Phil Neville branded the Portland Timbers' first-half performance against Real Salt Lake last weekend as "unacceptable" and urged them to improve against Sporting Kansas City.

The Timbers have struggled for consistency in 2026 so far and have alternated between wins and losses in their last five matches, losing 2-0 to RSL thanks to two first-half goals.

The loss came on the back of a morale-boosting win over San Diego FC the previous week, in which Portland snatched a 2-1 victory in the 96th minute.

Neville shouldered some of the blame for their inconsistency but highlighted how important it is to make quick improvements if they want to move up from 13th in the Western Conference.

"A large part of the responsibility is mine, but the performance was unacceptable," Neville said of the RSL result.

"45 minutes were literally unacceptable. It's not a reflection of what I want from the team, and it's definitely not a reflection of what this group of players is capable of.

"We're taking one step forward and a couple back in the last month. We're seeing positive signs, but that consistency needs to start coming very quickly.

"We all need to take responsibility for that and make sure our game is improving in time for the next game."

Sporting KC have had problems of their own so far this year and sit rooted to the bottom of the West after collecting just five points.

Kansas City, who have won just once this term, are winless in their last six matches, though they ended a run of five straight losses thanks to a 1-1 draw with the Seattle Sounders.

Head coach Raphael Wicky was impressed by how Sporting worked together to get a draw last time out, and says the team are working hard on staying tight to help their leaky defense.

"The compactness is always key, and it's not that in the beginning of the season we didn't want to be compact," he said.

"I think we had some performances here early in the season where we were very compact as a team and where we had good performances.

"It's more the moments when you start pressing high. Are you doing it together? Are you opening up when you shouldn't open up? The compactness is something we want, and we know what we have to do right now."

PLAYERS TO WATCH

Portland Timbers – James Pantemis

James Pantemis registered 13 saves against Real Salt Lake on Saturday, his second career match with 10 or more saves (also March 2025 against Nashville SC).

Pantemis is the only MLS goalkeeper with two regular-season games with double-digit saves since the beginning of last season.

Sporting Kansas City – Dejan Joveljic

Dejan Joveljic has 23 goals in 42 regular-season games in his two seasons with Kansas City.

His 0.56 goals per 90 ranks second in club history among players with at least 40 games, behind Diego Rubio (0.64).

MATCH PREDICTION: PORTLAND TIMBERS WIN

The Timbers have won six straight home games against Sporting Kansas City. Since joining MLS, the Timbers' only longer home winning streaks against a single opponent across all competitions were a 10-match run against the San Jose Earthquakes and an eight-game streak against the Colorado Rapids.

However, Portland have just three wins this season, all by a single-goal margin, including two wins at home. Each of the Timbers' last nine regular-season wins have been by one goal, which includes their last seven home wins.

Sporting, though, have conceded a goal in 14 straight road matches, conceding multiple goals in 11 of those 14 matches. Since the start of 2025, Kansas City have conceded the most regular-season road goals (53) and are tied for the most games conceding multiple goals (16).

OPTA WIN PROBABILITY

Portland Timbers – 59.6%

Draw – 21.1%

Sporting Kansas City – 19.3%