Vancouver at Timbers
Kickoff: 6 p.m. Sunday at Providence Park.
TV: ROOT, channel 34.
Radio: 750 AM.
Tickets: www.timbers.com
Timbers (3-3-7, 16 points): The Timbers are playing their third game in nine days, while the Whitecaps have had a full seven days to rest since tying with Seattle on May 24. But Portland brings momentum from consecutive road wins at New York (2-1) and Chivas USA (2-0) into this Cascadia clash. And the Timbers should be relatively rested as coach Caleb Porter played largely different lineups in the games at New York and Los Angeles. Only captain Will Johnson, left back Jorge Villafana and goalkeeper Donovan Ricketts played all of both matches. Porter has some confident forwards to choose from with Maximiliano Urruti scoring two goals at New York and Fanendo Adi netting a pair on Wednesday at Chivas in his first start with Portland. The Timbers now have six players with at least two goals. Urruti and Gaston Fernandez (five apiece) top the list. Portland is unbeaten in 22 consecutive league matches at Providence Park. A win would jump the Timbers past the fifth-place Whitecaps on points, though Vancouver has two games in hand on Portland. This is the first of two league visits to Portland this season.
Whitecaps (4-2-5, 17 points): The Whitecaps’ 18 goals through 11 games are spread among 10 players. Kenny Miller, Pedro Morales and Kekuta Manneh share the scoring lead with three goals apiece. Vancouver is unbeaten in its last five matches, with three draws and two wins. The Whitecaps took 24 shots in last week’s home draw with Seattle. Erik Hurtado, who played with the Timbers Under-23 team that won a PDL championship in 2011, has scored in the last two games for Vancouver. Those were the first two professional goals for the forward who attended Westview High School in Beaverton and played college soccer at Santa Clara. The Whitecaps last four matches with the Timbers have ended in draws.
