Portland Timbers were on an extremely good run of form in the month of July, but they suffered their third match without a victory after the 2-1 defeat against Real Salt Lake during the weekend. After the match, Portland Timbers manager Caleb Porter said that he is now focusing on getting his team back to the best in the hope that they finish the season strong. The last two seasons have been disappointing for the club, but it finally looked like turning around at the start of the season. The club was in great form only a few months ago, which has helped them stay second in the table.
However, August has been a disappointing month so far for Porter because they have failed to win a single match. Their last victory came in the third week of July. As a result of this poor form, clubs like LA Galaxy and Colorado Rapids have closed the gap on Portland Timbers. There is a danger of Portland falling into the fourth or fifth position if their form does not improve sooner rather than later. Ahead of the match with Real Salt Lake in the US Open cup semi-final, Porter expressed his confidence about being able to win the match.
“I don’t know if there have been many teams that have gone into Salt Lake and out-possessed them. They’re the best possession team in the league and have been for years, and it was 60-40 and 13-9 in shots. Football and the result can be very deceiving. Like I said, we could have easily won that game 2-1 and be feeling like we’re on top of the world right now because we played well enough to have that happen,” said Porter after the 2-1 defeat, which extended Real Salt Lake’s lead to 3 points in the table.