Portland Timbers vs FC Cincinnati 7/28/20 - MLS Picks & Predictions

On Tuesday, the winners of Group F, the Portland Timbers will play the second-place finishers in Group E, FC Cincinnati. Portland has played very well and deserved winning Group F after scoring an equalizer late against LAFC in the final fixture of Group play. Although Portland is heavily favored in this matchup against the Cinderella story of the tournament FC Cincinnati, the Timbers cannot look ahead or will go home early.

Portland opened up its play in the MLS is Back Tournament with a 2-1 victory over the LA Galaxy and followed that with a 2-1 victory over the Houston Dynamo. In the final match of Group play, Portland needed a late Jeremy Ebobisse equalizer in the 81st minute to secure a draw and clinch the Group F top spot. Jeremy Ebobisse and Diego Valeri are the leading goal scorers for Portland with three each.

At the start of the tournament, no one thought FC Cincinnati would reach the knockout stage especially after falling 4-0 in the opening match to Columbus. However, first-year manager Jaap Stam has made several changes to the club’s tactics and the Orange and Blue were able to post a pair of clean sheets and defeat both Atlanta United and the New York Red Bulls to reach the round of 16.

Following it's embarrassing 4-0 setback at the hands of Columbus Crew, FC Cincinnati buckled down on defense and posted it 1-0 victory over Atlanta United followed by a 2-0 victory over the New York Red Bulls giving the Orange and Blue 6 points and a second-place finish in Group E. Yuya Kubo is the leading scorer for FC Cincinnati with two goals while Adrien Regattin is the assists leader with two.