Earthquakes-Timbers Preview

Though they've gained some ground, the Portland Timbers still have much work to do to get back in playoff position.

The defending MLS Cup champions have a golden opportunity in front of them in Wednesday night's match against a depleted San Jose Earthquakes side that's never won in Portland.

Three straight losses from May 7-15 had Portland (4-6-4) languishing toward the bottom of the Western Conference, but it's made some headway by going unbeaten in its last two. A critical 4-2 home win over rival Vancouver was followed by Saturday's 1-1 draw in Chicago, where the Timbers withstood the Fire's 17-8 shot advantage to earn another needed point.

"Anytime you go on the road, you'll take a point," coach Caleb Porter said. "Also, I'm not sure we deserved three points. If you look at that second half, I thought Chicago was the better team. They put us under pressure and when things aren't going your way, that's the mark of a good team (when) you grind and you put the point in the bag and you get out of there."

Portland remained winless on the road and comes out of the Copa America break with three of four matches away from home, increasing the urgency in this meeting with an Earthquakes squad it trails by four points in the West.

The Timbers dealt San Jose a 3-1 defeat April 16 to improve to 5-0-3 at home in the series. The Earthquakes (5-3-5) have been outscored 7-1 in losing three straight at Portland.

San Jose also has yet to win as the visitor (0-3-3) and enters Wednesday's match with leading scorer Chris Wondolowski and starting midfielders Simon Dawkins, Anibal Godoy and Alberto Quintero on international duty. The four have accounted for 12 of the club's 16 goals.

With the quartet unavailable, the Earthquakes relied on their strong defense to record a scoreless draw with FC Dallas on Saturday to extend their unbeaten run to three games.

"I think there's obviously things we could be better at, but on the other side of it to shut out a team like Dallas is a pretty good accomplishment," coach Dominic Kinnear said.

Portland is also a bit short-handed with star midfielder Darlington Nagbe on the U.S. roster for the upcoming Copa America, though it will have top scorers Fanendo Adi and Diego Valeri healthy and available. Adi scored two of his eight goals in the teams' previous meeting and Valeri has four in his last six games after tallying against Chicago.

San Jose has conceded 12 of its 15 goals on the road but could find more scoring chances against the Timbers, the league's only team without a clean sheet.