Eastern Conference 2nd placed outfit Montreal Impact will be looking to record back-to-back wins when they play host to Portland Timbers at their Stade Saputo on Wednesday night.
The hosts head into this clash on the back of a 2-1 home win over Seattle Sounders and they’ll be hoping to make it two wins on the trot on home turf which could close the gap on current Eastern Conference leaders, Philadelphia Union, by just 1 point.
Recent results have produced a mixed return for Montreal Impact as they’ve also registered a 2-1 home win over Real Salt Lake, but they’ve also suffered defeats to Los Angeles and Orlando City in 4-2 and 3-0 reverses respectively.
À LIRE | LA PAUSE EST TERMINÉE! L'Impact accueille les Portland Timbers mercredi soir au Stade Saputo >> https://t.co/xqQE55AZczREAD | Break's over. Rémi Garde and the squad host the @TimbersFC Wednesday night at Stade Saputo >> https://t.co/wrlGAlmdFq#IMFC #AllezMTL #MTLvPOR pic.twitter.com/DJQsthr11l— Impact de Montréal (@impactmontreal) June 25, 2019
À LIRE | LA PAUSE EST TERMINÉE! L'Impact accueille les Portland Timbers mercredi soir au Stade Saputo >> https://t.co/xqQE55AZczREAD | Break's over. Rémi Garde and the squad host the @TimbersFC Wednesday night at Stade Saputo >> https://t.co/wrlGAlmdFq#IMFC #AllezMTL #MTLvPOR pic.twitter.com/DJQsthr11l
Overall home form at their Stade Saputo has been generally good as the hosts have won 4 of their 7 matches played so far this season, and they held the upper hand over Portland Timbers in their last encounter in their own backyard with a resounding 4-1 win back in 2017.
Goalscoring midfielders Taider (7 goals) and Piatti (3 goals) look to be the most serious goal threats for Montreal.
Onto Portland Timbers, and the visitors sit second from bottom in the Western Conference but a quirk in their fixture scheduling have seen Portland play 12 of their total of 14 matches so far this season away from home.
Portland recorded a heavy 4-0 defeat over Houston Dynamo last time out in the MLS at their Providence Park ground in Oregon but this was only their second home match of this new campaign.
The visitors hit the road again this Wednesday night to travel to Canada to take on Montreal Impact with just 1 defeat out of their last 6 matches on their travels, which was a 1-0 loss at another Canadian outfit, Vancouver Whitecaps.
Recent wins at Columbus Crew, Toronto, Real Salt Lake and Philadelphia Union should give the visitors confidence of getting something at Montreal here, but they did suffer that heavy defeat last time out at Stade Saputo.
Interestingly, Portland Timbers have failed to keep a single clean sheet in each of their last 23 away matches in the MLS, and this could be an important trend to keep in mind for this clash.
Montreal Impact with home advantage may just sneak the points here.