Portland Starting To Come Around In MLS Action
While you’re checking out Euro Cup news, you can kill some time with Major League Soccer and in the Northwest, Portland got off to a terrible start to the 2012 season, their second campaign in MLS, but they’re starting to wake up. They need a solid run of results to move up in the Western Conference.
Portland sits on 13 points, good for seventh in the conference, and some 5dimes reviews would tell you that it looked grim until four matches ago, when they drew 0-0 at home against Columbus. The Timbers have now taken points in their last four games, although three of those games were draws. But a point is a point and it is better than nothing for Portland, who are led by four goals from Kris Boyd. However, outside of Boyd, only Darlington Nagbe has more than one goal with three, and that has been their main problem as Portland has scored just 12 goals in 12 matches; in their conference, only Chivas USA have scored fewer. If you’re a smart sharp that works with price per head software (which you can find out more about by clicking here), you know that goals are crucial in soccer and especially when you have a decent defense as Portland has, but goals have to start coming from somewhere.
Colombian midfielder Diego Chara is the team’s other designated player outside of Boyd, is a strong holding midfielder who is adept at turning defense to attack and at 26 years old, he is just coming into his own. Chara and Boyd are two of three Timbers to play all 12 matches, along with keeper Troy Perkins, who is still 30 years old and that is the age when a keeper really starts to get it. Eric Brunner and Lovel Palmer marshal the defense, but a little more consistency in that area would also help the Timbers raise their chances at online betting sites.
The Timbers’ next league match comes on June 17th as we hit the international break; the European Championships will be kicking off, but more importantly for Major League Soccer, qualifying for the World Cup will be getting underway and that means many of their players will be trying to lift their country to Brazil in 2014. The Timbers don’t have anyone going to the United States team, and Boyd and Chara aren’t part of their national teams (Scotland and Colombia, respectively), so they should be healthy by the time they prepare to face Los Angeles, who are at the bottom of the Western Conference and can’t seem to get anything going at all. These are the games that Portland has to win to move up in your online sports book.
