Three things to watch for against Portland Timbers

What we've been watching for

Will our midfield, you know ... move?

An excellent question, and the answer last week seemed to be 'yes' -- but as tentative a yes as we can offer. With a changed formation, movement was going to be a bit more frequent anyway, given we had more midfield to do more movement. We'll see if it translates to this week.

Will we look dangerous on set pieces?

Not really. Next question.

Is Luis Gil ready for a start?

Yes, yes, a thousand times, yes. He was excellent against Columbus Crew.

What to watch for this week

Will Jeff Cassar deploy another 4-5-1 (or, if you will, a 4-2-3-1)?

Wednesday wasn't the most shining example of play for our side, but we were tactically a bit different than we are used to. Will he play another five-man midfield, and how will that play out at home instead of on the road? It's not necessarily a more or less defensive formation than we're used to, and our home-road status certainly shifts the way we play.

Can we slow the game when we need to?

Portland Timbers are clearly very good at speeding the game up and playing at a break-neck pace. This doesn't necessarily make it easy for us, though, and we'll need to be careful to not to get caught up in it all.

Can we keep our good run of form against Portland going?

Here's hoping.