The Portland Timbers want more than the home game they’ve secured for the Western Conference quarterfinals. On Sunday, that more comes into focus.
That’s when the Timbers will conclude their Major League Soccer regular season with a trip to Los Angeles FC on AT&T Decision Day (3:30 pm PT, FS1). There, a win could leave them first in the West, provided Sporting Kansas City stumbles. With any other result, Portland misses out on first place in the conference.
“At least we can secure, with a win, second place [in the West],” Timbers head coach Giovanni Savarese said on Friday, “and that would be a positive.”
Home-field advantage is one of the things that teams have been playing for ever since MLS announced the altered, single-elimination format beginning with last year’s playoffs. In previous years’ format, teams would play home-and-home series against each other past a conference’s first round. Having a better regular season meant you got the second game at home, but in terms of advantages, you had little else. “Home field,” compared to other sports, was more of a “well, kind of” than a verifiable plus.
Now, each round is do-or-die, win-or-go-home: one match; no second leg. The margin for error is thinner, with home-field advantage carrying a greater reward.
“We have one more game, and we are excited to finish at the top of the table,” team captain Diego Valeri said of the possibility, “knowing that, with the new system of the playoff, we could be able to play every game at home, which is not minor. It is very important for us, so we are excited about it.”
With a first-place finish, Portland (or whoever finishes in that spot) would ensure they play their games at home throughout the conference playoffs. Second place, and that honor might only last through the first two rounds. Third or fourth? Finish there, and upsets would have to happen to get a second playoff game at home.
“Playing at home, paying in your backyard and being able to be home – and being with your family, being comfortable – is something that is important,” Savarese said. “You know your place and that makes it an advantage … I believe it will be very beneficial for us.”
Standing in the way of some of those benefits is Los Angeles FC, a team the Timbers have faced nine times in all competitions since LAFC debuted in 2018. Portland’s 2-4-3 record in those matches speaks to the newcomers’ edge, though only two of those meetings have been decided by more than one goal.
“They know us very well,” Savarese conceded. “We know them very well. I don't think this game is going to be any different. Yes, every game is a new match, and you have to put a new effort, and you play with maybe sometimes different players, but I think the matches that we have played against each other, they have been very, very similar.”
Among those similarities are goals, with the teams combining for 27 in their nine meetings. In their three games this year, the teams have combined for 12, with Portland’s approach to LAFC explaining why clean sheets are disappearing from the matchup.
“LAFC is a team that wants the ball, that wants to dominate, to possess the ball high on the field,” Valeri explained. “We have to be smart on winning duels and be smart to get the ball, as much as we can higher in their field, so [we can] make them feel uncomfortable defending in those areas …
“If they step high on the field, as they try to do without the ball most of the time, [we have to try] to be smart to try and connect passes and to attack with a quick combination, if the action requires us to do that.”
LAFC is willing to take risks: to trade goals, to put it another way. Over the course of 2020, Portland has been willing to take risks, too. You can see it in the goals scored column for each team, with the duo sitting first (LAFC, 46) and second (Portland 45) in the league in goals, But you can also see in the teams’ goals allowed columns, with the two teams conceding a combined 72 times this season (Portland, 34; LAFC, 38).
Perhaps each side will tighten up for their season finales. Maybe, with the playoffs coming into view, defense will become a greater focus. Maybe, though, the same dynamic that’s come to define the matchup – with both sides believing they can hurt the other – will carry over into Decision Day. Maybe fireworks will define the finale at Banc of California Stadium.
