Portland Timbers vs Philadelphia Union Prediction: Gazdag absence could prove costly for visitors

Phil Neville will be looking for his Portland Timbers side to recover from their first setback of the 2024 MLS season when take on Philadelphia Union on Sunday (KO, 02:30).

Ahead of this fixture at Providence Park we have taken a look at all the latest team news and match odds, and offered our Portland Timbers vs Philadelphia Union prediction.

Portland Timbers began their campaign with a resounding 4-1 win over Colorado Rapids at Providence Park before being held 2-2 at the same venue by DC United. Neville then got his second victory in charge away to New York City (4-2) but the Timbers then fell to a 1-0 defeat at Houston Dynamo last week.

The hosts now sit third in the Western Conference, while Sunday's visitors reside in 13th - third-bottom - of the Eastern Conference after drawing all three of their MLS matches so far. The Union have been distracted by their CONCACAF Champions Cup campaign though, which has now come to an end after a 6-0 aggregate defeat to Mexican side Pachuca.

Team News

Felipe Mora, Claudio Bravo and Marvin Loria are yet to feature for the Timbers this season due to injury, and the trio will miss out again on Sunday.

Neville will also be without Miguel Araujo (Peru), Maxime Crepeau and Kamal Miller (both Canada), who are all away on international duty.

James Pantemis will cover for Crepeau in goal for the Timbers, who will look to Evander and Antony for inspiration in the final third. The former is the club's record signing and the latter already has three goals to his name this season.

Philadelphia Union are missing midfielder Leon Flach and back-up goalkeeper Holden Trent through injury, while there are eight players that have been called up for their national teams.

Among them are first-choice stopper Andre Blake (Jamaica), centre-back Damion Lowe (also Jamaica), midfielder Jose Martinez (Venezuela), Jack McGlynn (USA U23) and Daniel Gazdag (Hungary). All five started last week's 2-2 draw with Austin FC and will have to be replaced.

Jesus Bueno, Jakob Glesnes and veteran Alejandro Bedoya are among those likely to come into the side.

Match Odds

Portland Timbers have been installed as 19/20 favourites for this match, which implies they have a 51.3% chance of winning, while Philadelphia Union are 12/5, or a 29.4% chance.

The draw can also be found at 12/5, with both teams to score at 8/13 and over 2.5 goals at 8/11.

Portland Timbers to win and both teams to score @ 13/5

The Timbers haven't beaten the Union since 2020, losing 3-0 in Philadelphia in 2021 and then going down 2-0 in Portland the following year, but this is the ideal time to break that barren run.

Sunday's visitors to Providence Park will be without a host of first-team players, notably goalkeeper Blake and influential midfielder Gazdag, who has scored 40% (2/5) of their MLS goals this term. The Hungarian was also joint-top scorer - alongside Julian Carranza - for them last season, finding the net 14 times.

Neville is missing a couple of key players as well, notably his goalkeeper Crepeau, but he still has the likes of Evander, Antony, Santiago Moreno and Dairon Asprilla to call on in attack.

The Union have Carranza and Mikael Uhre - who has scored twice in MLS this season - in their side, but with Gazdag - who registered 10 assists last season - out, can they get enough supply to their strikers?

They'll be confident of scoring at least one, but I don't think that will be enough to deny the Timbers of all three points.

Evander to score anytime @ 15/8

The Brazilian scored nine goals in his debut MLS season and laid on a further four in what was, ultimately, a disappointing campaign for the Timbers, who missed out on the play-offs by one point.

Evander missed the first two games of this season through injury but, such is his importance to the side, he was immediately thrust into the starting XI against New York City by Neville, who was rewarded with a goal from the 25-year-old.

He was unable to weave his magic in Houston last Sunday but, against an under-strength Union team, he will be confident of scoring a second of the campaign this weekend.

Check out the rest of our Football Betting Tips here.