FC Dallas looks to rebound this weekend when they host the Portland Timbers on Saturday night at Toyota Stadium.

The Timbers are currently off to a bit of a rocky start to the 2023 season, as they’ve gone 1-3-1 to begin the season, with the lone draw coming last weekend at home against the LA Galaxy.

Portland enters this weekend also looking for their first regular season road win in Frisco since the 2014 season, with hopes that they don’t continue the three-year trend of losing 4-1 at Toyota Stadium.

Key Player: Diego Chara

How is this guy still able to do what he does year after year? Chara is the one constant that you can count on with the Timbers, which for their fans, is probably still a good thing. Chara is the first field player in league history to play all 30,000 minutes with one club and the second all-time behind RSL goalkeeper Nick Rimando. The only remaining member of the original 2011 Portland Timbers roster, D. Chara is one of two players (Dario Zuparic) that has played every minute (450) for Portland this season.

Key Matchup: Zac McGraw vs Jesus Ferreira

McGraw leads the Timbers in clearances (22), headed clearances (11), aerial
duels won (17), interceptions (13) and blocks (7) this season. There is no doubt he’ll be tasked with slowing down the guy that put up a hat trick on this club last season in their visit to Frisco.

Quick Notes:

Struggles in Texas - Portland won its last visit to Texas, a 2-1 victory at Austin last August. That win was just the third regular season victory for Portland in 28 visits to the Lone Star State (D10 L15), as the Timbers have one win each in Dallas (2014), Houston (2021) and Austin (2022). The last three games against FC Dallas in Frisco have all ended in a 4-1 scoreline.

Recent road woes - The Timbers have lost three straight road matches dating back to the end of last season, conceding 11 goals in those games. Portland has conceded three or more goals in six of its last eight road games, losing five of those six games (4-4 draw at Minnesota in July 2022).

They spread the wealth - Portland has the third most goal scorers (5) in the Western Conference, only trailing LAFC (6) and St. Louis CITY (8). The Timbers have the second most players with an assist (5) in the Western Conference, tied with FC Dallas (5) and trailing only Austin FC (6).

Potential Lineup:

First, let’s look at who won’t be playing:

Out: Felipe Mora (L knee), Sebastian Blanco (L knee), Yimmi Chara (R hamstring),
Cristhian Paredes (R hamstring), Marvin Loría (R hamstring), David Bingham
(L hamstring)
Questionable: Evander (hip), David Ayala (R knee)

That’s a sizeable chunk of their roster there on the injury report this weekend.

Giovanni Savarese likes to use a 4-3-3 formation, so he will likely stick with that this weekend:

Shulte; Bravo, McGraw, Zuparic, Bonnila; Williamson, Chara, Moreno; Guiterrez, Fogaca, Loria

Keys To Three Points over Portland

  1. Start strong - This was a talking point in Wednesday’s media call with head coach Nico Estevez. They know they have to begin games better this season, especially at home, where they are expected to win. By establishing their game early in this one, it could put a banged-up Timbers team on the backheel quicker.
  2. Funnel the attack through Ferreira - Last year, when Ferreira scored a first half hat trick against the Timbers, it was due to the team finding him in space early in the match and allowing him to create chances on goal for himself both in and around the penalty box.
  3. Control the middle of the field - While Chara will likely still clog up space for the Timbers and Erik Williamson is also another key force for them in the middle of the field if Dallas can find ways to pull them out of their spots a bit and play quick passes along the width of the field to then set up the attack up front, Portland is prone to struggle against defending crosses into the penalty box.