St Louis City will try to avoid equalling their longest MLS losing run in club history when they host the Portland Timbers on Sunday afternoon from Energizer Park.

Last Saturday, the hosts suffered a third successive league defeat 3-2 at Real Salt Lake, while the Timbers came away with a 2-1 triumph at home versus the New England Revolution.

Match preview

Although they have shown more attacking quality under interim head coach David Critchley, St Louis are not achieving many more positive results since Olof Mellberg was sacked.

Heading into this contest, they have netted multiple goals in three of their last four regular-season affairs but have won just one of their previous 17 matches in this competition.

With a mere 15 points after 21 league contests this year, they have accumulated seven points fewer than they had at this stage a year ago, which was their second MLS campaign.

That said 10 of their 15 points accumulated so far this season have come at Energizer Park, with the last one being a 3-3 draw to the Los Angeles Galaxy in June.

Three times in the competition this year, St Louis City have drawn first blood on their home field but failed to maintain that advantage, dropping seven points in the process.

In three of their last four meetings with the Timbers though they have come away with at least a point, including a 3-1 win at home in the 2023 Leagues Cup.

From one club on the decline to one on the rise, we have Portland who have points in four of their previous five league fixtures, earning three wins over that stretch.

All of those points however were at home and on Sunday they will try to end a four-match road winless run in this competition, losing three of those games.

Phil Neville’s men are fourth in the Western Conference, with six points currently separating them from San Diego FC for first, while the Timbers have a game in hand on the latter.

The Timbers are littered with attacking quality all over the field, but that has not been as evident away from home where they are goalless in three successive MLS affairs.

While their away form has not been stellar, a victory on Sunday would give them four as the visitors this year, one more than they managed during the 2024 domestic campaign.

Portland are unbeaten away from home against St Louis City in the MLS regular season, conceding just two goals over that stretch, with their only triumph occurring in 2023 (2-1).

St Louis City Major League Soccer form:

Portland Timbers Major League Soccer form:

Team News

In Salt Lake City last week, St Louis did not have Joakim Nilsson, Chris Durkin or Timo Baumgartl available due to knee issues, while Eduard Lowen and Frederick Kessler sat out because of hamstring strains.

An upper body problem kept Alfredo Morales on the sidelines for that contest, and Rasmus Alm did not feature as he continues to recover from a hip issue.

Klauss scored their opening strike last week to put them within one before an own goal from Noel Caliskan gave them some hope for the final 10 minutes of that encounter.

Meanwhile, the Timbers have been plagued by lower body injuries as Jonathan Rodriguez, Ariel Lassiter and Antony were all out last week for that reason, while Zac McGraw missed another match with a back injury.

They will have Jimer Fory available once again for this upcoming fixture after he was suspended against the Revs because of yellow card accumulation.

Ian Smith and David Costa scored in the first and second half respectively against New England, extending their unbeaten run at Providence Park to 10 consecutive matches.

St Louis City possible starting lineup:

Burki; Totland, Hiebert, Yaro, Zalinsky; Wallem; Teuchert, Pompeu, Ostrak, Becher; Klauss

Portland Timbers possible starting lineup:

Crepeau; Zuparic, Surman, K. Miller; Mosquera, Ortiz, Paredes, Smith; Moreno, Costa; Mora

We say: St Louis City 1-2 Portland Timbers

Nothing seems to be going right for St Louis City, and facing a side with the kind of attacking depth that Portland possess will be a tough challenge which we do not believe the home side will be up for.

For data analysis of the most likely results, scorelines and more for this match please click here.

Written by
Joel Lefevre

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