Colorado vs. Portland - Regular Season Matchups

With Portland coming for Thanksgiving we should look back at how we did against them this season.  Both games took place late in the year, one in mid-September and one in late-October.

In our mid-September game we travelled to Portland midweek in-between home games against the Galaxy and Vancouver.  This was during our run of 4 draws in September that we thought had cost us a shot at the 1 seed (it did probably cost us a shot at the Shield).  We lined up in the 5-4-1/5-2-3 formation we used most of the last half of the season.  Lewis played forward with Bassett and Shinyashiki on the outside, Kaye and Price in midfield, Rosneberry and Galvan at wingbacks, and the big 3 in the center.  This was the game that Portland's Tuiloma got a red card right before half.  He had a yellow card in the 33rd minute, then had a red card and yellow card tackle within 5 seconds in the 42nd minute.

At that point the Rapids were feeling fairly confident about their chances and they turned that into a goal by Lewis in the 63rd, only for Portland to level it in the 67th.  Then Barrios hit what we all thought was the game winner in the 87th.  This was his chip from an insane angle along the end line that somehow went in.  Unfortunately Blanco came right back down the field and tied it four minutes later, absolutely stealing a point from the Rapids.  As you would expect with a man advantage for a full half Colorado dominated every statistical category, except both teams had an Expected Goals of 1.9, and it finished 2-2.  This was that period of the season where we were taking a ton of low percentage shots to end up with a decent xGoals.

In the second match in Colorado things went much more in our favor.  This was a weekend game between Wednesday games where we drew Seattle and our one late loss in our trip to New England.  One significant change, other than location, was that Blanco was injured for this match.  The Rapids had 3 lineup changes from the game in Portland, with Rubio starting up front and Badji starting for Shinyashiki.  Rosenberry was injured so Acosta started in his place.  Same 5-4-1/5-2-3 formation.  The stats showed this game as fairly even the Timbers never felt like they were in the match. All but one shot they put on net had less than a 5% Expected goals (and the one above 5% was 5.52%).  They never really threatened.

On the Rapids side this was one of Galvan's best games, who set up both Rapids goals.  Badji was really getting rolling into the hot streak he finished the season on, and Rubio got on the scoreboard as well.  The Expected Goals were much more in our favor, 1.9 to 0.3 and sure enough, we won by 2.  With the win Colorado officially clinched a playoff spot and was 1 point away from clinching a home playoff match.

What we see from these two games is that Blanco is the key to the Timbers attack.  He scored twice in their playoff win over Minnesota on Sunday.  The good news is that at 33 years old he played 88 minutes on Sunday and is now coming to altitude 4 days later.  But we're going to have to lock him down to succeed on Thursday.  On the attack we obviously match up well, scoring 2 goals in both matches.  Keep doing what we're doing on that end and concentrate on keeping Portland off the board.