Short-handed Union seek 1st win of season vs. Timbers

The Philadelphia Union have shown they're fit to be tied this season.

But how about fit for a victory?

The Union (0-0-3, 3 points) will seek their first MLS win this season then they travel to Portland (2-1-1, 7 points) on Saturday night.

After being eliminated from the CONCACAF Champions League, the Union played to a 2-2 draw on March 16 at Austin FC. Daniel Gazdag opened the scoring with a penalty kick in the 14th minute before the hosts scored twice in two minutes to take the lead in the second half. The Union's Mikael Uhre scored his second of the season to tie it in the 65th minute.

"As an entire group, we challenged ourselves to stick together and have a good response," Union coach Jim Curtin said.

The Union won't look the same Saturday because of the FIFA international break. Jose Martinez and Jesus Bueno (Venezuela), Andre Blake and Damion Lowe (Jamaica), Jack McGlynn and Nathan Harriel (United States U-23), Gazdag (Hungary), and Tai Baribo (Israel) all are expected to miss the contest.

"I said it in the pregame talk (last Saturday), I said before we go away, let's have a real Union performance where we look like ourselves," Curtin said.

The Timbers, who are coming off a 1-0 loss last weekend at Houston, their first of the season, will have only three players -- Maxime Crepeau, Kamal Miller and Miguel Araujo -- away for international duties.

"We have probably four or five real big chances to score goals and we win the game 3-1, and we didn't," Timbers coach Phil Neville said. "We weren't ruthless enough, we didn't have the quality in the final little bit. I can't fault the effort."

Neville said he was pleased by how the Timbers stuck to their game plan, even as Houston controlled the ball for more than 58 percent of the game.

"They found it really difficult to get any kind of meaningful possession," Neville said. "They had lots of possession in front of us, but not really through us."

--Field Level Media