PORTLAND
, Ore. –
The Portland Timbers wrap up the 2008 USL First Division season on the road as they visit the Carolina RailHawks on Saturday at WakeMed Soccer Park at 4:30 p.m. (Pacific).
The Timbers will be without the services of forward
Takayuki Suzuki
and defender
Cameron Dunn
for their season finale against the RailHawks due to league-imposed disciplinary action. Suzuki is serving a one-match suspension due to yellow-card accumulation, while Dunn’s one-game suspension is the result of his red-card ejection in Portland’s last match on Sept. 11.
A live broadcast of the Timbers’ 2008 finale is available through USL Live at www.usllive.com.
Portland (7-12-10, 31pts) will look to snap a three-game losing streak when it faces Carolina, one of three teams still fighting for the final playoff berth. The Timbers are 0-1-1 against the RailHawks this season and were handed a 1-0 loss in their previous trip to North Carolina on June 27. In Portland, the Timbers and RailHawks battled to a scoreless draw on July 24 in a physical match that saw both teams reduced to 10 men. The Timbers are 1-1-2 all-time against Carolina since the RailHawks (7-11-10, 31pts) joined the USL First Division in 2007.
The Timbers were one of two clubs knocked out of the playoff race last weekend with the Minnesota Thunder’s 4-0 win over the Charleston Battery on Sept. 13. The 2008 season marks the third time in the Timbers’ eight seasons in the USL First Division that they have not advanced to the postseason.
Portland holds a 4-2-1 mark in regular-season finales since joining the league in 2001.
NEARING MILESTONES
Timbers defenders
Scot Thompson
and
Cameron Knowles
could each achieve key milestones against Carolina on Saturday. In his five seasons in Portland, Thompson has played 9,979 minutes and could become just the fourth Timbers player to crack the 10,000 minutes played mark. He would join Hugo Alcaraz-Cuellar, Brian Winters and head coach Gavin Wilkinson on that list. Meanwhile, Knowles could set the club's modern-franchise single-season record for minutes played in a season. At 2,520 minutes played in 2008, Knowles is just 76 minutes shy of Keith Costigan's record of 2,596 set in 2002.
ABOUT CAROLINA RAILHAWKS
Carolina closes its regular-season schedule with matches on back-to-back days starting with a trip to face the Charleston Battery on Friday before hosting the Timbers on Saturday. The RailHawks kept their playoff chances alive with a 1-1 draw against the Rochester Rhinos on Sept. 14. Carolina enters the final week of the regular-season with a win and a draw in their previous two matches. The RailHawks have conceded 42 goals this season, which rank among the most in the league.
