Road Weary Portland Timbers Glad To Be Back At Providence Park

This has been a tough season for the Portland Timbers. Due to renovation and construction on their Providence Park home field they had to start the 2019 MLS season on the road. That’s a large part of why they’re at the bottom of the MLS West table–they’ve played 12 games on the road and only 1 at home. Their home debut was a tough matchup against LAFC which Portland ultimately lost 3-2. There’s a lot of hope that the Timbers’ play will improve with more games at home in the second half of the season but the reality is that they need to get some wins on the board if they’re to make a return to the MLS playoffs.

Given the horrible scheduling situation Portland faced they have to be reasonably happy with their start to the season. Even though they’ve played 12 road games they’re 4-2-6 away from the Rose City scoring 17 goals and conceding 23. Ironically, the Houston Dynamos provide the opposition for the Timbers here and they’ve played only 4 games away from home so far this season going 1-0-3 scoring and conceding 5 goals. The Dynamos have taken advantage of having 9 home games to date and they’re undefeated at BBVA Compass Stadium with a 6-3-0 record scoring 16 goals and conceding 10. Overall, Houston got off to a very strong start this season winning 6 of 8.

It’s tough to get a handle on Portland for obvious reasons. They’ve ‘held their own’ during their road heavy early schedule but just treading water is no longer enough now that they’ve got a remaining slate backloaded with home dates. They have shown improved form overall–at one point, they dropped five straight on the road but in their last six road games they’re 4-1-1. More importantly, they’ve averaged a point per game on the road so far this season which is something that teams with a more traditional home/road schedule would be pleased with.

That means that considering the ‘worst case scenario’ of playing 12 of their first 13 games on the road the Timbers are fairly well set and now play 16 of their 21 remaining games of the MLS schedule at Providence Park which has earned a reputation as one of the nastiest venues for visiting teams in soccer. In each of the two previous MLS seasons, Portland lost just two games at home in each. The Timbers had a hard time scoring goals earlier in the campaign but have received a huge boost with the addition of Brian Fernandez from Liga Mexica side Necaxa in May. He’s since scored 7 goals in 5 games in all competitions.

At this point of the season it’s very atypical to be trying to assess a team based on their ‘potential’ to play well but that’s the situation we face with this road weary Portland Timbers team. The soccer odds on this match don’t seem to accurately reflect what a nasty home team they’ve been in recent years and as such the Timbers represent a good value assuming that they’re able to return to form at Providence Park. At this price, we’re willing to take a shot that they will.

BET PORTLAND TIMBERS -145 OVER HOUSTON DYNAMO

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