Saturday night in Portland, the Vancouver Whitecaps will take on the Timbers for a second time this season, as the ‘Caps look to bounce back from a disappointing result last weekend in New England.

The Timbers are red-hot right now, undefeated in their last five matches and currently sitting 7th, right below the Whitecaps with 24 points in 19 matches played. The Timbers have scored two goals in four of those last five matches, and after some serious defensive struggles, they appear to have found a higher level of consistency recently in Phil Neville’s 4-2-3-1 setup.

Much like the Whitecaps, the impact of summertime international duty will be something to watch out for on this Timbers squad, particularly in the heart of the defense, as both Maxime Crepeau and Kamal Miller are with Canada at Copa America.

Midweek in San Jose, where the Timbers came away with a 2-1 victory, James Pantemis got the nod between the sticks for Portland, while Neville selected a centreback paring of Dario Župarić and Zac McGraw. That group did pretty well, limiting the Quakes to the single goal, a Paul Marie wonder-strike from long range.

Ultimately, if the Timbers can remain somewhat respectable in their own half, this team goes as far as their enigmatic Brazilian talisman Evander will take them. The 26-year-old has tallied 8 goals and 7 assists so far this season, and has 3 goals and 3 assists in his last 5 matches. When Evander is on his game, he’s one of the most impactful players in MLS.

The problem is, sometimes Evander drifts in and out of matches, and his obsession with shooting from distance can frustrate. If Evander can remain on his current form though, then the rest of the league should be on notice.

Elsewhere for this Portland side, the ageless Diego Chara continues to turn in top quality performances in the defensive midfield. Equally, Felipe Mora has been a serviceable number nine for the Timbers, with 8 goals and 1 assist from 8.0 xG + xA. Mora does not do much other than finish chances, but he does so efficiently.

The last time these two teams faced one another, back on March 30th at BC Place, the Whitecaps took away all three points in a 3-2 win.

Vancouver scored two early goals, one from Ryan Gauld and one from Fafa Picault, taking a commanding first half lead. The Timbers were able to respond with two second half goals of their own, however, tying things up in the 77th minute after a glanced header from Felipe Mora deep in the Vancouver area. It was Ryan Raposo who had the last laugh though, as he came off the bench to score the winner in the 87th minute, being in the right place at the right time during a mad scramble in front of the Timbers’ goal.

This season’s advanced numbers would tell you that, overall, the Whitecaps are a better team than the Timbers.

Vancouver has been a much better defensive team than Portland (1.28 xGA vs. 1.51 xGA on average) and Vancouver’s numbers are a bit deflated by a big blowout loss to LAFC, while Portland has just consistently struggled with preventing chances across the board. That said, the two teams are very comparable in terms of their attacking numbers, 1.4 xG on average for Vancouver, 1.33 xG for Portland.

Through the eye test, I would say they attack in pretty similar ways as well: Each team relies a bit too much on their star players, can score in bunches when things are going well, but also gets shutout of matches when things aren’t working for them, or they run out of ideas.

All in all, making those incremental attacking improvements is a lot easier than fixing defensive issues, and I think Vancouver has learned that from the way they played last season, which was fun, but ultimately very hard to sustain. Can Portland overcome the odds? I guess we will have to wait and see.

Now, in terms of this matchup specifically, I think it might come down to just how well each team deals with their absences, and which of the star players has the biggest impact.

The Whitecaps really missed Andres Cubas last weekend against the Revolution, and they’ll be asking Sebastian Berhalter for another big shift this weekend in Portland. As mentioned for the Timbers, they seem to have done alright without Crepeau and Miller so far, but Vancouver should provide a bigger challenge than St. Louis and San Jose could muster.

If Vancouver can get on the ball enough in dangerous areas to kick-start Brian White up front and stress that rotated backline, then I think the Whitecaps can take away all three points. That said, if a Cubas-less midfield for Vancouver leaves the back three in compromised positions against Evander and Mora, then the Timbers might be able to maintain their unbeaten streak.

(Photo Credit: Max Visuals)