The Timbers have won three of their last five matches against Sporting Kansas City (D2 L0, incl. playoffs), including a 2-1 home win last June. Portland recorded just three wins in its first 16 MLS games against Sporting (D6 L7, incl. playoffs).
The Timbers have won only two of their first 11 matches this season (D7 L3), the fewest wins for Portland over an 11-game span in a single season since May-July 2017 (also 2). The current run of four straight matches without a win is Portland’s longest since going five straight without winning in September 2019.
After opening the season with six losses in eight games (W2), Sporting Kansas City has drawn each of its last three matches, including a scoreless draw at NYCFC on Saturday. That draw ended a seven-match road losing streak for Sporting and was its first road clean sheet since last August at Minnesota.
Jaroslaw Niezgoda scored with his only attempt of the match in Portland’s draw on Saturday. Niezgoda has scored 13 goals on just 32 shots in his MLS career (regular season), with the resulting 40.6 percent conversion rate the best of any MLS player with five or more goals since the start of the 2010 season.
Sporting Kansas City’s goalscoring issues continued in its last match, a 0-0 draw with New York City FC, the fourth time Sporting has failed to score this season. In fact, Sporting has scored more than one goal just once in its last 14 regular season games dating back to last season, a 2-2 draw with Dallas in April.
