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FC Dallas-Timbers Preview

A trip to Portland stood between FC Dallas and an appearance in the MLS Cup a season ago, and while it might have been the club's most painful result there, it was far from the only bad one.

Dallas visits again Wednesday night still seeking its first ever road win against the Timbers, who hope to end a four-match winless streak with their best player sidelined.

The good news for Portland (1-2-2) is Darlington Nagbe didn't suffer any fractures on a brutal 73rd-minute challenge from Los Angeles' Nigel de Jong in Sunday's 1-1 draw. The bad is that the United States national team midfielder will still be out indefinitely with a sprained left ankle and contusion. Nagbe has been ruled out of this game and will likely miss Saturday's match against New York City FC.

Coach Caleb Porter had strong words for the officiating after de Jong remained on the field with a yellow card. It's likely to be retroactively changed to a red, but that doesn't help the Timbers with the split points.

"I understand that referees have a message that they want to send, well they better start sending it because they didn't send it today with some of the tackles that were in this game," he said. "So, when are we sending it? Just some games? ... Tough part is we should have been up a man which could have impacted the result. Instead we end up getting a top player hurt and now another Western Conference team gets the benefit next game, not us."

Fellow attacker Fanendo Adi scored again, giving the Timbers a 52nd-minute lead before a Nat Borchers own goal in the 84th squared things up.

It followed a 4-1 loss at Orlando a week earlier and dropped the Timbers to 0-2-2 since opening the season with a home win in an MLS Cup rematch with Columbus. Portland hasn't gone five straight without a win since opening 0-3-5 in 2014.

"It was a tough game," said Adi, tied for the league lead with four goals. "Of course you don't expect an own goal but things happen in football. We have to take the positive out of it. We worked well, and we played well, so it's a strong comeback from last week."

The Timbers are 5-0-2 at home against Dallas, including two 3-1 wins last year. The second was the Nov. 22 first leg of the clubs' West final tie, which ended with the Timbers advancing on a 5-3 aggregate a week later.

Dallas (3-1-2) is coming off Saturday's 2-2 home draw with San Jose, which came only because of a 62nd-minute own goal in its favor. It wasn't the most encouraging result with four of its next five coming on the road and its next eight matches against 2015 playoff teams.

With league assist leader Mauro Diaz out for a second straight game with an undisclosed injury, Mauro Rosales turned in a strong 30 minutes as a substitute to help Dallas back from two deficits. Since a 5-0 loss at Houston on March 12, the club is 2-0-2 with two clean sheets.

"Everybody has to be ready, we have a lot of games and this is what we want," Rosales told the club's official website. "We want to move forward and even playing against Portland and (Sporting Kansas City), we mentioned that they're playing well and if everybody (has) a positive mentality, we'll be OK to face those teams."

Dallas' Tesho Akindele has scored in consecutive matches, while former Timbers forward Maxi Urruti is right behind Adi with three goals as he prepares to face his championship teammates for the first time.

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