Having knocked Sporting Kansas City out of the Audi 2015 MLS Cup Playoffs, the Portland Timbers will take the field against Vancouver Whitescaps FC Sunday at Providence Park in the Western Conference Semifinals. (2pm PT, ESPN). Here are five numbers to know for #PORvVAN in a special playoff edition of Quick Strikes by Simple.
11 Sunday's match will be the 11th time that the Whitecaps and Portland have squared off in a playoff game in the 40-year history of the rivalry. By the end of the Western Conference semifinals, one-third of all the playoff matches in Timbers history will have been against Vancouver.
9 With goals Thursday, the duo of Maximiliano Urruti and Rodney Wallace became the eighth and ninth players in club history to score goals in the U.S. Open Cup, MLS Cup Playoffs, and regular season in the same year. The pair join Diego Valeri, Will Johnson, Darlington Nagbe, Frederic Piquionne, Brian Farber, Justin Thompson, and Byron Alvarez as Timbers who have accomplished the feat.
53 Both the Whitecaps and the Timbers finished the MLS regular season with 53 points. This year was the first time ever that the two Pacific Northwest clubs finished with a season with the exact same number of points.
2011 For the second time since joining MLS, the Timbers will play a match on a Sunday immediately following a Thursday match. In 2011, Portland defeated the Chicago Fire in the club's home MLS opener on Thursday, April 14 before beating FC Dallas on Sunday, April 17. Current Timbers Jack Jewsbury and Wallace scored in the Sunday match in 2011.
7 In his two seasons in MLS, Fanendo Adi has became one of the most prolific goalscorers in the league. Adi has played some of his best games against Cascadian opposition, having scored seven of his 25 career goals against Vancouver and Seattle Sounders FC.
