Minnesota United can match the franchise seasonal point record when they welcome Portland Timbers on Saturday evening in Saint Paul, Minn.
The Loons (14-6-8, 50 points), second in the classification of the West Conference and three points behind the San Diego FC, finished with a record of 53 points (15-11-8) in 2019 on the way to a fourth place.
But with six games still on the left, including a date of September 13 in San Diego, Eric Ramsay’s team is thinking of bigger and better things this time.
“We are talking about winning trophies because I think we are able to do it, and we have been able to do it for some time,” said Ramsay.
Minnesota, which can drop out in the MLS Cup qualifiers with a victory, is also in the semi-finals of the US Open Cup and is currently fifth in the race for the supporters shield, four points behind the first place of Philadelphia Union.
“We did a good job to put ourselves in this position,” said Ramsay. “We have to make sure that we are dealing with each match by the end of the year as if it was a cup final, and we will see where it takes us. We have a group of players who are really motivated to take this place above us now, and we will see what is happening during six huge games in MLS.”
The first is the competition on Saturday evening with sixth place Portland (10-9-8, 38 points), which is without victory in its last three MLS games (0-2-1), but obtained a 1-1 draw with the Loons on July 19 during its first meeting on the aim of attaching Omir Fernandez to the 92nd minute.
The Timbers came out of a 0-0 draw in San Diego last Saturday, the fifth white sheet of the team on the road this season, corresponding to the brand in a single team season in 2015. James Pantemis needed only one stop to draw its fourth white sheet in 13 departures. It was Portland’s fourth laundering in its last seven games in all competitions all competitions.
“Clean sheets will be massively important on the road,” said Timbers coach Gary Neville, whose team is minus-2 in the goal differential. “We are going to Minnesota, Vancouver, Seattle … We will have to keep sheets clean to have a chance to win the match.”
– Field level media
