The Portland Timbers take on former midfielder Andrew Gregor and his Rochester Rhinos tonight at PAETEC Park in Rochester at 4:35 p.m (Pacific). Watch the match live online through USL Live. Listen to live audio broadcast online through Rochester radio station 107.3 FM.
Click here to view today's game notes.
Starting lineups:
POR:
ROC:
Match Preview:
The Portland Timbers continue their push for the postseason as they begin a two-game road trip against the Rochester Rhinos. Portland's two-game swing is part of a stretch of four-games in eight days that started on Thursday in Portland against the Miami FC Blues.
With two wins in their last three matches, the Timbers remain in the hunt for a playoff berth. With a 4-0 win over the Blues on Thursday, Portland moved into eighth place and are just one point behind both the Minnesota Thunder and Atlanta Silverbacks in a two-way tie for seventh place at 31 points. The top seven clubs advance to the post season. Portland owns the tiebreaker over both Minnesota and Atlanta.
Tonight's match marks the first time the two clubs have met since they were involved in a three-team trade on July 9 that saw the exchange of goalkeeper
Chase Harrison
and forward
Jamil Walker
for midfielder
Andrew Gregor
. Since joining Portland, Walker has appeared in eight matches and Harrison has started the last two matches in goal.
The Timbers are 0-1-1 against the Rhinos this season and were handed a 2-1 loss in Rochester on May 30. The two clubs played to a scoreless draw at PGE Park on May 8. Since joining the USL First Division in
2001, Portland is 1-7-2 all-time against Rochester, including a 0-4-1 mark on the road.
Returning to action is defender Cameron Knowles, who missed Thursday's match against Miami with a one-game, league-imposed suspension for yellow-card accumulation.
CARD WATCH: The Timbers have a handful of players near penalty benchmarks in yellow-card accumulation. On three cards entering tonight’s match are defenders
Leonard Griffin
and
Scot Thompson
. Midfielder
Tom Poltl
and forward
Takayuki Suzuki
each have four cautions. Defender
Cameron Knowles
is on five, and served his one-game, league-imposed suspension on Thursday. Defender
Justin Thompson
picked up his sixth caution on Thursday.
