Portland and Neville relishing decider against 'fantastic' San Diego

Portland Timbers boss Phil Neville insisted that full concentration remained on his players ahead of their decider with San Diego FC in the MLS playoffs.

After losing the first match of the best-of-three series, Portland appeared set to fall at the first hurdle at Providence Park until Gage Guerra's 98th-minute leveller ensured the game would go to penalties.

Jeppe Tverskov's missed spot-kick allowed Antony to score and seal a 3-2 win in the shootout, sending the best-of-three series to a deciding match at Snapdragon Stadium.

Portland succeeded at being far more direct in Game Two, though Neville knows that approach might not translate in the visit to San Diego, given their poor away form.

"When you get to the playoffs, I think the words ‘find a way to win' is probably the most important thing," Neville said.

"We wanted to make it a certain type of game in our home stadium. Now, can we do that away from home? I don't think we can. I think we've got to obviously be adaptable again.

"We know San Diego are a fantastic team that have had a fantastic season. What we know about coming out of the second game is that they now know we are in the third game.

"The tie is really balanced. All we've done is concentrate on ourselves and our attitude, our work rate, our confidence and our belief, and I see a team that has all those qualities."

San Diego, meanwhile, are aiming to dust themselves down from the late setback last time out.

The second expansion team in three seasons to win the Western Conference regular-season crown will have to do so without injured goalkeeper CJ dos Santos, however. 

The hosts are also still dealing with the aftermath of a dressing room incident that left Hirving Lozano out of Game One. He did return and scored off the bench in Game Two.

Despite all their off-field issues, San Diego boss Mikey Varas is trying to reframe the occasion positively, saying: "Mentality at a big level will stay consistent.

"But every match is different, and you have to be able to adapt to the circumstances and the context.

“We play a final. There's finality to this game and we're really excited about that. That's what you get up in the morning for."

PLAYERS TO WATCH

San Diego FC – Amahl Pellegrino

With his goal in Game Two, Pellegrino has provided seven goal contributions (four goals, three assists) in his last four matches for San Diego.

Only Inter Miami's Lionel Messi has provided more goal contributions since the start of October (regular season and playoffs).

Portland Timbers – Kristoffer Velde

Velde scored in both Game One and Game Two after not having a single regular-season goal since joining the Timbers.

He is the fifth Portland player to score in consecutive MLS playoff matches but no Timbers player has scored in three straight postseason games.

MATCH PREDICTION: SAN DIEGO FC WIN

While favoured by the pre-match simulations, San Diego have won only three of their last 11 home games (D2 L6) since winning six of their first 10 matches across all competitions at home (D3 L1).

They managed to score a Game One home win as the team looks to register consecutive wins in home matches for the first time since doing so in May, but they face a tough test here.

Indeed, in Game Two, Portland scored two goals against San Diego after having just one in total in the first three meetings. It was San Diego's third time in its last 15 matches against MLS clubs allowing multiple goals.

Portland have also scored in 11 of their 13 road playoff matches, tallying 20 goals since their MLS playoffs debut in 2013. Portland's 20 road goals rank as the second most in that span with only the New York Red Bulls (21) scoring more.

OPTA WIN PROBABILITY

San Diego FC – 55%

Draw – 23.2%

Portland Timbers – 21.8%