PORTLAND, OR – The New York Red Bulls (11-11-7) travel to the Pacific Coast one final time this campaign to face the Portland Timbers (10-9-9) Saturday. It will be New York’s first visit to the famous Providence Park since 2019.
The city of Portland has many nicknames attached to it. “Rose City,” “Stumptown,” “Soccer City USA” and more iconic names all have shaped the city’s identity. One of their prominent slogans is “keep Portland weird” because of how unique the place is.
For New York, they want to make it weird for the home side on Saturday night. But first, New York needs to conquer some of the strange occurrences they have been dealing with.
One of those weird anomalies is somehow fine tuning their offense back into action. Despite great opportunities to put the ball between the posts the past two matches, the number zero has lit up the scoreboard for them. That is not a good sign as the regular season is reaching its conclusion in a little over a month.
“I’m pretty sure that we have the quality to score, but first of all we have to play very aggressive against the ball,” addressed manager Sandro Schwarz about the offense on Wednesday. “This is necessary especially on Saturday in Portland.”
Their pressure to score goals again only amounts more as entering Saturday’s match, New York sits in tenth place in the Eastern Conference. With 40 points, it will continue to be a battle vs ninth place Chicago Fire FC for the last playoff spot the rest of the way. New York, though, could be receiving a blessing from the soccer gods this weekend with the potential return of midfielder Lewis Morgan.
*He was integrated… the really good message is that he joined the last team training session in a modified way,” Schwarz said on Wednesday.
With the return of Morgan being a possibility, it will bring joy back to a fanbase desperately needing some. Even though Portland is seventh in the Western Conference standings, a win for the Red Bulls would aid them mightily.
For Portland, they too do not want to slide down the standings as since July 25, the results have not been there. Outside an impressive performance in the Leagues Cup, the Timbers have seen disappointing result after disappointing result recently. Since August 9, they have earned two points in four matches, resulting in two losses and two draws.
Given that the match is slated for a late timeslot on Saturday, New York made the wise decision to leave a few days early to adjust. But will that be enough to fix their dismal away record? The fact sounds like a broken record at this point and many believe that a loss is inevitable.
But staying in the theme of the city of Portland, the Red Bulls will and can make it weird for the home side. New York is no stranger to unbelievable wins this season, but winning on the road would turn a team’s fortunes like Portland upside down.
If New York can get their second away domestic competition win of the season Saturday, their hopes for playoff soccer are still bright.
Kickoff for Saturday’s match is set for 10:30 p.m. on MLS Season Pass on Apple TV.
