Sporting KC face the Portland Timbers on Sunday evening. The two teams will be evenly matched as their relative strengths will face off with one another.
The Portland Timbers know what they want to do. In fact, almost every team that plays them knows what they want to do. The problem is that knowing what they are going to do and stopping it are two very different propositions.
The Timbers want to relinquish possession, sit deep, soak up the pressure, and then force mistakes at crucial moments and race forward in transition when the opposing defence is exposed and unprepared.
With players like Diego Valeri and Sebastian Blanco on the counter-attack, the Timbers are well-drilled. They know how to break with speed and precision, rarely make the wrong decision in their distribution, and play with excellent combination and understanding.
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What is especially powerful of this particular Timbers team is that they are so brilliant at forcing turnovers in the right areas and then exploiting the space in front of them. They set possessional traps for the opposition, vacating particular spaces, waiting for the ball to be played into those gaps before pouncing on it, forcing a mistake, winning the ball back and then driving forwards in possession.
It is a very effective system, one that they mastered throughout the season, and it led Gio Savarese’s team to two playoff victories over excellent Western Conference teams, the Seattle Sounders and FC Dallas. But when the Timbers come to prepare for the Western Conference Championship against Sporting Kansas City, they will be doing so against a team perfectly suited to combating a sit-and-counter style.
Sporting KC have a midfield perfectly comprised to play smartly in possession and not commit the high frequency of turnovers and quality of turnovers that would allow the Timbers to drive forward and expose a defence that has to cover vast spaces.
Ilie Sanchez and Roger Espinoza are excellent in possession, playing smart passes with consistent accuracy. KC has the second highest pass accuracy in MLS. Moreover, Graham Zusi at fullback is regularly involved in the play and is one of the better wide outlets in MLS from the fullback position, with both good passing and a smart, skilful first touch.
The Timbers will find it difficult to force KC into foolish turnovers that expose the defence. As a team, KC simply do not play like that much and do not allow their centre-backs to become exposed in transition, which is precisely what the Timbers want to do.
It will be a fascinating match-up. It always is when strength meets strength. This could be a real barn-stormer.