The Portland Timbers are back below the red line, but with a game in hand on most of the league today’s match against the Chicago Fire is their chance to climb back into a playoff berth.
On short rest following last weekend’s 3-1 win over the struggling Vancouver Whitecaps, the Timbers face a different sort of challenge in the Fire. Although tonight’s visitors sit in 10th place in the Eastern Conference, the Fire have reached the point in their season where it is do or die. With a talented but underperforming squad, the Fire are just three points out of the playoffs in the East and will be hoping to make up that difference against the Timbers.