The Major League Soccer playoffs are back and that means it's time for the Western conference finals and the first leg will be at Rio Tinto Stadium as Real Salt Lake and the Portland Timbers take each other on and this comes after the last round and the match will be on ESPN at 9:00 pm and streaming online from WatchESPN on Sunday night for the first leg match.
The two teams come in after pulling off wins in the previous round and the Timbers were able to take down the Seattle Sounders, while the Los Angeles Galaxy were defeated by Salt Lake and now that means there will be a new champion this year after LA won the past two MLS Cups and this round now has the number one seed in the Timbers and the number two seed in Salt Lake and that makes the first and second leg games very interesting and this one will be in Salt Lake City before heading to the Pacific Northwest and the team is favored heading into the series. Houston and Kansas City are playing in the East finals and that should make for a good series as well and the Timbers were able to win over the Sounders with a nice 3-2 win in the second leg and the Salt Lake made it in with a 2-0 win against the Galaxy to take the series 2-1.
Check here for the Watch ESPN coverage of the MLS Playoffs.
The match should be tough for both sides and now Portland is looking forward to getting back home after the first leg, as they are fantastic while playing at home and they have only had one loss during the regular season there and after getting the win in the previous round in the second leg they kept that streak alive. Both teams are very strong up the middle and it should be an even matchup most of the way and the Timbers come in with the best record in the west and this is the first time that the team has made it to the playoffs and that makes things even more exciting for the team. The team has been fantastic at home with 11 shutouts and they will try for that same result on the road and while they will be away from Jeld-Wen Field for now, they will be back soon and that match will be very tough for Real Salt Lake to win, so it is likely that they will play aggressive on Sunday night and looking for a win at home in the first leg.
