After picking up their first point of the season last weekend against Dallas, the Portland Timbers are in Bridgeview, IL where they will face the struggling Chicago Fire on Saturday afternoon at Toyota Park (3:00 pm, TV on KPTV).
The Opponent
The Fire were one of MLS's best stories last year, but they've been awfully poor out of the gate in 2018 — losing their first two games and giving up six goals in the process. Sound familiar?
Tensions are running high in Bridgeview, where there have been whispers of locker room discord, and, from fans at least, about manager Veljko Paunovic's job. There's no such thing as a must-win game in March, but the Fire badly need three points tomorrow.
They do have a few important players coming back into the fold. Bastian Schweinsteiger, who missed the trip to Minnesota two weeks ago for the birth of his first child, should be available. Same goes for center back Jonathan Campbell, who has been recovering from a facial fracture suffered at the end of February.
The Tactics
Savarese arrived in Portland known for his tactical ingenuity, and we got a glimpse of that last weekend in Frisco when he rolled out a 4-3-2-1 designed to protect the center of the field and push Dallas playmaker Mauro Diaz wide.
The setup worked quite well. The Timbers played their best defensive game of the year — by far — and got their first point in a 1-1 draw.
This will be a fairly different game. The Fire don't play through a number ten, but have much central midfield distributors in Schweinsteiger — who will at times push up into a higher playmaking role — and Dax McCarty. A lot of their offense thus far has also centered around new Serbian DP winger Aleksandar Katai, who will be a handful for Alvas Powell.
As much as Savarese will want to continue the strong defending, this game is a chance to get the offense going in a way that we haven't seen thus far. Sporting Kansas City scored four goals at Toyota Park in Week 2, and their attack has no more talent than Portland's does.
Assuming Savarese doesn't play three holding mids, look for Portland to commit more numbers to attacking moves than they did at any point against Dallas and try to test young Fire goalkeeper Richard Sanchez.
The Lineup
90 - Gleeson
16 - Valentin
25 - Tuiloma
33 - Mabiala
2 - Powell
22 - Paredes
21 - Chara
10 - Blanco
8 - Valeri (C)
27 - Asprilla
9 - Adi
— Jeff Attinella is fit — he went 90 minutes and kept a clean sheet for T2 last week — but there's no reason to believe that he'll replace Gleeson, who has made a good start to the season.
— Vytas is back in training, and is in contention to make his debut on Saturday. If he plays, Valentin will go the bench.
— Bill Tuiloma was excellent last week in his MLS debut, he's been excellent in training, and he'll start again. Liam Ridgewell, deep in the doghouse, didn't make the trip to Chicago and faces a long climb back into the team.
— David Guzman limped out of Costa Rica's friendly against Scotland last Friday, and is likely out. Lawrence Olum is suspended. Eryk Willimason, accordingly, will be in the eighteen for the first time this year.
— With Guzman and Olum out, and considering that Chicago lacks a central playmaker in the mold of Diaz, we likely won't see the 4-3-2-1 again. 4-2-3-1 is more likely, with either Dairon Asprilla or Andy Polo starting on the wing opposite Sebastian Blanco.
The Memory
Last season's game between these two clubs at Providence Park in July was hugely entertaining. It finished 2-2, but only after a stoppage time winner from Fanendo Adi was ruled out for a foul.
The Pick
The Timbers have never lost to the Fire, and, desperate as Chicago might be, another 1-1 draw looks most likely.
