By The Numbers: Sporting KC vs. Portland Timbers - March 21, 2015

Two clubs seeking their first win of 2015 will meet at Sporting Park on Saturday as the Portland Timbers visit Sporting Kansas City. The 7:30 p.m. match will be televised locally on KMCI 38 The Spot and across the midwest on SKCTV, with radio coverage on 102.9 FM (English) and 1340 AM (Spanish).

Sporting KC earned a 1-0 road win at Portland last season, but the Timbers have been victorious in their previous two trips to Kansas City. Caleb Porter’s team left Sporting Park with a 3-2 win in April 2013 and eliminated Sporting KC from the 2014 Lamar Hunt U.S. Open Cup with a 3-1 triumph in the round of 16. We break down the Western Conference tilt in our By The Numbers preview.

Head-to-head

• The visiting team has won four of the last six meeting between the clubs in all competitions since 2011.
• Seven of Sporting KC’s eight regular season goals against Portland have come in the first half. Similarly, four of Portland’s six goals against Sporting KC have come before the interval, meaning just three second-half goals have been scored between the clubs in five regular season meetings.
• Two of Matt Besler's seven career regular season assists have come against Portland.
• Graham Zusi has two goals in four career regular season appearances against Portland.
• Rodney Wallace has two goals and two assists in nine career regular season appearances against Sporting KC, most recently scoring at Sporting Park on April 27, 2013.
• Darlington Nagbe has two goals in five career regular season appearances against Sporting KC, also scoring at Sporting Park on April 27, 2013.

Sporting KC

• Hasn’t lost a home game in March since 2009, an unbeaten run of eight games (5-0-3). Six of those matches have come at Sporting Park, where the club has conceded just three goals in 540 minutes of action.
• Leads MLS with 66 interceptions.
• Ranks third in MLS with 23 chances created.
• Ranks second in MLS with 44 aerial duels won.
• Roger Espinoza leads MLS midfielders with 19 duels won.
• Benny Feilhaber is one of three MLS players (Michel and Ned Grabavoy) with two assists.
• Ike Opara leads MLS with 12 interceptions.
• Graham Zusi ranks third in MLS with seven chances created.

Portland Timbers

• Ranked second in 2014 in the following categories: road points (25), road wins (7-6-4 overall) and road goals scored (27).
• Ranked second in 2014 with 10.9 chances created per game.
• Led MLS in 2014 with 13 goals scored outside the box.
• Ranked last in MLS in 2014 with 16.5 percent crossing accuracy from open play.
• Darlington Nagbe led MLS in 2014 with 244 duels won.
• Diego Chara led MLS in 2014 with 83 fouls committed and ranked second with 118 tackles won.
• In 2015, Liam Ridgewell ranks second in MLS with 13 headed clearances.
• Fanendo Adi is one of eight MLS players with two goals or more goals. He scored a brace last Sunday against LA Galaxy.

Milestones and miscellany

• If Matt Besler plays 90 minutes on Saturday, he will pass Jack Jewsbury for seventh all-time with 13,276 minutes played for the club (regular season). He is also set to move into a tie for eighth place in club history (Matt McKeon) with 183 appearances in all competitions.
• If Bernardo Anor starts on Saturday, it will be the 50th regular season start of his MLS career.
• If Dom Dwyer starts on Saturday, it will be the 50th start of his Sporting KC career in all competitions.
• Graham Zusi is one shy of 50 career assists for Sporting KC in all competitions.
• Sporting KC is four shy of 1,000 goals across all competitions in team history.

Team stats (2015 regular season)

Previous regular season meetings

• Sporting KC leads the series 3-2-0 (8 GF, 6 GA)
• Saturday is the third meeting between the teams at Sporting Park