Timbers vs Earthquakes Game Preview
The Timbers head to sunny California on Saturday looking to stay white hot as they take on the San Jose Earthquakes. Though the Timbers find themselves ahead of San Jose in the standings, they shouldn’t take the Earthquakes lightly, as the Timbers were outplayed throughout the game last season in their road loss to San Jose this past September. The Earthquakes are also a desperate team, finding themselves in a similar position to where the Timbers were two weeks ago when they hosted New York City FC. Losers of their last two games, the Earthquakes will look to slow down a Timbers attack that has looked hard to stop as of late. The Timbers will hope that their bye week will continue their turnaround efforts since their slow start on the road to open the season. Through their first five road games, the Timbers still find themselves winless, so we don’t anticipate them taking their opponents lightly. Saturday night might also signal the return of captain Liam Ridgewell. The captain from across the pond hasn’t played since the NY Red Bulls game nearly two months ago. With Bill Tuiloma nursing a knee injury, the captain’s presence may be needed to support a backline that has seen consistent improvement with each game since that ugly one to the Red Bulls on March 10th. Either way, we’re feeling good about this one.
Components
1-5 Scale; 1=Not Great; 5=Good or an Advantage for Our Team
Pinot Noir: 17-20, Pinot Gris 13-16, Rosé 9-12
# Explanation
Match Weather: 5 A night game with temperatures in the 60’s and no rain? That’s good soccer weather.
Start Time: 5 Wine taste & Kentucky Derby during the day, get back & buckle up. We’re on primetime!
Rivalry Game? 3 Though SJ isn’t a Cascade rival, they’re one spot below us in the competitive West.
Hot or Not? 4 The only thing that could stop the Timbers last week was not having a game! We’re hot.
Final Score: 17
Verdict?
Pinot Noir Day! A cool Saturday night in PDX should be spent in the living room or at a nearby watering hole. The weather will be perfect for a nice glass of Pinot Noir to root on the boys in their away Red & Black kits. The Timbers will have to be a little weary of the Earthquake’s attack, led by U.S. national staple Chris Wondolowski and Danny Hoesen. We’re actually expecting that between those two, they’ll be able to score a goal on the Timbers behind their home crowd. What they won’t do, is take it to our boys. We’re expecting Portland to be unfazed by their recent bye and to come out hungry and match the desperate energy of their foes. That means we’re feeling great about this end result, so much so that we see the Timbers ending their road woes in a closely contested game that we put away for good around stoppage time. We’re predicting a 3-1 Timbers win. #RCTID