 of 7 times.

The hosts are modest favourites in this match, with the bookmakers estimating the chance of a home win at about 50% +- five percent. It's interesting to look at how Sporting KC have performed under similar circumstances, so here are some numbers: When modest favourites like this (we found 19 games) they have won 10 times, drawn 3 and lost 6.

Some members of the home team might already be thinking of their next match, the Major League Soccer game versus Dallas in only three days. This game is also played here at Children's Mercy Park.

The goals haven't exactly been flowing for Sporting KC here at Children's Mercy Park in the league, with less than one goal per game on average (4 from 5 games). 7 goals have been conceded.

Portland Timbers form and stats

There's been little loot from Portland Timbers's travels as they have only collected 5 points from 7 away games in the Major League Soccer. Portland Timbers only have 1 win to counter their 4 defeats and 2 draws.

Evander was the last player to score for the away team. Portland Timbers haven't scored a league goal in the last 216 minutes.

This fixture can not go any worse than the previous one, the home loss versus Minnesota United with 0-1 on the scoreboard. That defeat was their first after four consecutive league fixtures winning points. Portland Timbers were so close to getting something from the game against Minnesota United, but ended up with egg all over their face after conceding the deciding goal five minutes into overtime. Evander got a match rating of 8.42 in that game, top player of the team. Evander hit eight key passes, dribled past the opponent 3 of 3 times and had 37 successful passes (of 43 total).

We have checked recent matches where Portland have had similar odds to win. Win-draw-lose statistics from those 17 games were 6 victories, 4 draws and 7 defeats.

Portland Timbers's defence is not exactly unbeatable as they have conceded 13 goals from these trips.

Head 2 Head

The fixture lists shows this result when the contenders met previously this campaign; Portland Timbers - Sporting KC 1-0. Head to head data (for the previous ten meetings): Sporting KC won one game, three matches ended with a tie and Portland Timbers got six wins. Over 2,5 goals / under 2,5 goals: six / four.

Top Goalscorers

E. da Silva Ferreira 4 goals

D. Salloi 2 goals

J. Russell 2 goals

Sporting KC missing players

Portland Timbers missing players