Kickoff: 7 p.m. Thursday at Providence Park.
TV / radio: ROOT Sports and UniMas/KXL FM 101.1
Tickets: Limited tickets remained as of Wednesday. Timbers.com or 503-553-5555.
At stake: The winner will advance to the MLS Cup Western Conference semifinals. If the Timbers win, they will face Vancouver in the two-leg series, beginning with a home match on Sunday.
Format: This is a winner-take-all game. If tied after 90 minutes, the teams will play 30 extra minutes. If still tied, a penalty-kick tiebreaker will determine the winner.
Timbers notes: Portland finished the regular season with 15 wins, 11 losses and 8 draws for 53 points, tied for third best in all of MLS. The Timbers won their final three games following an Oct. 3 home loss to Sporting Kansas City which put them below the playoff cutoff line. The Timbers scored nine goals in their final two games to finish the season with 41 goals. Their 13 shutouts tied with Vancouver for the most in the league. … The lineup questions for Timbers coach Caleb Porter are in midfield, where the health of Diego Chara and the fitness of Will Johnson and Jack Jewsbury will factor into Porter’s decision to go with one or two defensive midfielders. … Figure that Darlington Nagbe and Diego Valeri will be given freedom to roam in central midfield no matter the formation. … This is the second time in five MLS seasons that the Timbers have qualified for the playoffs. In 2013 they beat Seattle 5-3 in the two-game conference semifinals then lost 5-2 to Real Salt Lake in the conference finals. … In the club’s 10 seasons at the Division 2/USL level, Portland made the playoffs seven times, advancing as far as the semifinals twice … The original NASL Timbers made the playoffs three times in eight seasons, advancing to the championship match in their first season .
Sporting Kansas City notes: SKC (14-11-9, 51 points) beat Los Angeles 2-1 on Sunday, only its second win in its final five matches during an up and down conclusion to the regular season. Sporting has plenty of playoff and elimination-game success, winning this season’s U.S. Open Cup and the 2013 MLS Cup. … The Timbers have not scored against Sporting in the last four MLS meetings between the teams, a stretch that is approaching 400 minutes of game action. SKC goalkeeper Tim Melia made a combined 13 saves to blank Portland in visits to Portland on Sept. 9 and on Oct. 3. Sporting has three wins, one draw and one loss in five visits to Providence Park, … SKC, once known as the Kansas City Wizards, is making its 14th playoff appearance. Sporting is 2-15-6 in road playoff games. SKC was 4-9-4 away from home this regular season. … Dom Dwyer (12 goals), Krisztian Nemeth (10) and Benny Fielhaber (10) accounted for 32 of Kansas City’s 48 goals this season.
