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By Will Conwell

GAME 24: Portland Timbers (7W-12L-5T) vs Vancouver Whitecaps (3W-12L-9T)
Saturday, August 20, 7:00 p.m.
Previous match-up(s): None
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Watch on TV: Fox Soccer (Comcast channel 401)
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The Timbers took only one point out of nine on the vital three game road trip from which they have just returned. Taking on the Vancouver Whitecaps, the Timbers need a win to keep them in the hunt for the playoffs. Still sitting in seventh in the western conference, the Timbers have seen the teams around them strengthen their cases as contenders for the playoffs while they have faded into the background. At the outset of the season Coach Spencer promised a team that would

play tough, a promise that the Timbers have certainly under-delivered on, but one that they can still fulfill starting now.

To the north, the Whitecaps have seen even less success on the field than the Timbers, having won only three times at home this season and never on the road. Vancouver will certainly be looking to play the spoiler against the Timbers as a loss here would be a final nail in the Timbers playoff hope's coffin.

With the Seattle Sounders the only team to have won a Cascadia Cup match so far this year, the Timbers still hold their future in their own hands when it comes to the dominance of the pacific northwest. A convincing win here and a win in Vancouver could see the Timbers take home the Cascadia Cup.

To win against Vancouver will be no easy task, however, as the Whitecaps appear to be a team with no small amount of talent in the attack but who, like the Timbers, have failed to find a consistent defence so far this year. The Timbers will need to find an effective formation if they want to shut down the Whitecaps attack. Most likely the Timbers will line-up once again in a 4-4-2, Spencer's preferred formation, which the Timbers used while dominating Los Angeles at home and also while getting dominated on the road against Houston and Kansas City.

Most of the Timbers success with the 4-4-2 have come when playing with a more defensively minded midfielder inserted in front of the defense to act a a sweeper and help control play as James Marcelin did against the Galaxy. However, the Timbers have had trouble reconciling that formation with the desire to have both Diego Chara and Captain Jack Jewsbury on the field, as both are best as box to box midfielders and neither are particularly effective when asked to stay at home and mind the defense.

It is also possible that with the trade of Jeremy Hall for Eric Alexander, who is more of a central midfielder, the Timbers will be concentrating their efforts on the 4-3-3 with three central midfielders and players like Darlington Nagbe, Kenny Cooper and Sal Zizzo attacking from the wings. A switch to this formation would put additional pressure on the Timbers wing backs to defend, something that they have looked shaky doing all year even with the recent inclusion of Lovel Palmer and Mike Chabala.

STRATEGY
Once again the Timbers find themselves facing a set of powerful, physical strikers in Vancouver's designated players Eric Hassili and Mustapha Jarju. While Jarju has shown some flashes in his brief time with the Whitecaps, he has not yet had time to adjust to the league and remains something of an unknown. Hassili, on the other hand, has shown himself to be a strong target forward; capable of scoring both impressive and scrappy goals, he has found the net ten times so far this year and will be a handful for Eric Brunner and David Horst.

Outside their front line the Whitecaps also have several players who are capable of creating chances and scoring goals including Davide Chiumiento, a Swiss winger with eight assists on the year, and Camillo, a Brazilian attacking midfielder/second striker who has tallied seven goals for the Whitecaps this season. To shut down the Vancouver attack, the Timbers need to play tough and not make mistakes, two issues that have plagued the team all year. Whether a personnel change is needed or an institutional one, the Timbers attitude at the end of games has caused them to give up points, holding them back. Changing this attitude will help them succeed defensively more than any slight tactical tweaking.

Up front the Timbers have not suffered from the same problem, putting in the effort but not reaping the rewards. The Whitecaps are tied with the Timbers for the second most porous defense in the league behind only Toronto, having let in forty goals this season including ten in their last three games. Jay Demerit and Michael Boxall, Vancouver's center-backs, are both powerful in the air, but are slow and have been known to make the occasional mistake on the ground. Playing in Jorge Perlaza with a through ball could be very effective against Vancouver if the Timbers can manage to stay onsides, while the Timbers also have a definite height advantage and should look to assert themselves on free kicks as well.

TOP 5 GOAL SCORERS
1. Jack Jewsbury – 7
2. Jorge Perlaza – 5
3. Kenny Cooper – 4
6. Tie: Rodney Wallace/Mamadu ¬Å“Futty¬Â Danso/Eric Brunner – 2

NEXT 5 MATCHES
8/24 vs Chivas USA
9/10 @ Philadelphia
9/16 vs New England
9/21 vs San Jose
9/24 @ NewYork

BOTTOM LINE
The Cascadia rivalry is the most intense in American soccer and this match up between two rival near the bottom of the league table will likely be a wild one. Anything less than the full three points will not only be a disappointment for the Timbers and their fans, it would virtually eliminate them from both the playoffs and the Cascadia Cup. The Timbers must win this game.

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Pipeline's Portland Timbers  coverage by:

Will Conwell

Will Conwell is an aspiring novelist who spends his free time unloading trucks in warehouses. His passions in life are soccer, beer, and writing, which he has found are best enjoyed in concert. Will can be contacted atwilliam.conwell@gmail.com or on twitter at TimbersPipeline.