Timbers continue challenging stretch at San Diego FC

The Portland Timbers face a Supporters' Shield contender for a second consecutive weekend on Saturday night when they visit a San Diego FC side coming off one of its most dramatic wins of the season.

The Timbers nearly rallied from three goals down in last weekend's 3-2 home defeat to FC Cincinnati, in which former Timbers star Evander scored one goal and assisted another for Cincy.

Kevin Kelsy scored twice after halftime to make the game close late after Cincinnati's first-half outburst that came somewhat against the run of play.

Portland manager Phil Neville believed the performance was better than the result. But it also brought into focus the thin margins the Timbers may be facing down the stretch.

In addition to two fixtures against San Diego (16-7-4, 52 points) -- which leads FC Cincinnati in the Shield standings on goal differential -- Portland (10-9-7, 37 points), currently sixth in the Western Conference, will also face West contenders Minnesota, Vancouver and Seattle in their last eight matches.

"I think the two games against San Diego will be massive games for us, both home and away, and we're really looking forward to it," Neville said. "They've got something going there, and I think we need to go down there and we need to play at our absolute maximum."

San Diego rallied to a late 2-1 victory over San Jose after they were second-best for most of last Sunday's contest.

But the late entrance of striker Marcus Ingvartsen into only his seventh MLS appearance -- and first in more than two months -- transformed the game and perhaps gave reason to believe an already impressive expansion season could get even better.

The Danish striker scored the equalizer in the 81st minute, then fed Anders Dreyer for the 84th-minute winner for his best moment during an injury-plagued first MLS season.

"It's been tough," Ingvartsen told the Official SDFC Podcast this week. "But also like, for me, I try to change it to something positive and to try to go into some small details that you're maybe not really having the time for when you're in a full training-game schedule, and so on. And then just being able to come back as strong, as good as possible."

--Field Level Media