Portland Timbers vs Columbus Crew Predictions

Portland Timbers slipped one place in the Western Conference following their 4-1 defeat away against Houston Dynamos, but Thursday’s hosts remain in the play-off places and can’t drop any lower this week due to the four point gap they hold over nearest rivals Vancouver Whitecaps. Columbus Crew remain fourth in the Eastern Conference and picked up a creditable point away at high flying Dallas on Sunday, but will be hoping to follow that goalless draw with a victory in Portland on Thursday.

A Fuenmayor own goal in the ninth minute gave Portland Timbers an early lead against Houston Dynamo, but it proved to be a false dawn as the hosts fought back to win comfortably. Elis brought the teams level in the thirty-second minute after good work from Martínez, and then turned provider for Manotas who put Houston in front with six minutes of the first half remaining.

The visitors appeared to have the wind taken out of their sails following that late first half goal which gave Houston Dynamos the lead, and the hosts took advantage of that with a confident second half display. Seventy-one minutes were on the clock when Manotas scored his second goal of the game and ended any hopes of a Portland Timbers revival and Fuenmayor made amends for his first half own goal by capping off a 4-1 win in the eighty-first minute.

Portland Timbers split the possession 50/50 against Houston Dynamo and were equal in the amount of shots they had during the ninety minutes, but some poor defending and tame finishing cost the visitors dearly on Sunday, and Giovanni Savarese will definitely not want to see a repeat performance on Thursday.

Argentinean Váleri has certainly been Portland’s best player so far this season as he top scores in the league for Thursday’s hosts with ten goals and leads the assists chart with eight, making him the Portland Timbers’ best chance of taking all three points against Columbus Crew.

Columbus Crew missed out on a chance to eat into New York City’s five point lead over them last weekend as both teams only managed to pick up a point apiece. The Eastern Conference side travelled to Dallas and played out a goalless draw with the then Western Conference leaders which saw the hosts knocked off the top spot by Sporting KC.

Both teams created two or three half chances each during the first forty-five minutes, but only Gonzalez in the Dallas goal was truly tested when he tipped over a shot from outside of the area by Higuaín. The second half panned out very similarly to the first, with both teams having half chances that on another day might have nestled into the back of the net. Columbus Crew will have been the happier of the two sides with the end result, as Dallas saw 55% of the overall possession and looked the more likely of the two teams to possibly score a winning goal.

Zardes presents the visitors most likely source of goals against Portland having netted fifteen in the MLS so far this season, but the American forward hasn’t scored in any of his last three matches. Higuaín is a key member of Columbus Crew’s midfield as a creator and scorer of goals, and keeping him quiet will be the task of the hosts defensively minded players in Thursday’s game.

We’re confident that both teams will score in Thursday’s game and have backed the final score to read 2-2. The last five meetings between Portland Timbers and Columbus Crew have seen both teams score. Portland Timbers have scored in each of their last four matches and both teams have scored in four of Columbus Crew’s last six matches, so goals at both ends have an increased possibility on Thursday.